Philly Sports Hall of Fame - The Guru’s Un-Cut Acceptance Speech Version

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Notice the two italics lines near the end :)

Guru’s Philly Sports HOF Speech as of 10-30 edit 

First, congratulations to the other inductees here tonight — from the moment I first got word, I have kept thinking, wow, what a class. 

Before getting under way, I’ve been asked to tell you to keep the applause or laughter reaction to these remarks at a minimum as part of the requested time limits.

 You know, it took a while for the paper to buy into what I was doing.  

Originally, they displayed my stories guided by a standing NFL television policy at the time – you know – nationwide, but blacked out within 60 miles from my desks at the Inquirer.

I mean, what do you say about a group who once misquoted me in my own newspaper while covering an award I received from the College Sports Information Directors Association.

True, then-sports editor Jay Searcy had the actual idea of starting a women’s basketball poll in the bicentennial year of 1976. And, yes, while he gave me the seeds, it would have been also nice for him to pay for the rakes to grow them.

 At The Inquirer, my salary at the paper was based on a one-day a year assignment - rushing Pulitzer Prize entries at the last minute to Columbia University in New York. That’s the reason they referred to me as The Inquirer’s driving force behind a prize-winning newsroom.

Sometimes  I get asked, when did I first become involved with women’s athletics?

For that, we go back to my student days getting honed by one of the best journalism schools in the country, where Temple legend Al Shrier made me chauffeur  the Owls cheerleaders.

Those were certainly fun times at Temple when I was a basketball manager under The Chief  — Harry Litwack — and his assistant Don Casey on a team that won the NIT in 1969  when that tournament  was as fashionable as the NCAAs.

When  I first got word of tonight I thought it was because in my time i scored every point for the Owls. So what if they landed in the book at the table instead of thru the net.

Since we’re in a casino, what were the odds back then that the chief and yours truly, his manager, who made him happy once a week by delivering  two boxes of Garcia Y Vega  Cigars from the news stand at 2nd and Market, would both be Philly Sports Hall of Famers.   

Growing up in Northeast Philadelphia, of course I couldn’t dream of this night for two reasons — No. 1, who ever thought casinos would come to Philadelphia and, No. 2, this fabulous Philly Hall didn’t become reality until 2004. 

  So let’s give our hosts a special thank you to Steve (Tallant), Ken (Avallon), Ruth (Constantine), and Gail (Ramsey) and in previous years Pete (Georgelos), and, of course, all the volunteers here right now who make this night possible.

Way back in a conversation with my good friends Dickie Hoops Weiss and Philly Belles AAU notable Mike Flynn, I had commented, “You don’t think I’m going to be doing this forever for the rest of my life do you?”

And Dickie, with Mike nodding in agreement, simply answered  — Yes. 

There is much to be awed about tonight up here – Claire, do you know you and I are only the 9th and 10th legacy of excellence winners from the print side of things — you all remember print don’t you? — and that’s in a town that produced hopefully future honorees such as famed national columnists like Sandy Grady and George Kiseda.

And what an honor to join some of those eight previous inductees from print like Phil Jasner, Ray Didinger, Stan Hochman, Donald Hunt, who was inducted last year, and my college classmate in Dickie Hoops Weiss, who I already mentioned. 

And here’s what’s really amazing: Claire, we are only the third and fourth inductees from The Inquirer following those two wonderful columnists — Frank Dolson and Bill Lyon. That is so  mind-boggling. And what a profile in courage has been Bill in his battle against Alzheimer’s.

From my formative years, its awesome and humbling to be just the fifth graduate of Northeast High inducted here and be the first honoree from the Cottman Avenue campus behind Sonny Hill, Herb Adderley, Walter Bahr, and Guy Rodgers.

At Northeast, we were Class No. 123 - which was the last of the mid-year baby boomer  graduates in 1965. I think some of those people are here. 

That class produced scientists, educators, lawyers and other outstanding individuals, but since the word of my induction became public, all of them are stunned wondering how someone who sucked in math and english is standing here despite never playing any sports. 

You know, the athletes and coaches up here tonight go one way in reviewing their lives in these acceptances acknowledging colleagues and respective families. 

As for me, I believe I arrived at 401 N. Broad Street on Sept. 9, 1969, at a golden era to become involved with an all-star Inquirer sports team, besides the news-side greats — from sports editors, to backfield staff, to copy and layout editors, editorial assistants, photographers, and just some of the best reporters to ever work in this town.

Learning from all of them gave me the tools to do what I do, and when we changed from typewriters to technology, I was told to start teaching them.

What  a joy to stand here tonight in the legacy of excellence category with you Claire, a true pioneer, who a year ago became the first J.G. Taylor Spink female honoree from the baseball writers association in Cooperstown at baseball’s hall of fame. That is so special.

By the way, Claire’s last assignment at the Inquirer in 2010 before heading to ESPN was to cover my induction at the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville.

 She even got some new outfits out of the deal when USAir - you remember USAir? - temporarily lost her luggage on the way from Philly, which takes talent on a non-stop flight.

 Speaking of ESPN, thanks to them and my friends in the home office at the NCAA for moving national women’s basketball media day in Bristol, Conn. to yesterday so they avoided missing me in what would have been a conflict with tonight.

  Usually, it’s the schools that adjust, so I guess you didn’t know i had that kind of juice. The fact that Muffet had the same schedule as me this week is purely coincidental.

 In journalism, awards are given for specific stories and like anyone else, there were days I felt — it’s going to be hard for me to top that. 

But then there are those tributes that go to impact players and I recognize this is what this honor is about from all of you, which makes this night truly rewarding. 

 Beyond the paper, nothing could have been achieved without help and support from many, like the The Associated Press, including  Chester’s Terry Taylor, their now-retired  longtime sports editor, and national women’s writers Chuck Schoffner and Doug Feinberg.

Impact is most certainly unattainable without sports information friends like Larry Dougherty and Rob Knox - the Lincoln University grad and current CoSIDA president — Larry is a past one — and many more, including coaches and administrators at the collegiate and WNBA levels. 

 To make an impact, it takes impact hoopsters and coaches to be chronicled - like those already enshrined here - Linda Page, Debbie Black, Marilyn Stephens, Geno Auriemma, the incomparable Dawn Staley, our USA olympic coach; and of course the Immaculata crowd - Cathy Rush, Marianne Stanley, Theresa Grentz, and Rene Portland, who we lost this past summer to her battle with cancer after she stood here last year as an honoree.

And  of course, tonight being here with Muffet, who I first knew from sitting near her and her boyfriend-now husband Matt when i hitched a ride on the St. Joe team bus. Who would believe we would become famous out of those days, or in the case of Muffet, rich and famous.

And i’m sure another notable who is likely to stand here is Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer who is on the cusp of her 1000th victory which could come the next two weeks.

Another at some point  is South Jersey’s Cheryl Reeve, the La Salle star who has now coached four WNBA champions at Minnesota and is one of Dawns’ Olympics assistants. 

Btw, when I was covering the Mighty Macs, the late Bob Vetrone — the quipster,  once told me— “You know Mel, one day someone’s going to make you an honorary woman.”

The Unspoken Link 

 Shoutout to Malcolm Moran who years ago dragged me, though he would say convinced me, into setting up and running the women’s side of the United States Basketball Writers Association as if I needed something else to do.

And to finish up, yes really, when you get to this point in the timeline of life, you think about legacy – having once taken the baton and beginning to hand it off.

 In the immediate family, from my parents who are up there somewhere with a bunch friends enjoying this moment, to ones here tonight: my sister Annette and brother-in-law Perry and my niece Allison and her husband Aaron, his parents Albert and Wendy,  and other friends and relatives like my cousin Charles and Susan Lauritzen, a longtime friend from Connecticut. 

Another niece Neena, is not here. She heard I was being inducted in a casino and immediately booked a flight to Vegas.

A longtime friend running around here taking your pictures is William “Willbill” Ewart, who spent most of career as the lady Vols photographer for the legendary Pat Summitt.

 

And legacy formerly means passing on what you do to the next generations who have gravitated to guru world for the Yoda experience.

   Two of my original bloggerettes from 2006, as I named them, are in the house: Kate Copp, who now is social media director of the Free Library, and  Penn grad- now Inquirer sports staffer Jonathan Tannenwald.

Kate can tell you as a Rutgers student on a drive to Boston for the 2006 Women’s Final Four, she asked me a question at the outset and got the whole history of women’s hoops for the answer, which ended at the exit ramp to Beantown.

 

And  very lastly you need to meet their two descendants, who are here working the event. 

Photographer Melissa Willhouse, a recent summa cum laud grad from Rider - she’s also the racetrack photographer at Harrah’s.

And recent Penn State summa cum laud grad — l deal in smart people besides smart  phones - aspiring sportscaster Erin Kate Dolan out of Media, the town. I nicknamed her rising media star out of Media.

Several years ago Erin was the first female to win the Philadelphia Broadcasters Foundation Harry Kalas Scholarship Award.

So for those of you who made the long-shot bet the Guru couldn’t be held to three minutes, but would finish well under ten, congrats. The cashier windows are just around the corner.

 The hardware is symbolic but it is the friendships that are truly enduring. Thank you once again.