By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru
PHILADELPHIA — The departures, one unforeseen, this week of longtime Philadelphia Big 5 men’s basketball coaches Fran Dunphy at Temple and previously at Penn, and Saint Joseph’s Phil Martelli, were felt as much on the women’s side as the men’s side as a poignant end of an era.
For many of you who wouldn’t know, both are contemporaries of your Guru before many of you have come to know the work of yours truly.
As has been noted in the past accounts about the person writing this, your Guru in his Temple days was the basketball manager of a team that won the NIT in New York when it was still a very fashionable tourney with a 16-team field, the same size as the NCAA’s event, which was filled with automatic qualifiers and a few at-large selectees.
In the Guru’s early writing days at The Inquirer, he even covered games in which Dunphy played for La Salle while Martelli played at a smaller school Widener down in Chester.
And as a child of the Big 5 golden era along with journalism classmate known to all of you today as Dickie “Hoops” Weiss, we would hang with the coaches and other notables in the Philadelphia sports community.
There was at the time a famed sports bar in Delaware County, near the Llanerch Diner that was part of the Silver Linings Playbook film starring Bradley Cooper, in which anybody who was anybody would venture into the place on a given night.
For the most part it was also Saint Joseph’s watering hole as well as a hangout for the area high school boys’ coaches.
In the summer and many times in the winter the late Phillies broadcaster Harry Kalas was a regular and many 76ers, Eagles, and Flyers notables from the basic front office staffers to the players themselves might appear.
One particular night when nerph basketballs became fashionable, way late beyond the stroke of 12, John Nash, then executive secretary of the Big 5, on the spot set up and emceed a foul shooting contest.
Dunphy was still an assistant coach at his alma mater at the time.
The place was quite filled that night but after the initial round was completed just two people outshot everyone else – quite funny that the two were Dunphy, nothing wrong with that, and the Temple basketball manager, your Guru.
As a heavy underdog in the ensuing playoff, your Guru became the Cinderella favorite and after Dunphy appeared to have the event locked up, your Guru, who had missed two of the first three, hit the rest in a row to force one more round.
And lo and behold, by one shot, the Guru prevailed and immediately was hoisted by Hoops and several others and carried around the bar.
As years have gone on, Dunphy always cited that night on first notice of each other at a place.
In fact, in taking new Guru team member and talented Penn State grad Erin Dolan to the American Athletic Conference media day last fall, the Guru alerted her what was going to happen if Dunphy was still there and I would introduce her.
Sure enough, as we approached Dunphy, he uttered the usual greeting with the phrase “Shields Tavern.”
As the Guru began to cover women’s hoops and help start the Big Five women’s competition, all of those people were appreciative of what was being done.
When former La Salle great and Cheryl Reeve teammate Kelly Greenberg (no relation) became Penn coach, ultimately leading the Quakers to their first two Big Five titles, she and Dunphy had a great relationship with their programs.
And as he came to Temple to succeed John Chaney, his comradeship increased with Owls women’s coaches Dawn Staley and now Tonya Cardoza.
As for Martelli, there was even deeper involvement in both worlds.
For one, he, Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma, and many others who have gone on to great success in both worlds, were campers and counselors at Immaculata coach Cathy Rush’s summer basketball operation.
Former Virginia coach Debbie Ryan was also a regular.
In fact, when she was looking for an assistant one summer, she called Rush asking about Phil.
Cathy said, he won’t want to do it, he’s with the boys but Geno might.
As the Guru heard the tale, someone called out to the counselors hanging around, anyone want to be an assistant women’s coach at Virginia, and supposedly Geno shot right back, “What does it pay? “
The rest is history.
Geno also had been an assistant to Martelli coaching in high school later on and in wbb to Jim Foster at St. Joes prior to Virginia.
The Guru was made aware of the Martelli connections because one day The Inquirer sent him to cover a men’s game at Widener and Cathy and a whole bunch of Mighty Macs were in the stands.
What are you all doing here?
Judy’s (Marra) boyfriend (now husband) Phil plays on the team.
And so it went through the years and as Auriemma became famous the connection between him and Phil became legendary.
Likewise, on Hawk Hill, Cindy Griffin and Phil with their two programs were one big family.
And at times as soon as Phil would see yours truly, he might start a conversation about Geno and coming games, past games, as well as other things in today’s women’s world.
When word came out of nowhere Tuesday on Phil’s dismissal, it was a stunner – the Guru, still trying to recover at the time from Monday’s ESPN leak of the bracket and its affects (in another post here to go up shortly), first learned when he got a text from Erin, who was speaking at a seminar at Penn State.
Erin also makes freelance appearances several times a week here on the early morning sports reports on local TV station PHL17 morning news and recently did a sideline appearance on the Big East Villanova WBB broadcast.
For some of us, it’s exceptionally tough because of our relationships with new Hawks athletic director Jill Bodensteiner, involved in the decision, because of her past duties as the women’s administrator at Notre Dame where former Hawk star and Hall of Famer Muffet McGraw coaches.
Bodensteiner was also on the WBB basketball committee and recently on a bad weather day on which the Hawks had a WBB game scheduled, an inquiry unwittingly led to Jill picking up a pastrami sandwich from a nearby popular deli for your Guru since we were coming to Hawk Hill from different directions.
You should know that after Tuesday’s events the Guru sent a note out to friends at USA Basketball that it could be a great idea to find a dual role for both Fran and Phil, who have steered the quite successful Coaches vs. Cancer program here from their innovation.
That would put a great Philly touch in in the organization considering Villanova men’s coach Jay Wright is on the Olympic mbb staff.
Meanwhile, obviously there is disappointment and anger with the move.
So for that end, the Guru reached out to longtime UConn Women’s beat writer Carl Adamec to get Geno’s reaction, which he posted, the Guru believes, but also sent it down here so we will close below with what was sent in the email.
(talk to Phil?, how doing)
"As you would expect, not good," Auriemma said. "This wasn't a guy coming from California to coach at Saint Joe's and it's a job.
“ This is a guy who grew up in the area, lives and dies and breathes every minutes Hawks' basketball, and has been someone who's meant so much to the Saint Joseph's community.
“ It's a difficult time. It a sad day. I hope someone else gives him the opportunity to coach.
“ They won the A-10 tournament just a couple of years ago so it's not like he's forgotten how to coach.
(separate personal/business sides of this, look at this personal/professionally)
"I think I look at it both ways," Auriemma said. "I understand, professionally, that presidents and athletic directors make decisions that are best for their programs. I get that. That's a professional decision and what you're paid off if you're the president or AD. I get that. And as someone in the business, it's part of the job.
"Personally, you say that there had to be a different way that this could have gone down. There's got to be a variety of ways that this could have been handled that made it more reflective of all of the years he spent there and made it more of an appreciation for what he did for the university and this is how we're planning the transition to the next coach.
“I just think the way it came down ... I don't know what the reaction has been in Philadelphia but I can't imagine it's been positive and throughout the coaching community."
(you have so many connections to SJU, are you bitter towards them)
"I don't think there's a certain bitterness. I don't think it's that," Auriemma said. "It's more a statement of where the business is right now, the business of coaching, the business of college athletics.
“When someone in the world of boosters or donors or whatever, and you see it everywhere, when they want that coach is out that coach is out.
“You get a new AD, you get a new president, they're under pressure to make a statement.
“ It's not like at Saint Joe's they're going to fire the offensive coordinator in football.
“ Basketball is the No. 1 thing at that school. That's what is going to be the focal point.
“ There's no way you can avoid that. It's unfortunate, I get the business of it.
“ That doesn't mean it goes down any easier. And obviously it's more emotional when it's a friend of yours.
“ I went through this last year with Jamelle Elliott in Cincinnati. Stuff happens, and people you're close to lose their jobs.
“You react like, 'Hey, you're entitled to a new basketball coach if that is what you want.'
“Sometimes the timing and the way it's done leaves a lot to be desired. What can I say? People overlook a lot of things when you're winning a lot of games. The minute you start losing games the things that didn't matter before all of a sudden start to matter."
(asked about Dunphy finishing up -- and he talks Martelli)
"Temple made the NCAA tournament," Auriemma said. "And it would have shown a lot of class on Saint Joe's part to say, 'Look, we're going to give you one more year and you'll be able to do this or do that.' “Then Phil has to make a decision, 'Do I really want to go that route or not?' My guess is he would have said yes, 'Yeah, I'll take a shot at it.'
“What if all of a sudden Saint Joe's wins the conference tournament and two games in the NCAA tournament? You don't know. There's a way it could be handled.
“These aren't two young coaches who didn't make it on their first try. They could say, 'We gave it a shot and it didn't work.'
“These are two icons in the coaching community. In the big picture it's distressing. More personal, I'm good friends with Dunph and obviously close to Phil and his family."
(conversation with Phil)
"It was hard," Auriemma said. "It's not a four-year, five-year contract and after three years or four years ... This was 37 years. He's been there over half his life. I'm not saying you're not entitled to a new coach but there's got to be a way ... It's the business we're in, the life we lead."
(he's still interested in coaching)
"These guys ... Everybody that's in it wants to get out and everybody that's out wants to get in," Auriemma said. "It's the craziest thing I've ever seen.
“Phil is an energetic guy. He's non-stop morning to night. I wish I had the same passion for coaching and for his team and for his players and for the community he has. He's got his hands on everything. I wish I had the time management ...
“ Now, he doesn't have to deal with some of the stuff that I have to deal with. I'm amazed at how much time and energy he puts in. It's not like he is tired.
“He hasn't forgotten how to coach. He wants in. You know what? Somebody at some school would be doing himself a favor by saying, 'We need to stabilize our program.' Maybe it's just a couple of years and he would be perfect.
“You know he's going to do it the right way and he's going to represent the school and get the student body and community involved.
“Coaches vs. Cancer in Philadelphia wouldn't exist without him and Dunph and Jay. I hope he gets another shot. You know, the way the world of basketball is going, I might be able to hire him as a consultant or player personnel director."
(could he work for you?)
"Well, I worked for him," Auriemma said. "And I would pay him a lot more than the 400 bucks that he paid me. I'll tell you that right now."
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