Beat writers: best coach you've ever worked with/interviewed?

I say this while biting my tongue, but Larry Brown was actually really interesting to deal with. Sure, he's paranoid and a major headcase, but I can't tell you how many times he'd fill up a notebook with a story about his past, or a pretty darn good one-liner or two. I remember once when he was coaching in Philly, someone asked him about where he was when JFK was shot and he went into this whole story about how he was driving to N.C. to meet his girlfriend because he was going to propose, or something like that, and pulled over alongside the road and so on, and 10 minutes later, you're thinking, "Who the hell else could come up with a story like that?" And face it, when he wanted to rip someone, he would do it without mentioning that person's name, although you would know damn well who it was (Iverson, Marbury, whatever).

Some of his behavior was childish and he really does need some mental help, but man, he could sure tell a story.

 

That's interesting. Majerus IS a quote machine on both TV and radio, and that's not even counting his ESPN gig.

 

Joe Maddon stands out above the rest to me in terms of personality. Jon Gruden is up there as well, although I've never dealt with him one-on-one. And I've never even lived within a thousand miles of Tampa.

 

Even though it was only a handful of times at various media days, Seth Greenberg was by far the best to interview. He always had good, insightful quotes.

This may not count because it was a post-game press conference, but ex-Fordham coach Bob Hill was the best I've encountered.

 

God bless you, Wingman. God bless you.

We may have different views on politics but we agree on the only thing that is important.

Fuck Al Groh. Hard. In areas that don't have easily accessible holes. Dude is even less deserving of his current gig than Tubs Weis.

As for the best, he was listed first on this thread. That's gotta be a, well, first.

Bobby Valentine should be on here as well. Didn't tolerate fools easily, but was fucking gold.

 

Sirs, Madames,

I had two very limited dealings with Calhoun but they're useful.

I was calling back in his first days at UConn. I was a lowly freelancer working for a Canadian rag. Couldn't be farther off or below radar. SID blew me off. (Calhoun had run off a bad apple from Toronto.) Couple of weeks chasing my tail and lectures about how many local media he had to deal with. Fine, sez I, please pass on this note: "To be fair I wanted to give him a chance to respond to the accusations of [former recruit]. Mrs FofF sent me to the store to get some milk ... Calhoun called back. Three times in 15 minutes.

The other dealing was casual and I mentioned the (back)story and he laughed his ass off.

YHS, etc

 

In real life I'm Dan Collins, Wake Forest beat reporter for the Winston-Salem Journal, and therefore worthy, in at least one regard, of envy. I've covered Jim Grobe from the day he showed up at Wake through the Orange Bowl and he has been the same person every day I've known him. Every day, good and/or bad. He's a decent human being who is really comfortable to be around, and he's good at what he does. Practices are wide open through Wednesday. Players. coaches, whatever you need. He'll come out and ask for one minute to blow the whistle to get things started, then come back and answer any question you have. His press conferences are sit arounds, anybody asking anything for as long as there's anything to be asked. Then he'll hang out for awhile and eat lunch. He tells great stories about Sonny Randall at Marshall and Fisher DeBerry at the Air Force.
This season, on a Tuesday leading up to the Orange Bowl -- after he'd had his press conference and after he'd been available on his walk out to practice -- it came to my attention that the leading receiver Nate Morton had dislocated his finger the day before in practice. I got what I needed from Nate and the trainer, but still wanted a word from Grobe. And I had a basketball game to cover that night. Jim was out on the field talking to a guy I took to be a NFL scout, and I walked over and got his attention and apologized for interrupting his practice. He said "You're fine. What do you need?"
I've covered some guys I've really enjoyed working with, Skip being one of them. But Grobe is something else.

 

kind of off topic but I don't work in the biz....a personal note about two hoop coaches mentioned...

I played for Seth Greenberg in his very first college gig, JV hoops at a minor Div 1 school. Thought the guy was a gruff prick. But boy did he have coaching chops, obvious at a young age. His success doesn't shock me at all. Guy could talk it and walk it.

Three years ago, my young son and I go to see a hot shot Long Island stud, AJ Price in a near by small gym. Place is a packed. Only seats left are behind AJ's bench, mostly African-Americans (we are lily white). We move up the bleachers and find two empty seats next to the only 2 white guys in the section and sit down. The old crusty guy next to my son is wearing a bad blazer, foot joy spikeless golf shoes. About a minute later I realize it's Calhoun with his asst. coach. An absolute peach to my son the whole game. The boy and I always laugh about the homeless looking guy we shared the game with.

 

Billy Donovan has always seemed like a nice guy on teleconferences and post-games. Plus, I love the way he talks.

 

Figured I'd throw a few in:
Notre Dame's Mike Brey, DePaul's Jerry Wainwright, Illinois' Bruce Weber and Navy's Paul Johnson should also be considered on this list -- at least from my experiences with them.

 

It's a while back, but Ray Meyer was always willing to talk, win or lose, both before the rediscovery of DePaul in the late 1970s and after.
Likewise Bill Veeck. And he answered his own phone. Always.

 

I'm pretty young so I haven't dealt with many college coaches, but when I went to school at Miami-Ohio I loved talking to Charlie Coles, the basketball coach. He always had time for me as a student reporter, told great stories and he was very funny even after a loss, but especially after a win.
Terry Hoeppner was the football coach when I was there and he was also great to deal with. He gave me great access, always returned my phone calls, would spend time just shooting the breeze and joking around and gave some pretty good quotes although sometimes he would get heavy on coach speak