Countdown to Rio: HoopsHD interviews the son of former US Olympic Basketball Committee chairman Ben Carnevale

With the Rio Olympics a little more than 30 days away from lighting the flame, HoopsHD begins its month-long celebration of the Olympians who kept the fire burning over the past 80 years. Ben Carnevale played college basketball at NYU, where he won a national championship in 1935 and played in the 1st-ever NIT in 1938. His Hall of Fame coach at NYU was Howard Cann, who himself finished 8th in the shot put competition at the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp. Instead of immediately continuing his basketball career, Carnevale joined the Navy during World War II and received a Purple Heart. After the war he took North Carolina to the 1946 NCAA title game as head coach, then spent 20 years as head coach at Navy. He also served as chairman of the United States Olympic Basketball Committee and team manager of the 1968 Olympic Men’s Basketball Team in Mexico City before being inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1970. Carnevale passed away in 2008, but Jon Teitel got to chat with his son Dan about his famous father.

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In 1935 he won a national title as a player at NYU under Hall of Fame coach Howard Cann: what did it mean to him to win the title, and how much influence did Cann have on his own decision to go into coaching? Having gone to NYU and been an athlete, he spent his summer at sports camps in the Adirondacks. That is where he 1st developed his interest in sports. He even played for the New York Yankees in the Grapefruit League, but broke his ankle and never pursued baseball.

During WWII he served as a Navy officer and received a Purple Heart: what impact did the war have on him either on or off the court? Probably not a lot at 1st, but after the war he was in charge of the B-12 program at North Carolina, and he got guys who were coming out of the service (like Bones McKinney/John “Hook” Dillon) to come play for him at Chapel Hill.

Take me through the 1946 NCAA tourney as coach at UNC:
Dillon scored 15 PTS in an 8-PT win over NYU and then 16 PTS in a 3-PT OT win over Ohio State: did he just put the entire team on his back during the tourney? There are lots of stories about what went on there, but Dillon (6’6″, 250 pounds) was just bigger than most other big men at the time. Like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar he also had a hook shot that you could not block.

Future 7′ Hall of Fame center Bob Kurland scored 23 PTS in a 3-PT win by Oklahoma A&M in the title game: was Kurland just unstoppable? That is what I understand.

In 1947 he became coach at Navy and was named national COY after leading his team to a 16-1 regular season record (with only a 5-PT loss to GW preventing perfection): how was he able to come in and be so successful so quickly, and what did it mean to him to win such an outstanding honor? The ironic thing is that if you ask any sportswriter who was the 1 person who ever left UNC to take a better job, it was my dad! When he 1st went there he was still in the service but got out after that. When you go to a service academy during a war it is probably the best time to be there because you have a 4-year commitment when you would not have to go to war. All the military bases served as his recruiting ground.

Take me through the 1954 NCAA tourney:
John Clune scored career-high 42 PTS in a 5-PT win over UConn: was it just 1 of those scenarios where every shot he put up seemed to go in because he was “in the zone”? Clune was quite a player.

Tom Gola had 22 PTS/24 REB in a win by eventual champion La Salle: was it frustrating for your dad to keep running into the eventual champs every year? It is more of a compliment when you consider the height restrictions in the Navy at the time (no player could be taller than 6’5″). They were very disciplined like Pete Carril’s old teams at Princeton: they would just execute you to death. Tourney teams had bigger/more athletic players so he would reach a point where ability/skill might take over. He beat UNC in the regionals when they had Larry Brown/Doug Moe: Frank McGuire was a good friend of his so that was quite a feat.

He later became AD at NYU and William & Mary and helped organize the Colonial Athletic Association before becoming its commissioner: how did he like being an administrator compared to being a coach? It was a chance for advancement. He was an excellent businessman so that is why he was successful. William & Mary had a mandatory retirement age of 65 but he knew that he had a few more years left in him. The JMU president called him up and asked for some help creating a sports program, so my dad went to the state senate and got them to distribute some money for a variety of facilities. He actually worked for 6 different schools in Virginia after he retired: he was a very driven man.

He became chairman of the US Olympic Basketball Committee in 1964, and served as manager of the 1968 Olympic team that went 9-0 en route to winning gold medal: how did he like being chairman, and what did it mean to him to win a gold medal? He was actually chairman for about 16 years and always had Hank Iba as his coach. They did not always take the biggest stars (such as Calvin Murphy) because they felt they needed players who adhered to more of a team concept (such as Bill Bradley). The only black and blue mark was when they lost to Russia in 1972, which was a very unnerving time. He even spoke in front of Congress about that.

He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1970: how proud are you of all that he accomplished? He worked hard and was very intelligent so we are all very proud of him. Each of his players were considered to be 1 of “Ben’s Boys”, which was a great compliment.

Your brother Mark continued the family athletic tradition by joining the PGA Tour: how proud are you of Mark’s golf skills, and does he credit at least some of his success to genetics? It cannot be genetics because my own golf game is horrible! When he decided back in college to try to become a pro golfer he asked my dad for $10,000 to help him get started, but my dad said he would have to go out and earn the money himself. At my dad’s funeral Mark mentioned how much that motivated him and made it important for him to do it on his own, which he appreciated.

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