You had 1 JOB: HoopsHD interviews multi-sport star Johnny O’Brien

Posted on July 19, 2022 by Jon Teitel

Most people are lucky to succeed in 1 occupation but Johnny O’Brien seemed to be great at everything he did. At Seattle University he upset the Harlem Globetrotters and became the first player in NCAA history to score 1000 PTS in 1 season. He later played major league baseball for 6 years, then became a city councilman and sportscaster. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Johnny about beating the Globetrotters and being a great scorer. Today marks the 63rd anniversary of Johnny’s final MLB appearance for the Milwaukee Braves on July 19, 1959 (he earned a walk in the 5th inning as a pinch-hitter and scored on a single by Eddie Mathews) so we take this time to honor his life/legacy.

You and your identical twin brother Ed were known as the “Gold Dust Twins”: who gave you the nickname, and how did you like it? I believe a sportswriter in Seattle came up with that nickname but we never paid much attention to it.

You were born/raised in New Jersey: how on earth did Coach Al Brightman convince you to head 3000 miles west to college at Seattle University? We graduated from St. Mary’s High School in South Amboy, NJ. Most pro baseball teams wanted us to sign a contract but our dad wanted us to go to college instead. We won 3 straight state baseball titles in New Jersey and were playing in another tournament where Coach Brightman happened to see us play. He came up to us in the middle of a 19-inning game and asked us about our grades. We said that we had great grades…and then Ed excused himself and stole 2nd base! We thought that Coach Honey Russell was going to give us scholarships to Seton Hall but he thought that we were too small and sent us a telegram to share the bad news. We eventually got scholarships to Seattle and became the 1st members of our family to ever get onto an airplane. We showed up for an 8AM practice and the other guys did not know what to expect, but after we started grabbing the rim/dunking the ball they realized how good we were.

On January 21, 1952, you scored 43 PTS and broke your nose in an 84-81 upset of the Harlem Globetrotters in an exhibition game hosted by jazz great Louis Armstrong at the University of Washington: how did you pull off the upset, and how big a deal was it at the time? I consider it the 1st real introduction of Seattle into D-1 athletics. The Globetrotters were going to play 3 college teams that winter and donate the funds to the US Olympic team. We used a college ball in 1 half and a pro ball in the other half. The 3 college teams were going to be Army/Notre Dame/Washington but due to some miscommunication we ended up replacing the Huskies and Brightman said that it would be easier if the team got the ball to me. Our building held 14,000 fans but the fire department stopped letting people in at around the 17,000-person mark. The thing I remember the most is when movie actress Joan Caulfield came onto the court to throw the ball up for the opening tip: nobody moved because we were all staring at her! It was big-time because it showed that Seattle could play with anyone.

You finished that season as the 1st NCAA player to score 1000+ PTS in a season and you graduated with 2733 career PTS: what is the secret to being a great scorer? For me the keys were that I could jump high and was very quick. I actually had 3302 PTS if you include my freshman season but they did not count those stats back then. I know it sounds impossible…but I finished my career with 1101 FGs and 1100 FTs!

In the 1953 NCAA tourney you scored 25 PTS in a loss to Washington: where does Hall of Famer Bob Houbregs (45 PTS/20-35 FG) rank among the greatest players that you ever faced? I tell people that I “held” him to 45! He had a sensational right-handed hook shot so we overplayed him and tried to force him to the left but it did not happen very often. The whole town cheered for either Seattle or UW and all of the players were friends with each other: we would play in each other’s gyms and then go out for hamburgers afterwards. Bob and I remained great friends for our entire lives: I was actually scheduled to have dinner with him right around the time that he passed away in 2014.

That season you and your brother were each named All-American: what did it mean to you to receive such outstanding honors? The #1 item that we were most interested in getting was a college degree. We were grateful for sports because that was the vehicle that enabled us to go to college.

At 5’9” you remained the shortest All-American for 63 years until 5’9” Tyler Ulis was named an All-American for Kentucky in 2016: did you see your size as an advantage or disadvantage on the court? It is hard to answer that because even though I was 5’9” I played center! I shot over 50 FG%/80 FT% every year even though I usually had someone bigger guarding me. I had to use my quickness to get away from my defender and take my shot. I guess I would say that it was a benefit.

After graduating you and your brother were both drafted by the NBA’s Milwaukee Hawks, but instead you both joined the Pittsburgh Pirates and became the 1st twins in MLB history to play for the same team in the same game on May 10, 1953: which sport were each of you best at, and how excited was your family to see you 2 together in the majors? Our mom died while we were in college so she did not get to see that unique situation. When we would play the Braves in Milwaukee the Hawks owner Ben Kerner would take us out for a meal and try to convince us to play for him, but it would have been too hard for us to do both sports. I have a grandson who is pitching in AAA named Riley O’Brien. He throws about 94 MPH and has pitched a couple of innings in the majors so baseball keeps creeping through the family. My other grandson Connor is a good ballplayer and has a chance to get drafted. Riley made more money during his 2 days in the majors than I made in my entire rookie season! We were known as “bonus babies” and Ed decided that we would use the money to buy our father a house/car. He died 4 years later and in his will he left his sons “$1 and my love” and gave my sister Teresa the rest of his estate. Money did not become a big issue back then because we never had any. We had several guys from my high school reach the majors including Allie Clark/Tom Kelly/Jack McKeon: we were all poor so the 1 thing to do was to play sports.

After retiring you had several neat gigs including several terms as a King County Commissioner, radio broadcaster for Seattle basketball games alongside Keith Jackson, and head of security at the Kingdome: how did you like working in politics, and how did you like working with Keith? If you did not win the World Series back then you had to get an offseason job to make it to the next year. My best friend on the Dodgers was Carl Furillo and he said that his side gig was as a bartender. He asked me what I did and I said I picked up stiffs for the coroner. He asked me how on earth I could do that and I said, “I never had a single complaint from any of the customers!” I struck out on a curveball in my 1st major league at-bat against Dodgers’ pitcher Carl Erskine, after which Roy Campanella said, “Hey Johnny: I guess the basketballs do not curve like that!” Politics was much different back then: we would talk with people from the other party and we got along with each other. We did not have many split votes because we met with our department heads and entered meetings with knowledge of how to be caretakers for the county. I feel sorry for the way that things are going today.

You and your brother are enshrined in the Seattle University Hall of Fame and the athletics administration building is named the Ed and John O’Brien Center: where do those honors rank among the highlights of your career? Getting into the Hall of Fame was not a great surprise…but having the building named after us was! They called us in for a meeting and I thought they just wanted us to sponsor a golf tournament or something so I was stunned to learn that they would be putting our names on the building.

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National Sports Collectors Convention: HoopsHD interviews Phil Regli

Posted on July 17, 2022 by Jon Teitel

The National Sports Collectors Convention (https://nsccshow.com) is an annual summer gathering of collectors/dealers who have a passion for trading cards, autographs, and any other kind of memorabilia that you can think of. First formed in 1980, it is now the premier collectibles industry event that attracts a majority of the licensing agencies from around the professional sports world. The 42nd “National” will be held during the final week of July at the Atlantic City Convention Center, and next summer it will head back to the Midwest in Chicago. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel is unable to attend this year’s event in person so instead he will be interviewing as many of the dealers who will be there as possible. We conclude our coverage with Phil Regli and his magnificent college basketball merchandise.

1. 1905 Yale-Dartmouth Basketball Promotional Flyer: Yale finished 2nd in the 5-team Ivy League that year with a 5-3 conference record (Note: we will not be discussing where Penn finished!), Dartmouth was an Independent at the time and finished with an overall record of 20-10-1 (they finally joined the Ivy League several years later in 1911), Phil acquired this flyer as part of a collection of vintage material, it is rare because you do not see a lot of people who have saved such flyers (Phil has only seen about 3 of them in his lifetime), this was during the beginning years of basketball when it was mostly played on the East Coast using peach baskets, this item is priced around $95



2. 1938 Hank Luisetti Stanford Basketball Team 8×10 press photo: Hank is considered to be 1 of the greatest basketball innovators ever after developing the running 1-handed shot, he became the 1st player to ever score 50 PTS in a game (against Duquesne on January 1, 1938) and was named the 2nd-best player of the mid-century (behind George Mikan) by an AP poll of sportswriters/broadcasters in 1950, he was a 2-time national POY in 1937/1938 so if you are a basketball connoisseur this is kind of cool, the photo of Hank is a famous shot that is used a lot and he was a special player for his era, this item is priced around $50



3. 1947 Collier’s magazine cover of Ralph Beard: this is the era when basketball began to capture the national attention so it is hard to find a lot of college basketball items from pre-1950, prior to this time you would not find any team on a magazine cover so Kentucky was considered the “national” team (even NBA teams did not command national attention at this time), Beard was a member of Adolph Rupp’s “Fabulous 5” team along with Alex Groza/Wallace Jones/Cliff Barker/Kenny Rollins, he was a 3-time consensus 1st-team All-American and won a gold medal at the 1948 Olympics, a lot of people collect Kentucky memorabilia and Beard was the star of that team, this item is priced around $30



4. 1961 Basketball Yearbook Jerry Lucas: basketball-only magazines started appearing after WWII and became a full-blown phenomenon by the 1960’s, Lucas was part of the legendary 1958 Ohio State recruiting class that included 2 other future Hall of Famers (John Havlicek/Bob Knight) and another future NBA player (Mel Nowell), they won the 1960 NCAA title game over defending champion California in San Francisco and Lucas was named 1960 tourney MOP, in 1961 the Buckeyes won 32 straight games including an Elite 8 win over Kentucky where Lucas became the only college player to ever record a 30/30 game in tourney history (33 PTS/30 REB), that year he became the 1st basketball player to ever be named Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year, he was a 3-time 1st-team All-American and is widely considered the greatest player in Big 10 history, this item is priced around $20



5. Babe Didrikson Zaharias 1930 National All-American bracelet: Babe is widely regarded as 1 of the greatest athletes of all time and picked up this bracelet at age 19 when her Dallas Cyclones basketball team went to the AAU Nationals and won it all, her 1st job after high school was as secretary for the Employers’ Casualty Insurance Company of Dallas…although she was employed only to play basketball on the company’s “industrial team”, this is a rare item not just because it is almost 100 years old but because it is the very 1st award won by a woman on the national level, this item is priced around $20,000(!)



If you want more information about Phil’s items then feel free to check out his website (www.cardsprograms.com) or email him at: regli@aol.com

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Happy Birthday!: HoopsHD interviews Indiana legend Calbert Cheaney

Posted on July 17, 2022 by Jon Teitel

Indiana is known as “The Hoosier State” and 1 of the greatest Hoosiers ever was Calbert Cheaney. In his junior year he scored 17.6 PPG and helped lead his team to the 1992 Final 4. As a senior he won both the Wooden/Naismith awards as national POY. He was a 3-time All-American and remains the all-time leading scorer in Big 10 history with 2613 career PTS. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Calbert about being a great scorer and winning all of those awards. Today is Calbert’s 51st birthday so let us be the 1st to wish him a happy 1!

You were the Indiana high school state champion in both the 300-meter dash/110-meter hurdles: how did your speed/athleticism help you on the basketball court? I made it to state in both events but did not actually win state. I attribute the fact that I played many different sports to helping me in basketball: hand-eye coordination, lateral movement, etc.

In the 1990 NCAA tourney for the Hoosiers you scored 17 PTS in a 2-PT loss to Cal after Keith Smith made 2 FT with 3.8 seconds left: how close did you come to winning the game? We were very close. Our freshman year was interesting: we went 10-0 in non-conference play but kind of got our asses handed to us in Big 10 play (8-10). We limped into the NCAA tourney and that game was back and forth the entire night. We were a team of all freshmen who were inexperienced but we worked hard that summer to get better.

In 1991 you shot a school-record 59.6 FG%: what is the secret to being a great shooter? Just work. As a coach I tell players that you cannot wave a magic wand: you need to get into the gym to work on your craft and hopefully it will carry over into games.

Take me through the magical 1992 NCAA tourney:
You scored 30 PTS/9-9 FT and had 8 REB in a win over LSU: what were your impressions of your future “Blue Chips” co-star Shaquille O’Neal (36 PTS/12 REB), and how on earth did he make all 12 of his FTs?! He was by far the best player and dominated every aspect of the game. It was fun to play against him and a real honor.

You had 17 PTS/11 REB in a win over Florida State (Sam Cassell scored 19 PTS): what did you learn from your win over the Seminoles in the 1991 tourney that helped you beat them in 1992? Not much: they had a different team in 1991 with guys like Charlie Ward. Cassell/Bob Sura added another dimension to their talented team but we were able to hold on for the win. We played them in 1993 as well.

You scored 11 PTS but were 1 of 4 Hoosiers to foul out in a 3-PT loss to eventual national champion Duke (Bobby Hurley tied his career-high with 26 PTS): how did your team force Christian Laettner into 1 of his worst NCAA tourney performances of all-time (8 PTS/2-8 FG), and did you feel the referees called it fairly on both ends of the court (Duke had a 42-16 edge in FT attempts)? At the end of the day it is tough: it is almost unheard of to have 4 guys foul out but you have to give Duke credit. We were in control in the 1st half but they turned it up a notch during a 7-minute span to start the 2nd half when they held us scoreless. They were a very good team but the officiating got to us a bit, and by the time we recovered it was too late.

You were a 3-time All-American/1993 national POY: what did it mean to you to win such outstanding honors? It was definitely an honor but also surprising because there were many other great players in 1993. Knowing all of the POYs who came before me, I was so surprised to get the call that I did not respond with as much excitement as I should have.

In the 1993 NCAA tourney you scored 22 PTS in a 6-PT loss to Kansas: after losing to them in the 1991 tourney and again in the 1992 regular season, did you feel that they just had your number? They did have our #: we said they were our Kryptonite. We had Alan Henderson healthy earlier that year and they still beat us. We went 6-7 deep during my senior year before Alan went down: when you lose your leading rebounder it really hurts you. Coach Roy Williams would send in 4 guys at a time and they wore us down: it was textbook Kansas basketball.

You finished your college career as the Big 10’s all-time leading scorer with 19.8 PPG and won a school-record 105 games: did you realize at the time how prolific a player you were? I did not. I am always about the team and my job was just to put the ball in the basket: I was pretty good at it but only wanted to get the win and uphold the Indiana tradition. If it took me scoring 35 PTS I would do that, and if not then that was fine as well.

In the summer of 1993 you were drafted 6th overall by Washington (2 spots ahead of Vin Baker): did you see that as a validation of your college career, or the realization of a lifelong dream of reaching the NBA, or other? It meant a lot. I went to Indiana to stay close to home and contribute to a team. My family could not afford to send me to college so I wanted to get a scholarship. To end up as the conference’s leading scorer is something that I never expected. I also did not expect to get drafted that high but it just has to deal with good old hard work. I looked up to guys like Dr. J/Isiah Thomas and was not sure if I could get there so to make it to the NBA was a blessing.

In 1995 you scored a career-high 32 PTS/14-18 FG in a 3-PT OT loss to Golden State (Tim Hardaway scored 30 PTS): was it just 1 of those scenarios where every shot you put up seemed to go in because you were “in the zone”? Somewhat, but it does not really matter when you lose the game. It was a fun night to play the game you love against the best players in the world.

Since finishing your 13-year NBA career in 2006 you have been an assistant coach in the NBA/college/G-League: how do you like coaching, and what do you hope to do in the future? I just try to take it 1 step at a time. I do not like sitting around the house so I really enjoy coaching and helping others develop and try to realize their dream. The game has been good to me and I just try to pay it forward.

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More than OK: HoopsHD interviews Hall of Famer Sherri Coale

Posted on July 16, 2022 by Jon Teitel

Oklahoma has had a number of phenomenal coaches in the 21st century. Bob Stoops won an NCAA title in football in 2000, Lon Kruger made the Final 4 in 2016, Ryan Hybl won an NCAA title in golf in 2017, and Patty Gasso has won 6 NCAA titles in softball since 2000. Sherri Coale did pretty well on the basketball court as well, leading the Sooners’ women’s team to 3 Final 4s from 2002-2010. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Sherri about winning games in March and being inducted into the Hall of Fame.

You played basketball at Oklahoma Christian University and graduated summa cum laude: how good a player were you back in the day, and how did you 1st get into coaching? I was not a great college player but as a PG I understood the game and could get the ball to the people who could score the best. I always wanted to become a teacher/coach from day 1 of college. The people outside of my family who impacted me the most were my own teachers/coaches so that was always my dream. I got a job as a high school English teacher/assistant coach and thought that I had died and gone to heaven!

You were hired at Oklahoma in 1996 after spending 7 years at Norman High School: what was the hardest part of making the leap from high school to D-1? The hardest part was everything that had nothing to do with the on-court action, such as managing an entire program. The court was a familiar place but I had to learn everything else on the fly.

You won more than 500 games as coach at Oklahoma and were a 4-time conference COY: what is the secret to being a great coach? I wish I could encapsulate that: if so I would write a book! My best response is that it involves confidence/competence/passion…but at the end of the day it is about having good players.

You made 20 postseason appearances, including 19 straight NCAA tournaments from 1999-2018, and your 3 Final 4s remain in the top-10 in NCAA women’s history: what is the key to winning games in March? I always felt that the teams who excelled in March were the ones who were connected. When you are intertwined you can get better by spending more time together. The ever-elusive unity factor gives you the greatest chance.

In 2002 you made the NCAA title game before losing to an undefeated UConn team: where does that Huskies’ starting 5 of Sue Bird/Swin Cash/Asjha Jones/Tamika Williams/Diana Taurasi rank among the greatest that you have ever seen? I may be completely biased but I still think that they are the best: maybe the best women’s college team ever assembled.

In 2006 you became the 1st women’s team to go undefeated in Big 12 play: how were you able to keep your team focused for the entire season? What I remember about that team is that we were very balanced with very little egos. We had a superstar in Courtney Paris but everyone knew that they had a job to do. We had a complete group and all of the members knew that they were important. The intrigue of seeing what our opponents would do to try to stop us in our next game kept us together.

In February of 2008 you had a 10-PT win over Oklahoma State in front of a record crowd of 12,205 spectators for a game that was sold out a month in advance: how do you explain the rivalry to someone who has never seen “Bedlam” in person? I think of the Winston Churchill quote, “I like a man who grins when he fights.” There is incredible mutual respect but it is for bragging rights and the most fun you have ever had while trying to win.

In the 2010 Sweet 16 Nyeshia Stevenson made a 3-PT shot with 4 seconds left to clinch a 5-PT OT win over Notre Dame: did you think that her shot was going in, and what was the feeling like in your locker room afterward? I can feel in my stomach right now the same way I felt during that shot. Nyeshia’s shot just made it over the outstretched fingertips of her opponent and as soon as it did that I thought that it was going in. I looked down the bench and everyone just went crazy and lost their minds. I remember smirking and wondering, “How about that?!” It is 1 of those moments where I will always remember where I was.

In 2016 you were inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame: where does that rank among the highlights of your career? It was a special honor: I still have to pinch myself to believe that it is real. What made the evening incredible was all of my players/assistants, who were the reason I was able to be on that stage: it is 1 of the great ironies of team sports.

You retired in 2021: what have you been up to since then, and what do you hope to do in the future? I have been living the dream. I have a brand-new granddaughter and get to spend a lot of time with her. I have a weekly blog (www.sherricoale.com/blog) and a book that will be released in October. I am also doing some public-speaking/consulting as well as gardening/playing tennis.

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Welcome to D-1: HoopsHD interviews former Texas A&M-Commerce coach Sam Walker

Posted on July 15, 2022 by Jon Teitel

July is not usually a newsworthy month in college basketball but this year it signifies the start of the D-1 transition process for several schools: Lindenwood, Queens, Southern Indiana, Stonehill, and Texas A&M-Commerce. Jaret von Rosenberg is the current head coach at Texas A&M-Commerce and has never had a losing record in his 5 years in charge. His predecessor Sam Walker set the bar pretty high so we shall see if the Lions can retain their winning ways after making the leap from D-2. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Sam about his old job and his current job.

You went to college at Sam Houston where you were a student assistant: could you tell even back then that you wanted to become a coach? Yes. I actually started as a student assistant at Navarro College for Lewis Orr.

You were hired as head coach at Texas A&M-Commerce in 2000: why did you take the job? After graduating from Sam Houston I became a grad assistant at East Texas State, then an assistant coach, and eventually inherited the job after working for Coach Paul Peak. I started from humble beginnings: I lived in the locker room for 11 months and had no bills!

In 2012 you were the only program in the nation to have multiple guys be named Academic All-Americans (Andrew Davis/Desmond King): how much importance did you place on academics? I do not know that we placed an importance on academics: we cared mostly about character development. It is the only time in school history that we had 2 of them, and considering that basketball only has 5 starters (which is low compared to other sports) it is pretty amazing. A lot of that is about recruiting: it is not like I was in charge of study hall or anything! Kudos to them for being really good players and 4.0 students.

You were a part of the 1st 6 NCAA D-2 tourney appearances in school history (3 as head coach and 3 as assistant coach): what is the key to winning games in March? Since I stepped down my former assistant Jaret von Rosenberg has been to a couple of tourneys as well. Paul always told me to not try to win early but rather to try to win late. You want to win every game you play but it is such an intriguing sport: it is the only NCAA sport that is played for 6 straight months. It is such a marathon that if you look at the good teams like Kansas you see that they may take some lumps early but are good late. Our record was always really good during January/February as we tried to get on a roll and prepare for a good run in the conference tourney. We have played basketball for 104 years here and our group is the only 1 that has won an outright conference title and conference tourney title.

You spent 17 years as head coach before being named Executive Director of Alumni Engagement, where you support the formation of new alumni chapters and help recruit new students: how do you like the job, and what do you hope to do in the future? It is so fun. I have been at the university for 31 years so when you get to turn your attention to alums/athletics/fundraising it is a whirlwind…but also very relaxing compared to the grind of college coaching.

You remain the winningest coach in school history: do you think that anyone will ever break your record? I do not know. I am actually the winningest coach in any sport in school history…but I might also be the losingest coach! I am kind of the Emmitt Smith of Commerce due to my longevity. Our current men’s and women’s coaches were both longtime assistants of mine so if they break my record it would be great: I live vicariously through them.

You have quite a coaching tree as more than a dozen of your former players/assistants became college basketball coaches: what is the secret to being a good mentor? If you interviewed all of them and asked them what I said when I hired them, it would be that their job was to give us all they had and it was my job to help them find their next job. Not everyone wants to be a lifer but we stayed pretty loyal to all of them. We had a mission to prepare our players for what lay ahead after they left college.

1 of those former assistants is Jaret von Rosenberg: how do you think he is going to do as the 1st D-1 coach in school history? I think that he will do really well. There are a lot of different layers to the onion so he might have to take his lumps early against Power-5 schools but he has a great mentality/work ethic and I think he is the right guy for the job.

The Lions were pretty competitive last year in exhibition play with a 3-PT win at UTSA and a 3-PT loss at South Alabama: did that give you some confidence that the squad can come right in and compete at the D-1 level? The Southland is a winnable conference: during my 26 years as coach here I never felt that we were not competitive. With the D-2 transfer rules we were able to get kids that other schools could not get. I do not have the schedule in front of me but I think that we play some non-conference teams like SMU/Wyoming. I will be shocked if we are not competitive in conference play. We are close to the Metroplex and I think that making the jump is not as big a deal as some people think. I think we will be successful in all of our sports: it will not be a long transition.

This month your school officially became a member of the Southland Conference as it made the jump from D-2 to D-1: could you have ever imagined this would happen during your tenure as head coach, and how is it going so far? Our president Mark Rudin has a passion for athletics and wants us to be successful: that really helps. He was the brainpower behind our move to D-1. We will not throw money at it but will make sure that our student-athletes have everything they need to be successful. I have been pressing for it for about a decade. Around 2012/2013 I felt that our university started growing and even started to outgrow the Lone Star Conference. We have kept getting stronger and I think this is the perfect time to make the move. We have built the infrastructure and have planned out what it takes to be a D-1 program. We dipped our toe in the water because it was pretty well thought out. A lot of times it can be a shock after switching levels but we have prepared ourselves for this move.

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Small school, big dreams: HoopsHD interviews Del Beshore

Posted on July 14, 2022 by Jon Teitel

The NBA Summer League is a great place to discover players from smaller schools who you may not have heard of before. Haywood Highsmith is on the Heat’s roster after being named 2018 D-2 national POY at Wheeling Jesuit University, and the Clippers’ Jay Scrubb was 2020 NJCAA D-1 national POY at John A. Logan College. If they need inspiration from past players who made the leap from a small college to the NBA they can look to the career of Del Beshore. A 3-time All-American at California University of Pennsylvania, Del played 68 games for Chicago in 1980 while more famous teammates such as Scott May (54 games) and Artis Gilmore (48 games) played far fewer. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Del about being a great scorer and playing pro basketball.

You were born/raised in Pennsylvania: what made you choose California University of Pennsylvania? They were the only school that really recruited me out of high school: I was 5’8”/130 pounds and only 17 years old. I visited Westchester because my brother had played there but I was not really familiar with California. They were 1 of the only schools at the time that offered computer science as a major, which I liked.

You were a 5’11” PG: did you see your size as an advantage or disadvantage on the court? It was a disadvantage in terms of physical size: I would have loved to be 6’3” but you are dealt a certain hand and go with what you got. It was an era where things started to trend big with guys like Marvin Webster/Jack Sikma, and even 6’8” PGs like Magic Johnson. In a 4-guard scheme there was not a lot of prevalence for small guards. I had a good career but did not get drafted so then I went out to Los Angeles for Summer League.

You were a 3-time All-American and received the 1978 Cal Presidents Athletic Award: what did it mean to you to receive such outstanding honors? As a freshman I was fortunate to walk into a situation where I started after the senior captain got injured. My confidence started to grow, as did I: I went from 5’8” to 5’10”! Those accolades were confidence-builders that made me want to keep winning other accolades: each year I had the goal of making all-league but got sick as a sophomore. I was way stronger as a junior: I had bulked up to 160 pounds and was even dunking the ball. Every summer I tried to get stronger and got to attend camps with guys like Walt Frazier/Billy Cunningham where I was competing against D-1 players. I actually beat Frazier in a game of 1-on-1, then lost to him for the rest of the week, but finally got to play against him in the NBA several years later.

You won 3 conference scoring titles and set a school record with 1869 career PTS: what is the secret to being a great scorer? We were an up-tempo team: our coach’s philosophy was to fast-break off of a make/miss and try to get 20% more shots than an average team. I shot from long distance but we did not have the 3-PT line back then. We still were able to average almost 100 PPG back in the 1970s. I was a better ball-handler/passer than a shooter. In the NBA I was mostly a distributor but in Italy I was expected to score a lot and I became a much better shooters against zone/box-and-1 defenses.

After going undrafted in 1978 you played 68 games for Chicago in 1979-80: what was it like playing with a Hall of Famer like Artis Gilmore and for a Hall of Famer like Jerry Sloan? It was great! Don Nelson gave me my 1st shot with the Bucks and brought me into summer camp. I got a lot of playing time in the preseason including 3 games vs. Chicago. I was the 12th man on an 11-man roster and ended up getting waived. I was picked in the 1st round by Fresno in a new league called the Western Basketball Association. Nelson called me up and asked me to rejoin his roster to replace an injured player, and I was part of the team for the Bucks’ home-opener. A 2-for-1 trade involving the backup point guard was supposed to open up a full-time roster spot when I was called back, but an injury to a player involved in the trade nullified the trade so I played the balance of the year in Fresno. The reason I made the Bulls was because guys like Artis liked to play with me for a very simple reason: I got the ball to them.

You later played in Italy: what is the biggest difference between basketball in the US vs. basketball overseas? At that time there were bigger/stronger athletes in the US, but the Europeans were more skilled at shooting the ball. It was a slugfest at 1st so it took a while for the 3-PT line to start being used more. In Europe the lane was angled out so centers played in the high-post rather than the low-post and shot the ball from the outside. I was drafted by Dallas in the expansion draft…but they drafted about 13 other guards and told me that I would probably not make the team. I ended up in training camp with the Lakers the following year because they needed a backup PG for Magic: I played well in the preseason and was the last guy cut. Magic hurt his knee but they picked up Eddie Jordan instead so I went to Italy. I played with some guys in Italy who could have definitely been role players in the NBA and some other guys who were just D-2 players.

In 1984 you were a player-coach for the Wyoming Wildcatters of the CBA: what was the best part of the dual gigs, and what was the not-so-best part? I was an assistant coach so that I could make more money: there were limits on how much money you could make as just a player. I sat out for a year and signed a deal to play in Italy but after an ownership change I played in the Summer League and ended up in Casper, WY. My wife and I were living in Fresno and Casper was the closest CBA franchise. We had a good year and lost to an Albany team coached by a guy named Phil Jackson in the Finals. I was later offered a high school teacher/coach position in Fresno and ended up starting a new career. I was not making all the play calls but was able to offer a lot of insight on the other players. I led the league in minutes played so it was more of a title than a responsibility.

You led the CBA in STL in 1984 and AST in 1985: how did you balance your passing with your defense? There were a lot of “tweeners” in the CBA: all of the good forwards/centers could go to Europe and make more money. There were a lot of good guards from 5’10”-6’5” so you could get away with playing smaller lineups.

You later became an assistant coach at Fresno Pacific University and a computer teacher/technology coordinator/head coach at Sanger High School: how did you like being a coach? I coached 12 years at the high school level and we had a lot of success. I took a year off and then 1 of my former assistants became head coach at Fresno Pacific and asked me to become his assistant, which allowed me to have more time to watch my kids grow up and play sports.

When people look back on your career, how do you want to be remembered the most? That I played hard: I think that is why I made it to the NBA. I did everything I could do with what I was given so I was probably an overachiever.

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