We have lost so many great college basketball coaches over the past 9 months: Eddie Sutton in May, Lou Henson in July, Lute Olson & John Thompson in August, Billy Tubbs in November, and John Chaney earlier today at age 89. Here is just a small peek at Coach Chaney’s remarkable resume: 1978 D-2 title/national COY at Cheyney State, followed by 23 straight postseason appearances/5 Elite 8s/back-to-back national COY awards at Temple. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001 and the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006, and his 741 career wins remains top-50 in NCAA history. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel had the honor of interviewing Coach Chaney several years ago and is proud to present this never-before-published interview below. We send our condolences to all of Coach Chaney’s family/friends on their loss.
NFL All-Pro DB Johnny Sample (who played rec league basketball with you) said you were “the most competitive human being I have ever seen”: how did you become so competitive, and were your players able to match your intensity? Johnny was 1 of the toughest guys I have ever known: no way would I get out onto the football field with him! 1 thing I will never forget was Johnny getting frustrated with Hall of Famer Jim Brown because he would drag tacklers on his back for 5-10 yards. Johnny was as ornery as he could be while still having a smile on his face. When we played against each other he would seek me out and always found a way to guard me.
You ended up going to college at Bethune-Cookman, where you were an All-American and scored 2000+ PTS: why did you choose Bethune-Cookman, and what is the key to being a great scorer? When I got out of high school I was the best player in the Philly public league and Tom Gola was the best player in the Catholic league. Tommy went to La Salle but I could not even get a scholarship to a college in Philly because most of the Big 5 schools did not have any Blacks on their teams. Back then we would only receive a partial scholarship to cover tuition so I could not have afforded to go there anyway. Bethune-Cookman came to Philly to recruit me and I decided to there: if they had not come to Philly then I probably would have gone to Winston-Salem because Coach Clarence “Big House” Gaines tried to come recruit me the very next day!
After college you played briefly with the Harlem Globetrotters but quit after learning that all of their tricks/games were prearranged: what was it like to be a Globetrotter, and where do you draw the line between sports and entertainment? The Globetrotters had a number of teams around the country at that time. We stayed in Chicago alongside the great Woody Sauldsberry. I was a great ball-handler/dribbler, which is why they recruited me. There were only a few NBA teams back then and very few Black players, so when the Globetrotters offered me a plane ticket to Chicago I decided to give it a shot. We were really impressed by the boxers of that era like Joe Louis/Sugar Ray Robinson, and the Globetrotters were also big-time. They beat teams like the Minneapolis Lakers but I had never seen them on TV, so when I saw us play the Washington Generals and how much of a show it was I decided to take a job as a coach/teacher instead.
Your 1st collegiate coaching job was at D-2 Cheyney State (where you won almost 80% of your games, a national title in 1978, and national COY honors): how did you end up there, and what did it mean to you to win a title? I was coaching basketball (and a number of other sports) at Simon Gratz High School after being hired there by Principal Marcus Foster. It is important to know that your boss is compassionate and offers you some dignity. We were not being compensated as high school coaches: that is when I started to hold early-morning practices and bring in the players in the afternoon for tutoring. Marcus later ended up getting killed by the Symbionese Liberation Army in 1973. Dr. Wade Wilson called on me to come to Cheyney State but he did not care if I won a national title: he just wanted me to learn how to spell my name correctly! I stayed there for 6 years before going to Temple.
As the team bus was getting ready to head to the airport for the 1978 Final 4, 1 of your players showed up without a necktie and you sent him home: were you trying to teach your team a lesson about responsibility, or were you just strictly enforcing the rules, or other? I made it clear to our players that we represented more than just ourselves: we represented our families, the alumni, etc. I sat them down on the floor and told them about our dress code: no sneakers, no jeans, and that they must wear a tie. Johnny Blue showed up without his shoes and I told him that he was not getting on the bus. After we won it all I sat down with Blue and talked to him about transferring…but 6 months later he was shot dead in Philly. College can be a safe haven for young people and help them create a future.
In 1982 you became head coach at Temple: how big a deal was it to be the 1st African-American coach in Big 5 history, and what makes the Big 5 so special? I got asked about that a lot: I made it very clear that I never thought about it 1 way or the other. I tried to recruit youngsters regardless of which other coaches were trying to sign them, although it was hard without the same amount of scholarships as schools like St. John’s/St. Joe’s.
Some of your most famous coaching methods include early-morning practices, a match-up zone defense, and a tough non-conference schedule: how did you come up with them, and why were they so successful? All 3 of these were very special for us: we were fighting Prop 48 at the time and many other conferences would not accept kids who did not meet the minimum standards. We were going to make every effort to make sure the players went to class and got a degree. I am proud of guys like Aaron McKie/Eddie Jones who came back to get their degrees after having 15-year careers in the NBA. Now there is a 20 hour/week practice limit but we got started early so that we could get in our practice and still leave time for classes/tutoring.
Take me through the 1991 NCAA tourney:
After Corey Williams’ apparent game-winning 3-PT shot at the end of regulation was ruled a 2-PT shot, Mark Macon scored 8 PTS in OT before fouling out to give you a 9-PT OT win over Oklahoma State: did you think that Williams’ shot was going in, and what did you tell your team before the OT period that helped them regain the momentum? Every year we instructed the team that how you start is how you finish. Regardless of who we played, we presented a lot more energy to meet them head on. We made 5 trips to the Elite 8…and each of the 5 teams who beat us ended up winning the title. We wanted to play as many top-20 teams as we could in non-conference play and did that for 24 straight years.
Macon had 31 PTS/9 REB/0 turnovers but missed a 3-PT shot at the buzzer in a 3-PT loss to UNC in his final collegiate game: how proud were you of his performance, and where does he rank among the best players that you ever coached? I have had a lot of gutsy players during my time, but at the end of a game Mark is the 1 who I would want to shoot the ball.
You were named USBWA national COY in 1987 and 1988: what made you such a great coach? The greatest part about managing/directing men is teaching them discipline, which is 1 of the highest forms of intelligence. You have to be persistent and cannot worry about losses: move on to the next thing facing you. I had almost 20 players make it to the pros and they all knew that there were no shortcuts to success. The reason a team like the Miami Heat wins games is due to their rotation/double-teams, which is based on zone concepts.
In 2001 you were elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame: where does that rank among the highlights of your career? The highest! It was very special: every year that I get to go back and talk with the other Hall of Famers. It is 1 of the best things that ever happened to me.
