DICK O’NEILL – NEW YORK BASKETBALL HALL OF FAMER & FORMER BOYS’ BASKETBALL HEAD COACH AT MONTICELLO (NY) HIGH SCHOOL – EPISODE 1090

Website – https://www.nybasketballhalloffame.com/richard-oneill

Email –  gigipop@hvc.rr.com

Twitter/X – @hoopshallny

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Dick O’Neill is a member of the New York Basketball Hall of Fame.  Dick amassed more than 340 wins in his 20 plus years as a high school boys’ basketball head coach at Monticello (NY) High School and Burke Catholic (NY) High School. Dick has served as President of the Orange County Coaches Association and of the Basketball Coaches Association of New York. He was the organizer and chairman of the BCANY All Star Games. He was named Coach of the Year nine times by the media and selected as the best coach in Section 9 by his fellow coaches. Dick has also coached in the Empire State Games. He served as the Co-Director of Big Guy and Tall Gal Basketball Camps.

As a player at Kentucky Wesleyan University O’Neill was a member of three Division II National Championships in 1966, 1968, & 1969.

The episode presents an enriching dialogue with Dick O’Neill, a prominent figure in high school basketball and a distinguished member of the New York Basketball Hall of Fame. O’Neill shares the narrative of his life, tracing the evolution of his passion for basketball that began in his youth in Brooklyn. The discussion unveils how his early experiences in local pickup games and the guidance of influential mentors shaped his trajectory from a youthful athlete with a burgeoning love for the sport to a respected coach known for his commitment to developing young talent. O’Neill’s journey is characterized by a profound connection to the game, illustrating how basketball became a pivotal element in his life, fostering a sense of belonging and community.

As the conversation progresses, the focus shifts to O’Neill’s coaching career, which spans over two decades and includes more than 340 victories. He delves into the philosophies that underpin his coaching practice, emphasizing the significance of accountability, discipline, and emotional investment in his players’ development. O’Neill recounts the myriad challenges he faced while leading teams at Monticello High School and Burke Catholic High School, highlighting the importance of fostering a supportive environment that encourages personal growth alongside athletic excellence. His insights into the dynamics of high school sports reveal a deep understanding of the responsibilities coaches carry, not only in developing athletic prowess but also in nurturing the character of young athletes.

The episode culminates in a heartfelt exploration of the lasting impact that mentorship can have on both coaches and players. O’Neill reflects on the meaningful connections he has forged throughout his career, sharing poignant anecdotes that exemplify the transformative power of sports in shaping lives. His stories resonate with a sense of nostalgia and gratitude, underscoring how basketball serves as a conduit for building lifelong relationships and imparting invaluable life lessons. This narrative encapsulates the essence of coaching as a vocation, revealing the profound joy and fulfillment that comes from guiding young individuals on their own journeys through the sport.

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Be ready to take some notes as you listen to this episode with Dick O’Neill, New York Basketball Hall of Famer and Former Boys’ Basketball Head Coach at Monticello (NY) High School.

What We Discuss with Dick O’Neill

• Basketball culture has evolved drastically, with youth now engaging mainly in organized leagues instead of informal games
• How pickup basketball fostered lifelong friendships
• A supportive coach can profoundly impact a young athlete’s life
• Coaching requires dedication to both the sport and the well-being of the athletes, shaping their futures
• Experiences in competitive environments are essential for personal growth, teaching invaluable life lessons
• Reflecting on his past, the camaraderie shared through basketball remains a lasting bond that transcends time
• The emotional impact of winning and losing
• His transformative journey from an uncertain youth to a celebrated high school basketball coach illustrates the power of mentorship
• Paying it forward is essential in the coaching community
• Holding players accountable, fostering discipline, and nurturing their personal growth beyond the court
• Community involvement and support in youth sports
• The challenges faced by coaches in managing both athletic and administrative responsibilities are significant and require a multifaceted skill set
• The value of perseverance and resilience in sports
• Why coaching was a calling, inspired by his own coach’s impact
• A college trip to Africa with his Kentucky Wesleyan team was a pivotal moment in his life
• The joy of seeing players succeed is a coach’s greatest reward

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High school and middle school basketball program directors, listen closely. Coaches are expected to do far more than just coach. You know this. It doesn’t matter if you’re doing the coaching yourself, or you have a full staff of coaches with you. You know very well that coaches handle scheduling, academic issues, parent communication, leadership development, and even mental health concerns for athletes. A lot to deal with, and they haven’t even gone home yet to balance those responsibilities.

No matter the passion for the game, and burning desire to help athletes develop, this level of responsibility can lead to burnout, inefficiency, and less time spent on actual coaching. You know it’s true.

When coaches are stretched too thin, it impacts the development of athletes, team morale, and the overall success of the program. Now here comes the outsiders throwing their two cents in about what’s happening. Then come the parents complaining about how you’re running things, as if they know what they’re talking about. When’s the last time you went to their place of work chiming in from outside their window?

Before you let that fire fizzle out, know that it doesn’t have to be that complicated. There are several ways to prevent you or your coaches from feeling overwhelmed. However, I’ll tell you one of our favorite ways to keep coaches firing on all cylinders, and that’s athlete-driven accountability and organization.

Instead of coaches constantly reminding players about assignments, grades, and practice schedules, our programs at Playmaker Planner puts the responsibility back on the athletes. By tracking their own academics, goals, and commitments, student-athletes become more self-sufficient, which of course allows the coach to put their babysitter hat in the closet, and put their coaching hat back on, allowing them to focus on what they love doing.

Are we offering planners that you can get at the dollar store as a solution? Of course not, but we are starting a conversation with you to see if our programs can be a compliment to what you’re already doing. Let’s find out. To learn more visit https://playmakerplanner.com/stop-is-this-for-you

THANKS, DICK O’NEILL

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TRANSCRIPT FOR DICK O’NEILL – NEW YORK BASKETBALL HALL OF FAMER & FORMER BOYS’ BASKETBALL HEAD COACH AT MONTICELLO (NY) HIGH SCHOOL – EPISODE 1090

[00:00:00] Mike Klinzing: Hello and welcome to the Hoop Heads Podcast. It’s Mike Klinzing here without my co-host Jason Sunkle tonight. But I am pleased to be joined by Dick O’Neill, a member of the New York State Basketball Hall of Fame, longtime legendary high school coach in the state of New York. Dick, welcome to the Hoop Heads Podcast.

[00:00:20] Dick O’Neill: I’m glad to be along with you tonight. Thank you.

[00:00:24] Mike Klinzing: Thrilled to have you on. Looking forward to diving into all of the interesting things that you’ve been able to do in your basketball life, both as a player and the impact that you’ve been able to have on so many players and teams as a coach. Start by going back in time to when you were a kid.

Tell me a little bit about your first introduction to the game of basketball. I know that you moved out of Brooklyn when you were young, and that kind of changed the trajectory of what your life looked like, but just gimme an idea of how you got introduced to basketball.

[00:00:54] Dick O’Neill: Well, my first love was baseball. My dad was a motorcycle cop in Brooklyn, and when he retired we moved upstate to Chester, New York, but my first love was still baseball. Then when I got up to, the Ba, Chester some of the, some of the guys were playing basketball and I was just really not a big kid at that time. I grew a little bit later and my, the first team I was on, I was the last player on my seventh, seventh, my junior high team.

I was the last player. And I said this, this can’t happen, this can’t happen. And from there, then, then I never left the playground.  if there was nobody there, I’d pass off the wall. I would do different things and just work by myself and things. But for most part, there was always a game.

And if there wasn’t a game in Chester, when I got old enough, I traveled to local towns and things like that where I knew there could be a game. And, and after a while it sunk in and school. I had a legendary coach. He played at Seton Hall. I don’t know how far you go back, but he played with Walter Dukes, who was a seven foot knicker, Nick Knickerbocker.

He played the last time they won the NIT was that year, and he was a guard on that team. And in our area, my high school, I only graduated with 28 kids, 15 girls and 14 29 kids. 15 girls and 14 boys. And so everybody had to play everything. So I played soccer, which I didn’t even know what soccer was and basketball and baseball, but daughter, to have teams, that’s who we had to do so.

But basketball became my first love, that’s for sure.

[00:02:33] Mike Klinzing: What’s your favorite memory of that time? Playing pickup basketball and just going around to different places. Do you have a memory that sticks out from, from pickup basketball.

[00:02:43] Dick O’Neill: Really? What sticks out is all the friends I made in the various towns,  we travel and I, and I play with guys and and, and became friends with them, became friends with them that I’m still friends with them today.

And then we started playing together, then we started playing together, travel up to West Point, playing the Bear Mountain League up in there and, and go to various tournaments together. And some of those guys I play golf with to this day. Yeah. And that’s the biggest memory of that. That was the biggest memory of that because they, we didn’t have, say, we didn’t really have a lot of competition for big men in my area.

And so I really, a lot of times I wasn’t challenged at that way. So to, to do what I had to do, I had to travel so.

[00:03:31] Mike Klinzing: It’s funny that you say that in terms of just making lifelong friends, because people oftentimes will ask me about my experiences in basketball, and similar to you, I grew up going to first sort of local park, right?

And playing pickup games, and then eventually just like you as my friends and I got old enough to be able to drive. Then we were driving around to different places to be able to play and find better competition. And I always tell people that the experiences that I had, and I played high school basketball and played college basketball and had great experiences in both of those situations, but I always feel like some of my best memories and some of the people that are still part of my life, so many of those.

Those friends that I have, just like you are people that I met through playing pickup basketball and not necessarily on my high school team or on my college team or whatever it might be. And so I have a lot of fond memories of just like you getting in the car and driving and finding a game here or finding a game there or knowing which night was going to be a good night to be able to play and all those kinds of things.

So it’s, I think our experiences were very similar. And obviously the kids that are growing up today experience it in a totally different way because that pickup basketball culture that you and I grew up in really doesn’t exist in the same way it’s been replaced by a a u basketball and some of the travel situations that kids get involved in.

And I always feel bad for kids today that they didn’t get to grow up the way you and I did in terms of just going to the park and playing without mom and dad watching you or without a coach watching you, or a referee or a scoreboard. You just played for the love of the game. And it sounds like that’s sort of the experience that you had growing up.

[00:05:15] Dick O’Neill: There’s no question.  moving to Chester in that little town kind of saved my life. I was actually at 11 years old, go, really going in the wrong direction. I just I just, I hadn’t found myself. I had no idea,  I, if I’d, I was talking about dropping out of school at 16, the first chance I could get and things like that.

And then going there and then picking up with those kids. And then my, the high school coach really getting after me. I, I, he saw something in me that he could get after me. And  I, I didn’t like it, but I, I just dealt with it. I just dealt with it. And some of the things he said that still,  still.

Well within me. Now, some of the things he does, the style of basketball is changed.  I don’t, I don’t have that in him anymore, but I, he was a, he didn’t want to talk about z it was always a man to man defense. And, and when I went to college was the same way. So but growing up he I was a, lemme give you for instance, I was a big Wilt fan and he was a big Russell fan.

And and, and, and the way Celtics went around their business and he talked to me. I’ll get onto, I had a unique skill. I don’t know if Brad told you that, but you’re going on. If I blocked the shot, I block the shot into the bleachers. He says that, that’s nice. He says, but look what, look what Russell does.

He’d block it, keep it, and they, and. Yeah, I don’t,  that’s the way I want to play. That’s the way I want to play. And that’s how I, that’s how my game developed was from that. And he, he saw it through, but he still was persistent about getting an education. And,  once I was getting through college, high school, I had, I had no idea.

I didn’t want to go to college,  I, but, and then I was, I didn’t go my first year and I played in the city league and that was all fine. And,  but there was, it wasn’t, it wasn’t hitting me in the heart at all. And but but I, I would say he had a huge, huge influence on, as a matter of fact, just as a byline, as I was given my hall fame speech, he died.

And my mother got a a, a text or a phone call from his wife at that time, and I didn’t know until afterward, but that, that’s how ironic that is. But,

but that’s what I’m saying. Basketball changed my life. Just changed my life.

[00:07:47] Mike Klinzing: When you think about the influence of your high school coach, was there any moment in time while you were playing for him that you thought, Hey, maybe coaching is something that I wanted to do? Or is that something that came later, either in college or after college?

When did the idea of maybe wanting to get into coaching, when did that hit you? Well, lemme

[00:08:09] Dick O’Neill: be honest with you, when I thought about it, I thought if I could do for one kid what he did for me, that maybe that that was my calling. That was my calling. And, I I did. And but what, what he did for me, I was trying to do for other kids.

And and maybe we had a different way of going about it, but and, and not only me, my other teammates too.  I, I, I played if you go to a small spool, there’s going to be highs and lows. In other words, the class in front of me had two good players. We had three good players. The class behind me had two good players.

So we were,  we had seven players that could play reasonably well. And,  we were very successful. It wasn’t like we were but the thought of it, the thought of it just being out there and watching my junior year, he left my senior year. He, he thought the schools were going to centralize.

He didn’t want any part of that. So he went to another school upstate a little bit, but he still. Once a week I get a phone call, what’s going on and things like that. But as a junior, I was about six two, probably, maybe one 60 at the time. And there was a kid who was a, a, a senior who was about six five, but he, he never played, but he was around and he was six five and he started him.

And so I came off the bench, but the thing of it was, if he started good, he had a pretty good game. But if he didn’t, then I’d get in there early and then he’d sub around me,  he’d sub around me and that kind of thing. So I played pretty much the game and I had a lot of success doing it. I kind of enjoyed it.

I got a lot of recognition for it too, that I never thought,  I never thought I it would be that way. And and at the end of the year, he didn’t say anything. He just nodded,  he just like. He won’t say, but it was well done, son. Yeah. So that’s what it was.

[00:10:06] Mike Klinzing: When you think, when you think about him as a coach, and again, like you said, not necessarily the style of play and from a basketball standpoint, but when you think about what he was all about as a basketball coach, what’s one or two things that you feel like you carried with you into your coaching career?

Something that still demonstrated is, hi his, his influence in the way that you coach.

[00:10:34] Dick O’Neill: Well, I coached hard and Bradley May, I told you that I coached him hard and I held him accountable, which he held me accountable. And and I thought that that was really the, the way I wanted to go. And let me just jump ahead a little bit.

What he was, he was in the Korean War and he came out and he was a Marine and, so I don’t have to tell you how your name, he was a drill sergeant type coach, and when I went to college, I thought I got away from it. But my first coach was a Korean War vet who was the, the same damn way. So I jumped from the fryer pan to the fire.

So getting back just the way he the way he, the way more, the way he handled me, he handled me because he knew if anybody was going to move on or anybody had a chance to play at the next level, it was me and maybe a guard. And the other guard did play at the next level. And and I, I just, that was just one of the little things that I knew I had to put into my program.

 I just, I, I to be myself, but I wanted to be. What I was taught,  and I, and I was a hard line on that,  I just, I was flexible offensively and de well, offensively. I was flexible defensively. I wasn’t too flexible. But but just  if, if you’re 10 minutes, if you’re 10 minutes early for practice, you’re late,  those kind of things.

And you had to wear your uniform a certain way then. And my high school gym, Mike, the top of the foul circle and the half court circle intersected and back court was three quarter court was the other foul on played. I played on a,

[00:12:11] Mike Klinzing: I played in a gym like that once, when I was in, when I was in junior high.

There was one of the junior highs in our conference that had a gym just like that. Just, just like you described. It was crazy.

[00:12:22] Dick O’Neill: And my wife was from our biggest rival, which was six miles away. And that gym, you had to keep your foot on the wall. Get the ball inbound. And the referees had to work from the sidelines because they couldn’t get on the baseline.

And it, and most of the schools were small. There were only two schools when I was in high school that had glass backboards. I had two schools that had backboards. I believe it. A lot of them had moon tins and things like that. It was, it was just a different time. I don’t,  I don’t think kids appreciate what they have today.

 it’s just a whole different  even sneakers.  we had, you either wore ca maybe you get away with cats, but everybody was in converse.  it was it was a simple thing. And either you wore high low. One of my best friends who played in the town over, he wore, he was a big Celtic guy, so he wore black low cuts.

Right until the day he died and which was last summer. But

[00:13:23] Mike Klinzing: yeah. But I remember, I remember having the converse Chuck Taylor’s on, and then when I was maybe I was probably in I think sixth or seventh grade, so that would’ve been maybe like 1982. Somewhere there. I got my first pair of leather, Dr. J Converse all stars and, and retired.

The, but when you, when you back on. Real games in in the Chuck Taylors like guys like yourself. And  think about NBA guys. You talked about Wilt and Russell and all those guys from that era playing in that kind of shoes. And yeah, you’re a hundred percent right that when we look at the things that we have today in terms of shoe technology or as you said, gym access, kids have so much more access.

Again, they don’t play outside kids. If you tell ’em, Hey, I used to play serious basketball outside kids, now look at you. And they turn their head, they’re like, what do you mean play serious basketball outside? Nobody does that anymore, but obviously you and I spend a lot of time doing that. It’s amazing how the era have changed.

[00:14:28] Dick O’Neill: It. And  Mike, and I’m going to say this, I don’t think for the good,  I’m just that’s that stubborn and that old fashioned and things. I didn’t get my first parallel till I was playing in the city leagues three years after I graduated college. So that, that would’ve been 1972. I had the pool.

Okay, there you go. Clydes. I had the Kuma Clydes at the time. Okay. Yeah.

[00:14:50] Mike Klinzing: There you go. There you go. All right. So going back to you as a high school player, when did you start thinking that an opportunity to play in college might be available to you? Was that something that you had thought about from when you were younger?

Was that something that somebody else brought to your attention? Said, Hey, you might be good enough, Dick, to have an opportunity to play in college. What was the mindset like for you when you, was that something that you had always thought about or dreamed about? I.

[00:15:18] Dick O’Neill:  I did, but Mike, I thought it was out of reach for me because I was such a poor student, because obviously I didn’t really,  I was thinking, I’m, I’m going to quit school, I’m not going college, that kind of thing.

And it, it didn’t it really didn’t, wasn’t a, a lot of thought,  I, I thought about it, I loved it, but I didn’t,  I didn’t think it was in my future. And, and another thing my high school dated my wife was my high school sweetheart, and I, when I got graduated 10 months later, I was married with a baby.

And I went to college as a freshman that way. So then that year I worked out that, that I was out of school. I started working in arrow shirt, had a a plant, a brand new plant in our area. And I was working there and I’m,  it was about after two or three months I said, I’m not doing this the rest of my life.

 I gotta,  I gotta pursue something here. So, right. And that’s how that happened. And how I got to Wesleyan is my dad was a very good letter writer. And he, he was, I think I was living through him,  I was doing, his dream was through me, . And he, we sat down one night and he opened one of them Barron’s books.

You remember those Barron books that listed all the colleges and the tests you could take and that kind of thing? Yep, absolutely. And he said he opened it and he said, close your eyes. Put your finger on three schools and we’ll write a letter and he says, I’ll write the letter. So that’s what I did first school, Brigham Young.

And  obviously  I wasn’t, that, that wasn’t in my that was a, they sent back a thing that I promised not to drink, smoke, or swear to four years. I,  I was like,  my folks didn’t even tell me that. And the second one was Colorado State, and they sent me back. They were going to, but that was all about mining and minerals and,  math and science weren’t on the top of my list.

And then the third one was Kentucky Wesleyan. And he wrote back and he said he said, I’ll, without ever seeing me, he said, I’ll give you books and here for your tuition, and then if you work out, I’ll give you a scholarship. So we went down there for a visit. And when we get to that, I’ll explain all that went on at Kentucky Wesleyan, but he saw me work out.

I didn’t bring workout. He saw me work out on the floor in my socks by myself, just,  doing things. And and he said,  come on, come on, you can walk on. And I did. So, and that changed my life for the forever. Forever. Yeah.

[00:17:58] Mike Klinzing: So what were you thinking then as you get in there academically? What was the thought process?

[00:18:04] Dick O’Neill: Well,  what, I was smart enough. I just never applied myself. So, yeah.  I went in and I, and I went to, first of all, I went by myself. Diane was home. It was, the baby was going to be born in October, so she was home then. When I came home for Christmas, she came back with me and we lived in on a off campus housing, and we’ll get to that at some point.

But I applied myself and halfway through the first semester they reevaluated and they made me, they made me eligible. So that was the, that was the thing. And from then on and I did, there’s another story that I’ll go along with, but that’s, that’s what happened. And I, and I applied myself right through, not that I killed myself,  basketball was the first thing on my mind and, Right.

But I did the work. I did the work.

[00:18:53] Mike Klinzing: What was the adjustment like for you

[00:18:54] Dick O’Neill: on the basketball court? The first, the first day we got there, the freshmen came in one day and then, then the upperclassmen came in the other day. Well, one of the upperclassmen came in. Are you familiar with male high school in Louisville, Kentucky, Louisville?

Yes, absolutely. Mm-hmm. Yep. Three of those guys were from there. And okay, they came in and we went over to the gym, which I’ll get to, was a World War II Quonset, by the way. And we played, and before my father could get back home from driving me down there, I, I called my father had said, mom, I can’t play here.

I mean, I was just really out of my element in the begin with, because first of all, I had never played with a five players that,  that, that good. And they were all very good. One average 37 points a game in high school in Kentucky. Two of them played on the number one high school team in the state and, and things like that.

So they were playing against big time competition every day, every day. So I was a little bit behind, but. They accepted me right away, Mike. And that was the whole key to the whole thing. They, they, they accepted me because they knew I, they could see maybe I wasn’t up to it, but I wanted to win very badly and they could see that in me.

So and at the time I was the only out-of-state player on the team,  they were, everybody else was Kentucky and I was from New York. And but, and as you ask me more questions, I’ll elaborate, but yeah, I was overwhelmed. And then when he got home, he called back, he says, you can, you, you’ll do well.

You just stay there. He says, I believe in your son. And, and my mother was really the one, she says, don’t come home. Don’t come home. I got no place for you here. Don’t come home. So, and  that’s how it started. That’s how it started.

[00:20:46] Mike Klinzing: Gotcha. Okay. So in my research, and I don’t know where this story exactly fits in, but it sounds like it happened.

At some point during your freshman year where you guys took a trip that you maybe were not supposed to go on to Africa. Yeah. And then you, you ended up having the opportunity to go on that trip and I read the story and I enjoyed the story, just reading it. But I can imagine that I’m going to enjoy the story even more hearing you tell it.

So go ahead and kind of tell it, tell us that story and put it into context of where that fits into your college experience.

[00:21:22] Dick O’Neill: Okay. Well, first of all I wasn’t supposed to go, there was only 10 guys. And that, like I told you my freshman year, I, I’ll get to that. My warmup was mostly zippered up to my neck my freshman year.

So just we’ll go, we’ll go with that. But but the guy who played in front of me was an All American. He, he transferred from, he, he was the only transferring we ever had in my four years in college there. And he transferred from University of Louisville ’cause he was playing behind west on. He and he, and he saw where that was going.

Not that he wasn’t a great player, he was a, he was a two time all American. He was the most valuable player in the national tournament his junior year. He played seven or eight years in the pros in the a, BA in the a, BA eight at the time. But he was,  he was 6 7, 2 40 and he was athletic as hell and, and he took no prisoners.

But his wife had just had a baby. So Coach calls me, he says, look, he says, you have an opportunity here to, to play seven weeks of basketball over and,  and, and go to Africa and to Africa, and I’m New York, I’m going Africa, going on,  what’s going on in my life? And all of them, all the, I mean, we were all the same way, but now I gotta go home and convince my wife,  after I had left the first semester at the beginning and now she’s home.

And I said, and I’m going for seven weeks. So we’re leaving actually like July 7th. So, and we had to go back a week early for two days. And and we got back two days before I had to come back, two days before Labor Day. And and ended up, they had gotten their shots. Two.

And I literally could not, I mean, I could not lift my arms to brush my teeth. That’s how, that’s how sore they were. That’s how sore they were. So that’s, that’s part of the story. And and they love to tell it too. They love to tell it. So but that, that was a part of it,  there was How long, how long did it take you to loosen

[00:23:30] Mike Klinzing: those arms up after

[00:23:31] Dick O’Neill: that happened?

My, my, it took a while. Honestly. God, it took a while because when I tell you I couldn’t lift them, I couldn’t get them. Finally, I got them to here, but they were so sore and, and some of them they weren’t absorbed right away. So they, there was a little lump, little lump there.  what, I’m not that it was infected, but it would, they just, I guess they could only absorb X amount of things at one time and Right.

And the doctor, he was a team doctor also. He thought it was quite funny,  so he a funny deal. But Mike, I would say it took really. Maybe two and a half, three weeks for the sauna to go away. Yeah. For the sauna to go away. And that, and I was trying to play, I was trying to do things and it was literally impossible.

I,  I was able to pass here and do that kind of thing, but that’s that’s how it worked. That’s how it worked.

[00:24:22] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. So. All right. I know that there was an. Airline issue. Oh boy. That was a part of the trip, which ended up rerouting you in a different location than what you originally, what the original itinerary was.

So walk us through that. Well,

[00:24:36] Dick O’Neill: it, it still is the largest airline strike in the history of the United, or maybe in the world, the history of the world at that time. And so I had to go back to Owensboro. I wouldn’t say a week, let, lemme say it was five days. We were leaving on the seventh. So I walked back a couple days before July 4th and July 4th in Owensboro, Kentucky.

There’s no picnic particularly. We’re playing in a, when I’m telling you a World War Wari Con that was a.

Our our gym, our arena was a seventh down seat arena in downtown that was beautiful. It was called The Sports Center. I’ll get to that. But the, the out of bounds for the walls, when, when my dad got out of the service and, and we, and I was first born, we lived in a Quonset in Keni, New York. So I was from, not that I remember that, but that brought back memories.

It was thing and out of balance was literally the walls. And if you shot from the corner, you had to be pretty careful because it was going to hit the roof. And I’m telling you, he had some wars in that. And Mike, I thank God for that quo every day because that’s where I really learned, that’s where I really learned it.

It just I became, and, and we’ll go on from there, but getting back, I had to get a train at Grand Central. My father left me off at Grand Central. I had to take a train to Cincinnati. And then I take a train to Louisville, and then I took a bus to Owensboro and now I’m figuring we’re going to fly from Owensboro into Louisville, and then we’re going to go to New York and from JFK and go, well, no good.

I get back on a bus, we go Louisville on a bus. We’d go to Cincinnati in a bus and we’d get on a train in Cincinnati and go to go to JFK. We go to JFK, but we still don’t know where we’re flying, ? And the state departments doing all this was a State Department sponsored tour. This was not local.

I mean, we, it was a social development tour. It was 1966. It was the beginning of the, the Peace Corps,  the Peace Corps girls and guys were around. And so finally they got us on a plane for Air France because they were outside the country. They weren’t on strike. So we flew Air France into Heathrow in London and spent only a night there.

Spent only a night there. And the night we had a lot of, we got a little Heathrow early in the morning, so we had all day there and the night, and we didn’t have no practice or anything, so we were all over the city and then went back to the hotel, got up the next morning, then we got on Heathrow and flew into orally in Paris.

And we had the same situation. We got in early in the morning. We had all day, but I, we were really happy to get the hell out Paris. London was great, but Paris was  even,  they talk about Americans now that it was worse then it was just like and, and on the sideline, don’t ever walk up the Eiffel Tower,  a couple of us did that.

And I got to the top and I said, this was, it was beautiful, but I’ll be on the elevator from now, from now on. But got a little, got a little leg workout in there, Dick. No, that was a rough walk. That was a rough walk. And I was real glad to get out of Paris Then we fought in, flew into fought Lame and Chad.

And then if you want to go on with it I don’t know where you want me to take you on this thing. It was a seven week deal. You want me to stay with the Africa thing? Stay with it. Yeah. I want to hear the whole thing. Okay. We get to Africa and we and Fort Laie in Chad and and Chad’s one of the few countries that hasn’t changed its name.

 they changed names like the, we go to ShopRite or someplace,  that’s how they do it then, right? Yeah. And we got on a bus probably, and it was only us on a bus, so let me say it was probably let’s say a 20 seater. But, and it was still daylight. And we were on some roads, Mike, that were like, we’re looking over.

I mean, we’re looking out the bus window and it’s straight down. And the road and the, the holes, it was like the Burma Road or the Ho Chi Minh Trail, I can’t imagine. Anyway, it was maybe a no, maybe a 30 mile ride, but it was like riding into hell. But we got to the hotel, and the hotel was beautiful.

I have to tell you this, the hotel was beautiful, but the first night and put a historic for us, it was the first night that a white. With a black, and it happened to be me rooming with my favorite player to begin with. But anyway that was the first time that ever happened at Kentucky, Westland.

And and thinking back, I’m real damn proud of it. I’m real proud. Absolutely. And he’s close to me this day. He lives in Louisville and we communicate two or three times and,  I’ll get to that. But there was some kind of storm that night. We were in the room. There was some kind storm that night.

And the sounds that were coming from around and we were close to water. I mean, we were close to the ocean actually. And but the sounds in the back, it was, it was like, I, I can’t imagine it sounded like, I guess it was maybe frogs or birds or something, but it was like scary. It was like scary. And the next morning we get up to go out and one of the guys had hung his gym shorts out over the railing and he get up to get ’em in the morning and look and a guy, and, and one of the Africans was walking down the beach with him with his basketball shorts on.

So that kind of starts. But the hotels, we stayed in. At that time in 1966 was nice as Vegas or Atlantic City or anywhere, but the food was horrendous. We survived mostly on ham and cheese sandwiches, which was that time, shambo and mage with a little mouton. That’s, that’s,  that’s, that’s, that’s how we kind of survived.

And we couldn’t drink the water. So they, the, and the water came, the, the canned water or the bottled water, I forget it came from France and it was more expensive than the beer. So we, we did some, we did some beer, as a matter of fact. The, the, the water and those things were cheaper than like a bottle of beef.

Eat is gin was like four bucks or something. I mean, there was no taxes, there was nothing on it, but Right.  not that we were doing that, but but the, we couldn’t really drink the beer. So what we doing was drinking Heineken’s because it came from Germany. And so that’s what we had. And and and that’s pretty much, but the food was terrible.

But the hotels were very, very nice. Very, very nice. Yeah.

[00:31:26] Mike Klinzing: How many games

[00:31:26] Dick O’Neill: did you guys play over there? Okay. What, how it works was we do in,  and mo mostly on the Ivory Coast where the horn comes in and it comes up to where Dakar celebrate Senegal is. But, and then we were in land. Ch Chad, Fort Le and Chad were in, in land.

And how it worked was we, duke we’d get up like at five o’clock in the morning and as soon as the sun come up, we’d do clinics. And, I mean, there were kids everywhere. There were kids everywhere and they were attentive and things like that. But in Africa, the, the whole continent closes down at 10 o’clock because it’s so hot and doesn’t reopen till four o’clock and that, and then people are resting or whatever they’re doing.

So we had that time limit. And then. We’d have something to eat. And then our games didn’t start till dark, dark, so maybe 9, 9 30 over there. And and we’d play we’d play their national teams and under some dirt, dirt floors where the old baseball line,  with the baseball line played on some of the hoses, the chalk put the, put the chalk down.

Yeah. Ba basketballs, I mean, rims tilted a little bit from kids hanging on. And I mean, it was a, it was a great experience, but some of, some of the basketball conditions we played in were just very difficult. Very difficult. But the, they were good to us. They were good to us, and they,  internationally, you trade things.

We, they gave us, the State Department gave us things to trade and so they’d give us something and we got something and,  and that kind of thing. But there, there were, some of them were very, they were tough on the blacks. We went over there with five blacks, five black guys,  and then five white guys.

And the blacks were tough on them. There was not that,  we, I thought it was going to be the other way around. And I guess they were very envious of what they had,  of what these guys had, which really wasn’t a lot at the point. And I’ll tell you about that too. But we played at night and and I really learned how to play.

I really learned how to play. Going back to it, when, when I first went to college and when I came home Christmas to get my wife, I played the, the guys were playing in some gym or some tournament. And when I, to play with through started. Who the hell is this? ? That’s how much I had gotten better in that amount of time.

’cause I had to, so I,  I, I, I kind of I, I felt pretty good about myself at the time because I had gotten that far. And what happened was I was playing behind this transfer, this the guy that I went to Africa for, and I jumped on his back every day in practice until he got tired of me and he’d throw me off and I’d get up and he, I’d jump on his back again.

And,  I learned how to defend myself and do things like that. So I’m not telling you I got better quickly, but some of the things I had, I, because I wasn’t a really great scorer, I was a really good passer.  I could see the floor I I picked up on, they could play defense as hard as they want.

I could pick up their players and,  I made no excuse if something happened. I always took, took the blame for it. So they appreciated that and things, but that’s how quickly I got better. So, and, and then I started to notice it myself. And I played with a lot more freedom. I started playing with a lot more freedom and things, particularly in practice.

And I was getting better every day. Every day I was getting better and I could feel it. Not that I could see it, but I could feel it. I, inside of me, I knew in my heart that I was becoming a, that I could play here, that I can play here. And that’s, that’s kinda leading up to it. But Africa, listen, we left that in Nige.

It was called Niger at the time. And there was Joseph mbo, they had an overthrow and the state Department got us on a, on a, a military plane without our stuff. Those seats. We were, they, they get on the plane, lay on the floor as they were taking over the airport that we just got out of there on time for that.

Wow. That was harrowing. That was harrowing. Yeah. Sometimes when they got it under control, they all got us back to our stuff, but they brought all our stuff like in a pile that were,  we trying to figure out whose stuff was what. And so it, it, there were, there were situations like that. And, we got in some ticky situations where we’d beat on the team and, and we really, everybody played,  we didn’t hold the ball, but it was always six, five or six passes before there was a shot late in the game, that kind of thing. So we weren’t not trying to embarrass anybody and it really made us a little better because we were working on,  working on some things and knew what a good learn, what a good shot was, what a bad shot was, that kind of thing.

And and a couple of places me left, they were rocking the, the rocking the bus and things. And one of the assistants that came with us was the former athletic director and basketball coach there. His name was Robert Bull Wilson. And he is, was a character. But he was so scared sometimes, and he, and he hung with me and and another Kentucky, like, we’d go to lunch and all that kind of things together and all that other stuff.

And he’d tell us some stories, Mike, that just he was Kentucky threw and through, and he was a hell of a coach. He was really a good coach, but he got a little older and he he was special. He was a special guy in my life. So, yeah. And then we we, about halfway through, we had had it at about the three and a half point mark.

So we had a meeting in the hotel, in the room and we, who wants to go? Everybody.

Obviously that was, I’ll tell you, that was a huge mistake. We’re not going anywhere. Getting your damn rooms. Get your stuff on. We’re going to practice right now. I said, man, and we had some practice. It was about 114 degrees. I mean, it was like to adjust, do you still want to go home? No, no, no, no. We’ll stay, we’ll stay.

But we, and then it, it, it, it got a little better because we knew that was out of our mind not going home until we’re supposed to go home and, Right, right. But a couple of, one of the guards got sick and Mike, his head, or his butt was in the toilet every 10 minutes for a long time. He was so sick they couldn’t send him home.

That’s how, that’s how sick he was. Wow. Wow. And he got not from drinking the water. We poured on us and just the absorption from it. He got sick from it. He got sick from it. And I’ve never seen anybody that sick in my life before or since. And and it affected him the whole next year. And he was a sophomore at the time.

And his, and he was a good player. He was a guard. He was a, from one of. And he and he wasn’t right till his senior year,  it took him that long to recover from it. That’s how much he lost, I think. And he was a thick guy. I think he lost 40 pounds in, in six weeks, so, wow. But we we moved from inland up along the coast and we finally finished up in that car in Senegal, which was the French sole place in Africa.

It was on, it was a French country, and and it was kinda like the, the, the major city and capital in, in Africa. And after the game we had a good game. They had a, one of the better teams,  we beat on them. We didn’t lose, lemme put it, we didn’t lose the game. Okay? I think we were 28 and,  25 and oh or something.

I don’t even remember that. But as we were leaving, we were leaving the floor and one of the guy was guarding, came up to me going like that. I said, he says. Have your shirt. So I said, yeah, you going to take it at home? It’s not, can I have yours? I said, yeah, well, let’s go in the locker room. You can have my short.

How about your socks? I said, listen, you can have the shots, the sneakers, you can even have my warmup. How’s that? So I came home with no clothes other than the travel announcer we had on, we had Blas shirts, ties, shoes. I don’t think I had socks at by that point. But I had wing, tip shoes and that’s how I them.

But I had two suitcases filled with souvenirs. That’s what I had. And absolutely not. One stitch of clothing other that we had on. And there was a 15 hour flight from Dakar to back to JFK. And about halfway through it, the the pilot thought he was funny. He said, look out the window and down. So I was in the middle seat.

So I looked over and down and there was a hurricane. Swir us. I didn’t mean swirling. It looked like we were almost in it. We weren’t, but we were at 30,000 feet and this was probably, who the hell knows where it was? But we had to stop in Santa Maria and the Azos. And I never heard of Santa Maria or the Azos at that point.

And we had, and so when you land, you have to go in and show your passports and that kind of thing, so wait till they refuel the plane and things. So we go in and I go to the restaurant or the, the counter there and I said I was putting on my best French. And they looked at me funny and one of the guys that spoke both language says, we speak Portuguese here.

There you go. There you go. Portuguese in an hour. But we finally landed in in JFK, and that’s where I left them because they’re flying,  I’m the only one there. So they’re flying now. I mean, I knew they flew. I didn’t even know where they flew to, but they got home, all right. But I got off the plane.

I literally, Mike got down and kissed the ground as soon as I got kissed right on the Tomac. And I went in and all I could think of was I’m going to have the biggest hamburger they got in there with Ave, vanilla shake. And all of a sudden it dawned on me, all I have is African money. All I have is African money.

And thankfully at that time, coach kept money back from us because we had a lot of money there. I dunno what we were getting a per diem a day. I still dunno. But he was giving us enough. I, we had a lot of money. I sending money home,  and we had a lot of money and and when we got home,  when I got back it dawned on me, had no money, but I had those what the hell do you call the bank things.

A traveler’s check. There you go. Traveler’s checks. And they weren’t. And, and at that time, I don’t think the, the bank or whatever was an open, so there was nobody to cash him. I told the guy, I said, look, I’m just doing this, that the other thing. He said, look buddy, it’s all yours. And I said, look, if you wait, my dad will be here to pick me up.

I’ll go, I’ll go and I’ll bring it right back to you. I’ll even give you a big tip. He said, get the hell out of here. So that’s how that worked. That’s how that worked. And and then I got back and two days later we were back. Inbo,  wife and baby. And then it’s on my sophomore here.

[00:42:29] Mike Klinzing: All right. So I want to ask you one more question about the trip.

Do  how or why your team got the opportunity to do that? Yeah,

[00:42:37] Dick O’Neill: Because we won a national championship my freshman year. We beat Southern Illinois with Wal Frazier in the finals in Evansville. And the year before Michigan went on a trip someplace, they had oh, what the hell, what’s his name?

Bill Bunton. And who was the big Kie Russell? They had Casie and them, and they had won the national championship and they, and they kind of disgraced themselves wherever they sent them and they won. Try it one more time. And UCLA declined a trip because that was Kareem was only a, Kareem was, I’m in the same timeframe as Kareem we’re freshmen together.

Okay. So, gotcha. And he was only on the freshman team, but at Wesleyan, because there was less than a thousand men, freshmen were eligible. And that was a selling point. That’s why some of the black kids that came our way wanted to play right away, and it worked out for them and us. And but so for the most part, Mike, I’m going to just take, we, we we’re the most decorated class.

My class is the most decorated class in NCAA history because everybody else may have three in their years, but we have three in a third place and a third place, which I don’t like to talk about much. But, and that was our best team. The third place team that was by far our best team. And but that’s, that’s what, that’s what happened.

That’s what happened.

[00:43:56] Mike Klinzing: What do you think beyond the talent of the players on your teams? What intangibles, what other qualities do. Led to led the success that you guys were able to have in those national championship seasons. What was it about your team beyond just the talent that made you a championship team?

Well,

[00:44:18] Dick O’Neill: lemme tell you this, our practices were really wars because the guys, my freshman class, we came in with six and Mike, we all graduated with six on time. On time. That’s awesome. We all walked across the stage together. And for that, I’m extremely proud of that in itself. But we wanted to,  I, I sat the bench my freshman year.

I’d want to sit, but I’m playing behind in Aller. He’s still back. He’s a senior now and I’m playing behind him. And now he’s playing me Summit forward, he’s playing me summit forward and when he gets arrested, so I’m getting maybe 10, 12 minutes a game as a sophomore. And he got hurt. I had, and then I played two, I started two games and had two very good games.

And, but we would practice for two hours and it was hell. I’m sure you’ve heard a lot of people tell you, but it was hell because we wanted to play and they wanted, the ex starters wanted to play. And then we’d go over in that, we’d go back to the cafeteria and eat, go back to that concert and just beat the hell out of each other again.

And it was really for the love of basketball. And in 1966 in Owensburg, Kentucky, there were three stations. They went off at 1130 at night. The the star span banner went, your television went black. We were the only game in town. In other words, we were 800 students in a school and we sell out 7,000 every night.

We played there. Every single night we played there, sell, we’d sell out 7,000 people. So the community was really involved. They were inspiring. They were they were living and dying with us. And  we took, and for most part we took that pretty serious,  we took that pretty serious. And living in Kentucky in 1966, it was no picnic for the, for the black guys.

I’m telling you, it was no black. It was no. And early on, early on, like my freshman year, we went someplace and and we, we weren’t as a team, but we were, we were, I think in Jackson, Mississippi. I think we were playing state or somebody. But and we went a restaurant in the afternoon and said, well, we.

Well, I, I started to lose my mind.  I’m coming from New York. I never, I never helped to deal with anything like that. The black guys, we go anywhere we want,  just do anything we want. Right. And my mother and father were like,  all men are created equal and we’re going to live our lives that way.

 we’re going to live. And, and I did. And I, and not to, to this day that’s, that stays with me. But I started to, and they grabbed all, all of me. And they, then he, they said, when we go back in a room, we’re going to have a meeting. So, and just you and us. So they said, Dick, there’s going to be a lot of that that you are not aware of.

And I’m still hot. I mean, I. We’ve dealt with it all our lives, and now you’re going to have to deal with it a little bit too. We appreciate it that you’re sincere about it and that kind of thing, but we just can’t afford to do that type of thing. And Mike, I literally was like, like, I was like losing it, honest.

I was just like, how the hell can that be? And, and,  and, and the more I was down there,  spending four years in the south in the sixties I just I, I saw it and experienced it and I didn’t like it. And I didn’t like it. And they knew I didn’t like it. And and there was a couple other times that I started to lose it and that they grabbed me and dragged me the hell out away from someplace.

But but they was at my back, so I didn’t worry about it. But that’s, that’s pretty much there’s a situation as it was. And like I said, I was the first white guy I’d ever black room with a black. And don’t forget. Kentucky still hadn’t had a black player, LSU. Most of the schools in the, in the SEC didn’t have black players, including Kentucky.

Kentucky recruited their first player after my, after the year I left that September, Thomas Payne, do you remember the name? He was a seven footer and he, he went there, but he, he, he was all messy. He got in all kind of,  he was in all kind of trouble and he lasted maybe a year or so, if, if that, then he was in the pros and that, and that didn’t work out at all.

He was just a bad actor,  they just picked the wrong guy and they wanted to, one of my guys to go, he was mail and he wanted to go and, and and he would’ve been a great ambassador for them, but he didn’t want to go through it,  he just didn’t. All by himself.  he didn’t want to go through it all by himself, and I don’t blame him for that.

And he went on to be a globetrotter for 17 years. So on the, on the main team. And but it was a different time. Where’d you go to college, Mike?

[00:49:06] Mike Klinzing: I went to Kent State. So I graduated from Kent State. Okay. In 1992. So I graduated from high school in 1988. Okay. And and I played four years of basketball at, at Kent.

And then when I got done I kind of looked around and I had a business degree and my parents were both, my dad was a professor at Cleveland State. My mom had been an elementary school teacher. And so when I graduated and I went out and I started interviewing for jobs, Dick and I ended up, I remember I had an interview with with Nestle, the, the food, the Swedish Food Company.

And they offered me, they offered me some job with some sales. I forget exactly what it was. And they’re like, well, this was in, maybe. I don’t know, whenever I graduated in May and they offered me this job, I went on the interview in like June. They’re like, you’ll start on July 1st. And I looked and I went and they said, you can have a day or two to think about it.

So I went home and like they want me to put on a suit in July and go to work. Like I, I’ve never seen anybody go to work in July. And so I, I, at that point, I reevaluated what I wanted to do and I decided at that moment that I was going to go back to school and get a teaching degree and then end up going into going into coaching, which is exactly what I ended up doing after I graduated.

So I went back to school and got a teaching certificate and then was able to,  get a teaching job and, and start, and start coaching. And so it wasn’t that when I was 18 years old, like most kids, I had no idea when I went to school, I. What I wanted to do. And I was a, I was a very good student, but just like you, my focus was, my focus was basketball.

I mean, I chose to go to Kent State because of the opportunity to play Division one basketball, and that’s kind of what my focus was. And the idea of ever getting a job to me was, was foreign. I mean, I just grew up playing basketball. I didn’t have, I had a paper route maybe when I was nine, but I never worked at a fast food restaurant or a yogurt shop or anything like that.

I just, my, my job was, my job was to play ball. So I understand that it was  I understand that. Yeah. Different era. Different era. Alright, so tell me about, let’s get to, let’s get a little bit into your, into your coaching career.

[00:51:20] Dick O’Neill: Yeah, sure. Don’t forget, when I played there was no one, two, or three. There was college division and there was university division. Correct. And most of the teams that we play are now division one teams, in other words, right? Absolutely. Southern, my freshman year, we beat Southern Illinois. My second year we got beat by Winston-Salem with Earl Monroe, and our best player was in the hospital.

He had a, a, a carryover from the African trip. And and I didn’t play particularly well. We didn’t play, we got beat by seven. And then the next night we played Illinois State with in the con They played a consolation game back then, right. And we played Illinois State, and we still set a record. We beat him a hundred twelve seventy five.

And he played all the guys that were coming back the next year. And I had a hell of a game, and then that got me going into the thing. But we, we played our, our, we, we do Youngstown, state Akron, one year. Central, central state of Ohio. Then the other year, then we did Akron, Youngstown State Bouquet.

And then the next year it was Akron, Akron, St. Francis, and Pennsylvania. Yeah.

Burg. Okay. And, and those are the type of schools

at. Evansville was our biggest rival. And Jerry Sloan had just graduated the year before and they had won a national championship and that was a, because we were right across the river, we were 30 miles and we played for some kind of a canon that I never saw, that I never saw the can. But we played for some kind canon man in Southern hills and Noway home and home every year.

And then, then, and even after Frazier left, they had Dickie, Garrett and Griffin and Chuck Benson and them. And we only lost three games at home my entire four year career. Three all three the sudden Illinois. And then my senior year we beat ’em at home. And but it was mostly, we played mostly what our, when the San Diego School, the, the California schools at that time only, like California Southern Cal, UCLA, San Francisco and Santa Clara were really the only university schools in California.

The other ones like uc, Riverside, uc,  both the San Diego schools they both came on a trip and played Evansville Southern and us, and they went home oh and six,  so yeah, we so there wasn’t like, and, and like I said, we had 7,000 in there just raising hell, I mean, raising hell. So but that’s,  watched the division championship on last Saturday, Sunday, whenever.

I was like, who would Nova Univer university this Dominguez. I’m, I’m, they’re playing. I, and, and we’re in a con. We were never in a conference and now they’re in a conference and they’re playing schools I never heard of. I, so I’m like, yep. And but I’m telling you, it made us better. It really made us better.

We had the L, we played LIU, we played LaSalle in the Palestra, which I loved. We played Iowa State in Chicago Stadium, which by the way, I couldn’t wait to get to Palestra because my folks and my father-in-law had never seen me play. So they came down and watched. But other than the history of it, it’s a dump.

Other than the history of it. Same way with Chicago Stadium. That’s why they had to build the other thing. It was the, it was like, it was terrible, but those are the schools we were playing. Those are the schools we were playing. And so it was, it’s a completely different situation now, but like I said, we’re the most decorated school in NCAA history, and I’m real proud of that.

So,

[00:55:10] Mike Klinzing: absolutely. I mean, it’s fantastic. Yeah. The opportunity that you got to have and just sounds like the teammates that you were able to play with and just the experiences going to all these great places and getting an opportunity to play, there’s, there’s no way that you could ever, I think anybody who plays a team sport there, there’s no way to replace those experiences, those memories.

Mm-hmm. The, the teammates, your coaching staff, it’s such a, it’s such an intense experience that it just sticks with you in so many, in so many ways and in influences you for the rest of your life. I mean, I still carry all the lessons from being part of teams and having great teammates and all those things.

Are still things that influence me today. And I’m sure that when I get to be 85 years old, that I’m going to be still sitting and, and thinking about the things and how basketball and my teammates and coaches impacted me over the course of my life. You got it. There’s just, you got it. There’s so much po there’s so much power in that.

There really is. It sustains me, Mike. It sustains me.

[00:56:14] Dick O’Neill: Yeah,

[00:56:14] Mike Klinzing: absolutely. All right. Tell me about the transition to coaching. How do you get to your first coaching job? And then let’s, let’s talk a little bit about your coaching experience.

[00:56:25] Dick O’Neill: Alright. My first coaching job at Burke High School in Goshen. It’s a Catholic school.

It was a Catholic school that was one town away from where I grew up. One town away from where I grew up. And I started my coach at Korea. I was the JV coach and the varsity coach actually got me the job and he was a lifelong friend. And, and that’s where it started. And but I was also the head baseball coach, the athletic director, the head soccer coach, and a SEC teaching cis classes a day without no secretary.

And I’m still the athletic director and I’m only 24 years old. So that, that’s where we are. And and the, as soon as basketball started,  and I, I’m, I’m watching my JV team and we’re not getting better and I’m, and I’m, and I’m, I’m con confounded why, and, and I thought,  and how stupid it is.

I thought because I was a good player, automatically they were going to be, well, the varsity coach told me, he said, Dick, I said, Joe, what the hell’s going on? He said, try coaching them. And, and I went, oh,  what the hell? Okay. And, and that, that changed it all. Then, then I became a coach. Then I became a coach.

Up until that time I was not a coach. So but and I stayed there 13 years. I was his assistant for a long time. I was his assistant for eight years. And when, even when he gave it up, I didn’t want him to His son. His son. I’ve known his boy since birth. And when he graduated, the boy he wanted, his father wanted to follow him, and he went to well maybe,  maybe you’ve heard of him.

His name is Bill Bayno. He was yes, absolutely. Mm-hmm. He started he was, he went to are we good? Yeah, we’re good. I can’t hear you. Okay. You got me again. He went to UMass and then he got caught in a coaching change and he transferred to Sacred Heart and became an All American there. Became a hell of a player there and he began his coaching career right there.

And he originally went to Liberty in Charleston South Carolina. Then his next stop was he was the director of operations for at Seton Hall for pj. And he brought in Morton, all them guards and that kind of thing, and that’s when they got beaten the national championship game.

Then his next move was to Kansas with Larry Brown and Manning, and they won the national championship there. But also John Kop Perry was also part of that. He was an assistant there. So when John offered that, got the job Bill went with. And then Bill stayed with him for five or six years. UMass got in the Final Four when it was in New York, and they got, and they got beat.

And bill was, and I was looking for him and he was hiding out. What happened was he interviewed for the UNLV job and he got it and he followed up, he followed Mass Amino in there and he went in there and he was he was there for five years. He went to the tournament four to five years, and he had a hell of a thing.

But they recruited Lamar Odom and I, I don’t have to tell you the Lamar Odom story. They wanted, the NCAA wanted him to retake the SATs. He wouldn’t, he didn’t leave town. He stayed with a dentist and they, he, they got investigated and Bill, they kind of came back at Bill even though he wasn’t part of the program anymore.

So bill then went in the MBA and was an assistant at Portland, Minnesota. Toronto, Indiana and finished up, he, he was with Dwayne Kaley mostly. And what was the, in the Indiana coach, the good Indiana coach right after Byrd Black guy was a good player. He was also the coach at Portland.

But anyway, Nate, Nate McMillan, there you go. Nate McMillan. There you go. And then he took he was offered the LMU job out in Loyola Marymount, and he got, did all the recruiting. They were going to be pretty good. And he had a breakdown. He had to just he didn’t want to be head coach anymore. He didn’t even know if he wanted to stay in basketball.

So he went with Dwayne Casey, wherever,  he followed Dwayne around. And it just so happened that he had a 13 year pro career. Now what he does is. Football has combines, well, he does the combines for the NBA, but he does it in Tris, Italy, twice a year. He brings in all the European players and okay, they walk them to one place.

So the general managers aren’t chasing ’em all over Europe. And he’s on a personal kind services contract with Adidas and he does clinics and shows up and things. And Mike, he’s the best clinician you’ve ever heard in your life. That’s how good he’s, that’s how good he’s, and and he’s never been married as a single guy.

He’s doing quite well for himself. But that’s how, that, that’s how that happened. And that I got the varsity job and we won right away my third year. Can you hear me?

[01:01:20] Mike Klinzing: Yes.

[01:01:20] Dick O’Neill: Okay. My third year we were undefeated, played for the state championship and got the hell beat out of us by a team from Buffalo.

And then we were won the sectional titles the next two years. And then I moved on to Monticello. My oldest daughter went to college and one and one stopped making two, if  what I’m saying. And so I moved to Monticello and. One of the things that I knew is they had great talent for a long time, but they never put it together.

They hadn’t won anything in 28 years. And I mean, they had some really, really good players and I never figured out why until I got up there. And my first year I wound up with six players, but we played for the sectional championship, we got beat, but I had more coaches on the bench than I had players. The second year I had seven players and the same thing happened.

We played for the section championship and got beat again. But the next, the next 26 years, it was a, it was a pretty good ride.  they figured out what the hell was going on and what was not going on, and what I was going to do, what happened. And after a while when I got there and it, it became apparent that they actually needed me.

And what I didn’t know is that I needed them also. And that that became my first team. They had only had six guys, but I’ll never forget them. They still, they set they, their competitiveness and their willing to do things and their love for the game. And it took a while. It took a while to get through, but they became really good players and they’re all really good men.

And that set the thing with the black community and the rest of the community because they hadn’t had a winner there in 28 years. And and it became a good marriage. It became a good marriage. And as  if you’ve coached, if you don’t have good players, you’re not going to have a very good record.

And I don’t care who, who coaches that is the state championship. Mike, I got even my thought was. We, I went in the locker room and talked to my players and I was sitting there talking with my assistants and I thought every coach. If he’s a lifer, puts in a long time and a allotted time ought to be able to experience this once,  win or lose, be in a game like that.

And I thought of all the guys that I thought were good coaches that never had good players that just you could see the competitive spirit in their faces, but they just never had the kind of kids that were able to do, do that. And those are the guys I felt for. And those are the guys I admire and those are the guys I admire to this day.

So, but that, that was my feeling immediately after getting my ass kicked, ? So but, but leading up to it, you have no idea about busing and hotels and who’s going to wash the uniforms? Where are we going to stay? Coach O’Neill, can you get us tickets? You we going to eat this thing, my family,  where are we staying?

I said. I became a nightmare, but one, it was over. It was really worth it. It was really bad. And then we, on Ello after we settled in, it took four years and we won a sectional championship. And Michael, I’ll never forget the look on them guys’ faces. I’ll never, ever, the first time they’d ever won anything significant in their entire lives.

And the look on their faces and how they reacted to it and how they dealt with it. The next day in school they were walking around that hallways five feet in the air. Their feet were five feet in the air. And and the community was, and then Nan, we, and we had our gym. There was only bleachers on one side and they went straight up.

And, I mean, you had to get there early for a game. And it was it was wild. And like I told you, it was. And I, and I held them accountable.  I held them accountable. I didn’t change how I, I coached. I told him I wasn’t, I told you,  we’re going to do it my way with some modifications. And I made rules.

I said, look, you make the rules. You make some of the rules, but if they’re broken, I’m going to enforce them. You can make those rules, but be damn sure that I’ll enforce them. And, and that’s how we operated. And the faculty appreciated it because somebody come with me, well, he hasn’t hand in a paper in a couple of days.

Well, when his ass was sitting on the bench, he didn’t play the next game. He got a message, ? And the, the faculty was always appreciative of that. The guidance people worked with.  one person had all my players and she to this day and she kept track of what was going on, how they were going, and are they going to be college?

Oh, they taking their tasks, are they doing the clear, the clearing house at the time?  I don’t, and all of those things. And that took a little off my mind. But the, the, the coach didn’t change. The coach didn’t change that. I can tell you.

[01:06:20] Mike Klinzing: Well, it strikes me as I listen to you talk, hearing, you say all the things that, and this is a common theme, that when I talk to people in interviews who are coaching, and it doesn’t matter whether you’re coaching at the high school level or you’re coaching at the college level, there’s so many things that a head coach has to do outside of basketball, outside of being on the practice floor or coaching and game.

There’s so many of those itinerary things and, and other things that you have to take care of that are administrative, that are away from the practice floor. And I think sometimes young coaches, before they get into it, I know I can speak to myself back when I was 22 or 23 years old, I was completely naive as to some of those things that coaches have to do off the floor in order to run a successful program.

Hey, do I know my X’s and O’s on the floor? There’s a lot more to building a successful, whether it’s a high school program or a college program, than just walking between the lines and coaching basketball. There’s a lot of things that you have to do in order to be able to have the kind of success that somebody like yourself has had.

So I want to ask you about that success and share with us one or two personal habits that you had that you can maybe continue to have as a human being, as a coach that you feel like contributed to your success.

[01:07:46] Dick O’Neill: Well, let me go as simple as I can put it. Every day when they came to school in the morning, they came by my office to see if I was sitting in that chair.

So they knew. I would’ve their back. So what, they might not say hello, coach. They may not say anything, but their head would pop in and they, they wanted to know if I was in the chair and if I wasn’t, they wanted to know why I wasn’t in the chair, ? So they keep track of me. But  what? I worked along with the faculty, but, and I worked along.

There were some things I learned, Mike, that, that brought tears to my eyes,  on snow days we’d practice, we’d practice because they’d rather practice than eat my guys. And they were all local,  they were all, and I told them, I said, if we practice and you can’t get there, I’ll come and get you.

Well, one year, one day one kid came, wasn’t there, and he was a, a, a tough kid. And and he called me when he got home and I was ripping,  I was giving, and then he said, coach, listen, here’s what happened. It was a snow day. My mom didn’t have to go to work, and she took the only two pair of pants I had to the laundromat.

And Mike, I wanted to roll off the chair onto the floor and just die. And just die. I had no answer for that. I just had no answer for that. And I still don’t have an answer for today. I still don’t have an answer. Just they lived different, they lived lives that I didn’t live.  it’s just some things, in one instance, two or two of the guys had 17 or 18 sneakers. I couldn’t, we couldn’t, I couldn’t find them and I could see they were broken hearted. But I knew a friend. I had a friend in the marketing department with the Nets, and I called him, I said, look, you can do a little advertising here. I said, I know Van Horn wears seventeens or eighteens, and I know Jason Williams does.

So he set it up and it was a big thing. We went down to a net game. They gave him, they gave him two pair of sneakers each, so in case one ran out and things like that. And it, they did it as a publicity thing and it was a real nice thing. But the looks on their faces, stay with me today. Stay with,  things that, yeah, that’s.

I can’t tell you how many I took to their college visits.  sometimes their parents didn’t have anything or had no way of getting them there. And how many letters I wrote, how many phone calls I did. But that was pure joy in doing that. I mean, it was just, that was a, that was an, that was a labor of love.

And that was  I’d do, if I started again, I would do the same damn thing. So, but it turned out to be a love affair.  and today when I go up there in the community, they, the coach and they run over. Even the, the kids I didn’t coach, they run on over. And it’s been a mike, it’s been a lifelong love affair.

And I just like I told you they needed me, but as I found out I needed them, I needed them also. And my family did too. My family was there. My daughters, my youngest daughter played a Orange County. Junior College of Middletown, New York. And the only two times they went to the national tournament, she, she took them.

And then from there she went on to, she got a full ride to Wagner. They even paid for the, believe it or not, thankfully, two years there. And her lifelong friends her two best friends are within Dr. A couple of miles of her now. And they, my oldest daughter went on honor to state school. She played four sports and her senior year she was the NCAA regional player of the year, or athlete, the league, I won’t say player.

For being a well-rounded playing. She played three sports and things like that. And she thought she died and went to heaven when she went to On Island. So  it’s, and that she, she gave up coaching a couple the basketball a couple of years ago, and she co started the girls golf team. She coaches them now.

My oldest daughter, my youngest daughter, they, my daughters teach together in the same school. They share an office, so I stay away from Oh, very cool. I stay away from, it’s not one of those things. And my youngest daughter coaches the unified bowling team and the, basketball team, and I’m not, if you’re familiar with Union, it’s challenge, it’s challenge.

Kids challenge.

[01:12:05] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. My kids,

[01:12:08] Dick O’Neill: she has some way with them. She has some way with

[01:12:09] Mike Klinzing: them. Yep. So both my son and both my son and my daughter have participated in, in unified sports here at, here, at our school. So yeah, it’s a, it’s tremendous. It’s been a great experience for, for my kids to be able to, to participate in that program, be a part of it.

So

[01:12:25] Dick O’Neill: it’s been a great experience for me too, Mike. I can, I,  I don’t miss, we don’t miss my wife and I don’t miss, and it’s like,

[01:12:32] Mike Klinzing: that’s awesome. We laugh and

[01:12:33] Dick O’Neill: we join and we cry with them. We do the whole deal. Yeah, we do the whole deal. So,

[01:12:40] Mike Klinzing: but that’s what, all right. I want to ask, I want to ask you, I want to ask you one, I’m going to ask you one final question ’cause I think it’s going to be one that hopefully brings back a really good memory for you.

And the question is, I. What is the most memorable or impactful player reconnection that you’ve had with somebody who graduated that played for you? So in other words, maybe a phone call, maybe a visit, maybe an invite to a wedding. What’s one thing that when you think back that stands out of a connection that you had with a player after they no longer played for you, that held a tremendous amount of meaning for you?

[01:13:27] Dick O’Neill: Well, there it was a player who was a freshman was a starter on one of my very best teams, but he was trouble and at and I had to drop him after his freshman year, but religiously, he’s now a truck driver, cross country truck driver, and. Every other week, or maybe let me, let’s, let’s say 10 or 15 times a year, I’ll get a phone call from him, like apologizing to me about it.

I said, Kenny, you must have learned a lesson. You must have learned something in that year that you think about it. And he says, coach, he says, I’m so disappointed in myself. I said, Kenny, the ball, sometimes the ball bounces different. And and  and I, and I, we still talk about the good as opposed to the bad because now he’s on the straight and narrow and he’s doing very well for himself.

And, and it, he was in a situation where he was at a junior college and they arrested him right on the floor. And that I there and it broke my heart. The, the fact that he still connects with me. And then I got Brad I know you’ve had, I listened to your thing with Brad and but I had a lot of Brad.

Now I didn’t have a lot of Brads, but I had a few Brads and Right. And his mother was a cheerleader at my first school. At my first school. And so I had that connection with them. And his, his older brother also played for me, but he wasn’t a player of Brad was, he was a good player, but he wasn’t a player.

Brad was. And but Brad was a challenge. You, I’m, I’m sure he told you that Brad was a challenge over. He did. He was a challenger. Yeah. But Brad was a kind of play of Mike that. He wanted, if the game was on the line, he wanted the ball and would take the consequence whether if it went in he was good with it.

If it didn’t, we’re onto the next game,  or, we’ll, we’ll work it out and practice the next day. But he wanted that ball and everybody else on the team knew he wanted the ball, so he wound up with the ball, ? And when he went to college, it was the same way. Same way. It was the same way. And what broke his heart and my heart.

The LA the next to the last year, no, it was the last year he was at Keystone. He won the, he would play, we was playing for the championship against Wilson in Pennsylvania. And my wife and I were at a place in Carolina and we left a couple of days earlier. It was 84 in Carolina, and they were playing in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.

So we drove up to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. My wife and I would join them for dinner the night before. And we went and played to watch the game. And he was playing a championship game in a gym that’s at a hundred people. Wilson College. And, and I could see it was so uninspiring to his players,  that family people will let you, if you didn’t get there.

You didn’t get in. And, and when I say it, it sat a hundred people, it sat a hundred people. And it was, and I think that was extraordinary. And I felt so bad for him that that I, we cried a little bit about that and I said, Brad, I said, you’ll always, you’ll remember this day to the last time you blow that whistle.

And  and that, and that he got away and now he’s moving on. Coach. He’s going to have a job someday. He’s going to have a good job someday. I promise you that.

[01:16:40] Mike Klinzing: Absolutely. There’s no doubt about that. I came away so impressed. And just for those of you who are listening, if you haven’t had a chance to listen to our episode with Brad Cooper, who’s now the head coach at Hartwick College please go back and do that.

That’s how Dick and I got connected. Mm-hmm. And I guess to, to kind of wrap up what what you’ve been talking about throughout the podcast, it kind of hits on a dick that I talk about all the time in my life and that’s, that I feel so fortunate to. Use the game of basketball, which I love to be able to have an impact on people, whether it’s through coaching or in this case, through the podcast, to be able to use basketball, which has been, I, I can never repay the game of basketball what it’s given me.

And so whatever small way that I can give back and give a guy like you who’s a basketball lifer, an opportunity to talk and, and share your stories and continue to grow the game and, and just have an impact on, on people. And you think about the stories that you just told there about, about Brad and about Kenny and driving the truck and, and turning his life around as a result of, again, not solely due to your influence only, but you having a part in that kid’s success.

Right. And, and that’s really what it’s all about. And I think being able to do that through the game of basketball, I. To me is always just, it’s just very, very powerful. And, and I’m always, whenever I, whenever I hear,  hear a coach talk or I get an opportunity to interview somebody, I’m always struck by just the power that the game of basketball has to, to impact people in such a positive way.

And like I said, there’s no way I can ever give back. And, and I’m just, I’m just really thankful for guys like you that have been a part of the game and, and obviously had a, had such an influence on so many people through that.

[01:18:35] Dick O’Neill: Well, I still pay it forward. Mike some of the young coaches who know of,  ask me to come in and maybe work with their big men or just talk to their kids and things.

And sometimes I’m not sure if the kids are listening,   they have, they have so, so much on social media and things that you,  they can get inspirational talks from a lot of people. But I try to relate to them at their level,  at their level. Mike. If I had to teach in a junior high or in elementary school, that would’ve been a no note.

I would’ve been,  I’ll dig a ditch, I’ll drive a bus, I’ll do something, but I’m not teaching down on that if I can’t talk to them like adults and,  with some adult language on occasion  then it, because I, I pr I, I coach with emotion in practice and I coach with emotion on the floor.

And I told these kids, if you can’t do this with some kind of emotion, you better leave this gym right now until you can come back and, and really want to play with your heart and give you, and I used to cha,  I would challenge two kids at practice. I said, Brad, I’m watching you today. You, your, you, your this is your test day.

And then I pick a second string. I said, Johnny, this is your test day. Depending on what you do today, it’ll depend on what time, what, what kind of minutes you get in the game on things. And so I would challenge him that way. And don’t you think, and then at the end of practice, I would say to pick out a kid, I said, you practice as hard as you can today.

He says, I tried. I said, what do you mean you tried? I said, did you practice as hard as you could today? He says, no. I said, why not? I said, you only had gimme two hours. I said, you only had, what else could you have done? Why couldn’t you gimme or your teammates your best two hours? And I challenge ’em that way.

I said, it’s going to be that way on your job.  whatever you’re going to do with your life, then you can’t take, if you got an eight hour day job, they expect eight hours of work out of here. Not five and a half, not six, that kind of thing. But I challenged them individually and I challenged them as a group.

And but the bottom line is they knew that they were going to be accountable. That, that there was no, there was not going to be easy way. If you want to play basketball or Monticello. Was not going to be easy. It was going to be fun, it was going to be thrilling, and then you’re going to be successful and it’ll be the best time, your absolute life, but it’s not going to be easy.

And that’s, that’s how I lived it. That’s how I lived it. And my family. That’s a great, she’s still mad at me for retiring still. My wife in particular. My wife, yes. So my grandson, I’ll tell you, my grandson tuned me out when he was 14. And he was a six four quarterback. He went to American International. He started, and then, it’s a long story, but his dad owns a 2000 acre apple orchard.

So I knew he was going to be an apple pound, but my granddaughter just graduated, Lemoine College in Syracuse is division one. She, and she was on volleyball scholarship there. She’s a nurse. She’s doing well. She just got a new job, accepted a new job in Philadelphia at the Children’s Hospital there, and things are just going really well.

And she tuned me out at some point, I forget at what point, and she played three sports too, and she was very good at it, but she was a volleyballer and he played three sports and I think he left college because he would hear all my stories about my guys and talk and he knew my, some of the guys and the humor.

And the same way with his mother, her three closest girlfriends all played together and they still around. And my daughter, Laurie, the oldest one, all her girls, her best friends are still all her teammates, her college teammates. And so they, they would hear all the stories and he was getting none of that at a IC It was a commuter school in Springfield and it was a good school, but it was a commuter school and  it was like high school.

Everybody went home to three o’clock. And so he was getting none of that. I think he missed out on that a little bit. But anyway, they’re doing great.

[01:22:37] Mike Klinzing: That’s awesome. And that’s what it’s all about, right? I mean, family, it’s about, as you said, working hard, being accountable. That works on the basketball court and it certainly works in life.

And so, Dick, I cannot thank you enough for taking the time out of your schedule tonight to jump on and share an hour and a half of your wit and wisdom with us. I’m so thankful to Brad Cooper for connecting the two of us and just putting us together so that we could have this hour and a half and chat and learn more about you and your story.

So again, I can’t thank you enough, Dick, and to everyone out there, thanks for listening and we will catch you on our next episode. Thanks.