Bob Hurley was having a tough time keeping to himself what had become the one of the world’s worst kept secrets.
The legendary St. Anthony High School basketball coach had known since a week ago Wednesday that he had gained enough consideration for induction into the Naismith National Basketball Hall of Fame, but was told by Hall of Fame officials to keep the information a secret until the press conference announcing this year’s induction class Monday morning.
“My wife [Chris] and I were going to Mass like we did every day in Lent and we received a phone call,” Hurley said. “My daughter [Melissa] told me that I better stop everything and take the call because it was from the Hall of Fame. At that point, I became more poorly behaved than our grandson [Gabriel]. I had a tough time concentrating. I don’t know if giddiness properly describes that feeling.”
Added Hurley, “But then the idea that I couldn’t tell anyone? That was hard. I wanted to tell everyone I ran into. I wanted to tell the Russian gas station attendant where I get my gas every day. I wanted to tell the toll collectors on the Turnpike. But I did what I was told and didn’t say a word to anyone. I didn’t return phone calls from people, from good friends, coaches, former players. I didn’t want to say anything. I guess my daughter Melissa did.”
By the time Hurley arrived in Indianapolis Friday afternoon, word was already filtering out that after three previous chances, Hurley was going to become a member of the Hall of Fame.
“I think it was [St. Joseph’s University head coach] Phil Martelli who came up to me Friday night congratulating me,” Hurley said. “Then I knew the cat was out of the bag. I was going to do what I was told to do until the bitter end, because I wasn’t going to jeopardize this. Not being able to share this with people drove me crazy. But apparently it was not a well kept secret at home.”
However, there were people in Hurley’s native Jersey City who wanted to celebrate along with the coach. It was beyond a momentous occasion. It was historic.
Very rare for a high school coach
Hurley became only the third boys’ high school basketball coach to gain induction into the Hall, joining legendary DeMatha Catholic head coach Morgan Wooten and former Passaic High School coach Ernest “Prof” Blood. Bertha Teague of Oklahoma is the lone girls’ high school basketball coach enshrined in the Hall.
“There are only 293 people in the Hall of Fame with over 100 years of basketball,” Hurley said. “It really is amazing. This proves that something like this can happen to high school basketball coaches. No one ever coaches for this. You coach for other reasons. You never dream that there’s a chance that something like this could happen.”
But there was Hurley, the guy from the Greenville section of Jersey City, standing on a stage with such basketball royalty like Larry Bird (representing the 1992 USA Olympic “Dream Team”), Scottie Pippen, Walt Bellamy (representing the 1960 USA Olympic team) and women’s basketball great Cynthia Cooper.
Others who gained induction but were not at the press conference included Karl Malone, the late Dennis Johnson, and the late Gus Johnson, and Los Angeles Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss.
Imagine, a guy from Greenville among those hoop legends. But Hurley has earned his place, thanks to almost 1,000 victories (a milestone he should reach next season) and the 24 NJSIAA state titles, the nine NJSIAA Tournament of Champions crowns and the three mythical national championships.
“All the kids who ever played for me and all the assistant coaches who worked with me over the years share in this moment,” Hurley said as being interviewed on the podium by CBS sportscaster Jim Nantz. “I’m out of my element here. For anyone who coaches in the high school game, this is the pinnacle. We just try to make a difference every day. Kids need your help and there’s nothing better than being needed. This is a tremendous thing.”
With that, Hurley became the first-ever Jersey City native to gain induction into the Hall of Fame and only the third ever from Hudson County, joining the late David Walsh of Hoboken, a basketball official, and Tommy Heinsohn from Union City, the great Boston Celtics player and coach.
After the formal press conference was over, the newest members of the Hall of Fame were taken into another ballroom for individual interviews. About 20 or so reporters flocked to where Hurley sat.
“I’m a Jersey City guy,” Hurley said. “I’ve lived there my whole life. I started coaching my parish’s CYO team at St. Paul’s in Greenville when I was a kid and just went from there.”
Author’s memories
It’s also the place where I was first introduced to Bob Hurley more than 40 years ago. I remember him from my neighborhood, as the guy in the high top canvas sneakers, bouncing the basketball past my house on Kennedy Boulevard on the way to the St. Paul’s courtyard, but I didn’t really know him then.
He was always very noticeable, but I was just a little kid. I didn’t know better.
When I was attending second grade in St. Paul’s School, there he was again, only this time, he was my gym teacher. The same guy with the canvas sneakers and basketball was my teacher. I figured this was a great thing. It was before he ever became the coach at St. Anthony.
During the summer months, Hurley was a supervisor for Jersey City Recreation, running a summer program in the St. Paul’s courtyard that I participated in with about 500 or so other kids from the neighborhood. We would play basketball one day, touch football another, then go to the old Roosevelt Stadium annex and play softball another. Hurley found a place for each and every kid if they wanted to participate, regardless of their skill level. I found myself on some teams with some of the older kids, some maybe even five or six years older than me.
One time, I was pitching softball against the older kids and I somehow had not allowed a hit at all in the six innings we had played. Hurley asked the scorekeeper how many hits the other team had and they responded, “None.”
“Jimmy’s got a no-hitter?” Hurley asked. “Well, then game’s over.”
And the next day, the local daily had a headline, “Hague hurls no-hit win.” In the copy, it said that it was a “rare no-hitter.” Yeah, very rare.
My association with Hurley went further during those summers. While the St. Paul’s courtyard was home for the local kids during the morning and early afternoon hours, the early evening hours were reserved for perhaps the best high school basketball league in the state.
Everyone in the area would flock to St. Paul’s to see the games there. Anyone who was worth a scrap in the basketball world was there. It was the first time I remember seeing legendary basketball people like fellow Hall of Famer Dick Vitale and the late and great Jim Valvano. All the great basketball players from Hudson County played there, like Mike O’Koren, Jim Spanarkel and Jackie Gilloon. Bill Willoughby, who went straight from Englewood High School to the NBA, also played there.
And at the time, Hurley, the league’s organizer, gave me the responsibility of either keeping score for those games or keeping the clock. I was 10 years old. He had tremendous faith in me and that faith back then was a huge inspiration, especially for an impressionable kid who had just lost his father.
So I had the summer league in the morning and afternoon, with a free lunch of olive loaf and apple juice (very appealing, no?) and the games at night. My summer activities were set.
When Hurley became the head coach at St. Anthony in 1973, it just happened that two of the team’s best players at the time, Danny and Pat Rochford, were the older brothers of my best friend, John. The team also featured another neighborhood legend in Bob Kilduff, now one of the most respected and honored members of the Jersey City Police Department. “Killy” was also one of my boyhood heroes, one of the older guys who didn’t mistreat me and treat me like I was a little kid. I always admired Kilduff so much and still do.
So I grew up with St. Anthony basketball, going to all the Friar games with the Rochford family. St. Anthony basketball, with Hurley, the Rochfords, Kilduff. I remember a toddler coming out at halftime of St. Anthony games and trying to hoist a basketball at the rim with the ball being bigger than him. That toddler was Bobby Hurley. We all know what he became.
I then moved on to become a sportswriter and got to cover hundreds of great moments with St. Anthony and the Hurleys.
That’s why Monday morning was so special, sitting in that ballroom and seeing Bob Hurley on that stage, getting his rightful place in basketball immortality.
Reached his pinnacle
It also came in the same city where Bobby reached his pinnacle as the Most Outstanding Player of the 1991 NCAA Tournament, leading his Duke Blue Devils to the national championship. Maybe it was only fitting that Duke won again this year.
“I was more nervous for this than I was watching him play in that final game in 1991,” the elder Hurley said. “Waiting in that hallway to come in here and walk up on that stage was the most nervous I’ve ever been.”
It also came on the same day that Danny Hurley was being named as the new head coach of Wagner College, a day where Bobby was going to join his younger brother as an assistant.
“I think the stars are all aligned right now,” Hurley said. “If I were a gambling man, it would be a good time to drop a wager, because everything has been going so well right now. With this and the news about Danny, it’s been an unusually emotional weekend.”
The honors aren’t over for Hurley. He was also announced as one of the six finalists for the Mannie Jackson Basketball’s Human Spirit Award, along with Samuel Dalembert of the 76ers, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim and former NBA star Kenny Smith. The award is given for humanitarian efforts.
So what will the Hall of Fame mean for Hurley?
“It won’t give me a raise, but I think the nuns will give me a lifetime contract now,” Hurley laughed.
For once in his life, Bob Hurley was wrong. He was indeed in his element, a slice of basketball immortality that will last forever. And for a brief little instant, as two Jersey City kids together in America’s heartland, I felt a part of it as well. The man whom I still refer to with reverence and respect as “Mr. Hurley” is a member of the basketball Hall of Fame. How wild is that?
Jim Hague can be reached at OGSMAR@aol.com.