Basketball's Al McGuire Dies at 72

Friday, January 26th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

MILWAUKEE (AP) â€” Al McGuire, the Hall of Fame coach who took his love of basketball from the streets of New York to the NCAA championship and the broadcast booth, died Friday. He was 72.

McGuire died of a blood disorder, said his brother, Dick, in a telephone interview from Dix Hills, N.Y. He denied reports that McGuire had leukemia.

McGuire's family was with him when he died, according to a statement from his son, Al. The statement, released by Marquette University, did not disclose the cause of death.

``We've truly lost one of a kind, one of the most unique and incredible characters I've ever met,'' said CBS broadcaster Dick Enberg, a longtime friend and colleague.

NBC broadcaster Bob Costas, who worked with McGuire and occasionally substituted for him, described him as ``a genuine original who came out of a time when there were real characters in sports, not packaged images.''

ESPN-ABC broadcaster Dick Vitale said McGuire was a basketball and television genius whose incredible communication skills were unmatched.

``What really made him special was that he was everybody's friend,'' Vitale, a former coach, said. ``He was so down to earth despite being a legendary coach and broadcaster. He was blue collar in every way. Al McGuire was a Hall of Famer in the world of basketball and a Hall of Famer in life.''

McGuire retired as a college basketball broadcaster after 23 years following a Wisconsin-Indiana game March 5, 2000. He said at the time he had a form of anemia but was not more specific.

McGuire was one of college basketball's most successful coaches for 20 years, leading Marquette to 11 postseason appearances, capped with an NCAA title.

McGuire played at St. John's before a brief NBA career that ended in 1955. He then made his mark on the sport as a coach and broadcaster, earning him election to the Hall of Fame in 1992.

``He was fun to be with, not fun to play against,'' said former St. John's coach Lou Carnesecca, a schoolmate of McGuire's.

His head coaching career started at Belmont Abbey in 1958 and he moved on to Marquette in 1965. He stayed for 12 seasons, the last in 1977 when the Warriors beat North Carolina in the title game in Atlanta.

Rather than join the celebration as most coaches do, McGuire sat on the bench by himself, his face buried in his hands, crying. It turned out to be his last game as a coach, as he retired shortly after.

He joined NBC the next year, and his constant banter with fellow analyst Billy Packer became a staple for college basketball fans. ``McGuireisms'' like ``tap city,'' ``white-knuckler'' and ``aircraft carrier'' became part of the sport's vocabulary.

``At first they had me worried,'' he said of his start at NBC. ``They put my commentary on a corner of the screen and I thought I was talking for the deaf. I was all ready to use hand signals.''

One of his more famous lines came when Packer said North Carolina center Geoff Crompton, who weighed more than 300 pounds, had lost 15 pounds. Without hesitation McGuire responded: ``That's like the Queen Mary losing a deck chair.''

He joined CBS for the 1992 NCAA tournament and worked for them until his retirement last March. He entered a suburban Milwaukee hospital in July and was later transferred to a managed care facility.

``Our family has marveled over the past months at his inner strength and enthusiasm to live each day to its fullest,'' McGuire's son said. ``Even as his illness wreaked havoc on his body, he remained resolute in mind. He will be deeply missed.''

McGuire finished with a career coaching record of 405-143, including a 295-80 mark at Marquette. His overall winning percentage of .739 was 17th on the career list entering the 2000-01 season.

The Warriors won the NIT in 1970, the last time a school turned down an NCAA bid.

That year, McGuire was unhappy with what regional bracket Marquette would be sent to by the NCAA tournament committee. So he took his team, which had a 19-3 record and was ranked eighth in the country, to play in the NIT. The Warriors beat LSU and Pete Maravich in the semifinals and then knocked off local favorite St. John's in the championship game.

Minutes after the title game, McGuire was asked if his decision made some people in Milwaukee unhappy.

``Frankly, I don't care,'' he said. ``I felt we could win the NCAA, but I'm happy with any championship. I've never won one anywhere.''

The Warriors lost in the 1974 NCAA title game to North Carolina State.

McGuire also was a master recruiter.

He mined the playgrounds of the inner cities, unafraid of bad neighborhoods like Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant. That was how he got his first major player at Marquette, George Thompson.

He also brought in from New York players such as Dean ``The Dream'' Meminger and Butch Lee, the MVP of the 1977 championship and player of the year in 1978.

``My rule was I wouldn't recruit a kid if he had grass in front of his house,'' McGuire said in 1997. ``That's not my world. My world was a cracked sidewalk.''

Marquette announced in October that its new athletic facility would be named for McGuire. The school had already retired No. 77 in his honor.

At the time of his selection to the Hall of Fame McGuire said the honor was bestowed because of his years coaching at Marquette, but he really learned to coach at Belmont Abbey, a small school in North Carolina, from 1957-64.

``That's where I drove the bus, picked up the towels, wrapped the ankles. There's no one who's dropped on top of the mountain,'' McGuire said. ``You've got to work your way to the top.''

He played for the New York Knicks from 1951-54 and the Baltimore Bullets from 1954-55.

He was joined in the Hall of Fame by his brother Dick, who also played at St. John's and for the Knicks.

He remained active in his adopted community of Milwaukee where he served as chairman of Al's Run to benefit Children's Hospital of Wisconsin for 14 years.

Besides his sons Al and Rob, and his brother, McGuire is survived by his wife, Patricia; a daughter, Noreen, and six grandchildren.

Funeral services are pending. In lieu of flowers, the family suggested memorials to the Milwaukee Blood Center Research Foundation.