Al's Mentor

[warthog-driver]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1085704/2/index.htm

"The student-against-teacher situation tears your gut out," said Al last week. "I'd give anything not to play this game. But, really, I consider it a favor for me to do a favor for Frank. Maybe it's the first time ever I get to pay him back for all he's done. Loyalty—that's what he always taught us."

Al calls his relationship with Frank "distant close," but the careers of the two men have intertwined at so many points and in so many places along the way that in the minds of many basketball followers they must be either father-son, brother-brother or, at worst, distant cousins. They are unrelated.

They came together on the streets of the big city, at St. John's in 1947, Frank off a Greenwich Village block around the corner from Gene Tunney's house, Al from the beaches of Rockaway. It was Frank's first college coaching job and Al was a freshman player. When the youngest McGuire reached the varsity the following year, his brother Dick was already there, and the three McGuires combined to produce a strong team flavored by Dick's passing and Al's flair for lunacy. In the three years Al played for Frank, the Redmen went to three NITs, one NCAA and, contrary to belief, not one mental institution.

Frank McGuire's glory years were to come after he and Al parted ways. The year following Al's graduation, Frank coached St. John's to the NCAA finals, losing to Kansas in a game that Al listened to while on the road as a pro with the New York Knicks. Five years later Al was working in a sewer in Long Island City when the national finals came around again. This time Frank, then at North Carolina, defeated Kansas in triple overtime for the championship.

Within months Al was in North Carolina, too—at little Belmont Abbey College outside Charlotte where Frank had recommended him to the Benedictine monks. For the next few years, while Frank was rampaging through the ACC, Al withstood the perils of Belmont Abbey. "I thought he would leave me there forever to die in a monastery," Al said. But Frank bailed him out again, this time to Marquette, whose Jesuit fathers had offered him their coaching job.

So in 1964 Marquette got Al, the same year that South Carolina got Frank. Which is why it all came down to the flesh-and-blood confrontation last week in Columbia.

[Dawson Rental]

A swimsuit issue cover, too!

Their players knew. "The feeling is there in practice," said Chones. "We know how much this means to them. I think all of us are out to get this one for a McGuire. But which one?"

[Goose]

Great article. Always loved MU lovin in SI back in the day.

[Ellenson Guerrero]

In the bottom of the third, the Cubs radio broadcaster Pat Hughes was just recalling his days working with Al. I never knew Hughes did MU broadcasts. Talked glowingly of both Al and Majerus. Retold Al's wisdom on marrying an average looking woman.

[77ncaachamps]

In the bottom of the third, the Cubs radio broadcaster Pat Hughes was just recalling his days working with Al. I never knew Hughes did MU broadcasts. Talked glowingly of both Al and Majerus. Retold Al's wisdom on marrying an average looking woman.

http://wiki.muscoop.com/doku.php/men_s_basketball/pat_hughes

MUWiki knows all.

[77fan88warrior]

I didn't know Hughes did MU games but I was back in Chi. area by that time and there was no chance of picking up radio or tv signal back then. I have have hated the Cubs since the first day I walked into Comiskey Park but I have always had an appreciation for Hughe's great play-by-play announcing and personality. You have to be really talented to carry Ron Santo for all those years!

[warthog-driver]

Back during Al's time Marquette was often mentioned in SI, TSN, Street & Smith, and a now defunct pub Sport.

[Goose]

Basketball Weekly was big on the Warriors as well. Waited to get it every week because I loved the recruiting updates and great info on MU.

[Dawson Rental]

Basketball Weekly was big on the Warriors as well. Waited to get it every week because I loved the recruiting updates and great info on MU.

Yeah, I guess those days are gone because MU's academic standards are so low, and the lack of "traditional" players.