Bob Rager, always a pioneer, officially steps down
Leave it to Bob Rager to turn an interview about his retirement into a weaving tale that covered everything from his days booking numbers with his mother in the Munhall projects to producing a T-shirt with his signature saying, “Don’t believe your own bull (expletive)” to recently swapping his flip phone for a smart phone so hecan catch rides with Uber.
Loquacious and lively as ever, Rager officially stepped down as the Point Park basketball coach June 26 after 27 seasons and a 381-365 record. The school made the announcement July 19.
“I applied the Frank Sinatra theory,” Rager said of his retirement. “I did it my way.”
After missing all of last season with a knee condition that precluded him from enduring long bus rides, Rager, the all-time winningest college basketball coach in Pittsburgh history, said his once-proud Rager Roar had been muted.
That’s when he knew it was time to exit.
“In this business, you have to be the lion tamer,” said Rager, who contemplated retirement while sitting out last season, but decided to see if the knee would improve. “And once you lose that, you become Siegfried or Roy. Well, I didn’t want to be the dude that got bit. In this new era of coaching, they want you to be a role model. Well, I’m pretty far away from being a role model. I’m a coach. I got into this to win. I like to win — a lot. Winning makes me happy. All that other stuff? Not me. Sorry.”
Rager paused, before elaborating on a troublesome knee that has required three surgeries and is scheduled to be replaced.
“I just couldn’t take it anymore,” he said. “For the last year, I’ve been getting shots and getting it drained by Dr. [James] Bradley. It’s in bad shape. I knew I was done. My time is up. Gabe Bubon is running the program now. He’s a great coach; he did a great job last year. So, I know it’s in good hands.”
Bubon, a longtime Rager assistant who went 8-20 in an interim role last season, was officially named head coach July 21 at the NAIA school. He is the Pioneers’ third coach in 47 years, following Rager and Jerry Conboy.
“We are excited for this next phase of Pioneers men’s basketball,” athletic director Dan Swalga said.
From 1989-2016, Rager ran a fuel-injected program that moved up and down the court at breakneck speeds. His teams led the nation in scoring four times and twice averaged more than 92 points. Rager routinely benched players who passed on open shots in his “guiltfree” offense.
“We wanted to score 100 points a game,” said Rager, who spent 34 years at Point Park as an All-American player, assistant and coach. “And you weren’t required to play much defense.”
Known as the “secondchance coach” due to his penchant for welcoming in transfers, Rager led Point Park to three NAIA national tournament appearances, two trips to the Sweet 16 and a spot in the Final Four in 1996-97. His 2006-07 team went 29-2.
All the while, Rager never assumed he had job security, a byproduct of growing up poor in the Munhall projects. This led him to own businesses such as the Payne Hill Grille in Jefferson Hills and a carpet cleaning company. He also ran the South Park wave pool and ice rink, the Allegheny County Rib Festival and the golf course at North Park.
“The way I saw it, if somebody didn’t want me anymore, I didn’t have to kiss anybody’s [posterior],” said Rager, who made $15,000 as a rookie coach. “You have to understand, I took in some borderline kids over the years. I took a lot of chances with some of those characters. I’m lucky I survived it. I went to some rough places to recruit and to find these guys, places you wouldn’t want to go. But I wanted to win basketball games. So I was willing to take risks.” Was it worth it? “No doubt, because I could have gone down the bad road myself if it wasn’t for basketball,” he said. “That’s why I never judged anybody. I never had a doghouse. If I was mad at you on Monday, it was over on Tuesday. There were times when I had to discipline guys, but that didn’t mean I disliked them as people. I disliked what they did. I think it was important for them to know.”
Former player Gavin Prosser of Baldwin High, part of that 2006-07 team, said it was Rager’s laid-back approach that endeared him to his players.
“He asked us to play hard, win games and have fun,” Prosser said. “The rest would take care of itself.”
Despite his contagious personality, Rager said he never got close to his players. His singular focus was winning.
No more. No less. No apologies.
“It wasn’t my job to be the parent,” he said. “It wasn’t my job to get too deep with them.”
That said, Rager is learning that he meant more to his players than the wins and losses. The recent wave of calls, emails and texts congratulating him on his retirement have underscored this point.
“Wasn’t expecting any of it,” he said. “You never know what they think of you when you’re coaching them. And like I’ve said, I wasn’t trying to be a friend or a role model. So it’s been pretty amazing to hear from so many of them.”
In typical Rager fashion, he quickly added levity to the discussion.
“Now, I guess I have to get back to everybody who contacted me,” he said, laughing. “I got this new iPhone so I could take Uber. I don’t even know how to text yet. I’m bumping the numbers and calling people by accident. They say hello and I have to ask who they are.”
Always on the move, Rager is plotting his next step in life. His Payne Hill Grille is up for sale and he plans to start a pizza franchising business.
He spends his time traveling back and forth to his residences in Pittsburgh and HeritageHarbor, Fla., where his 6year-old grandson Colton lives with the oldest of Rager’s two daughters, Alexis, and her husband, Matt.
Asked if he’ll miss coaching after nearly three decades, Rager was quick with an answer.
“Basketball has given me opportunities that I never thought I’d have,” he said. “When I was 7 years old, I was writing numbers on onion paper while my mom was booking in Munhall. The reason we used the onion paper is because it would dissolve in water if the police would come. I’ve come a long way since then. I’ve rubbed elbows with five or six presidents at Point Park, my daughters went to school there for free and I got to meet a lot of great people.
“It’s been a great run, but it’s also over now. I don’t look back. It seems like I never was a coach now. You have to move forward or you’ll get stale. I’m moving on.”