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Hurley Sr. talks grandkids first, basketball second
Bob Hurley Sr. is one of the all-time great high school basketball coaches, winner of over 1,000 games and 28 state titles while at St. Anthony High in Jersey City, New Jersey, and a member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
He’s also a father. And a grandfather. And when he watches his sons, head coaches Bobby and Dan, leading their respective programs at Arizona State and UConn, Bob Sr. tries to separate his paternal pride from his coaching instincts.
It’s not always easy. On Sunday night, shortly after watching his beloved Cowboys drop a key NFC game to Arizona, Hurley watched as Arizona State lost a Pac-12 bout at Cal by 24 points. The Sun Devils fell to 5-8 overall in what has become a nightmarish seventh season at the helm for Bobby.
“First of all, you’re a parent, so you’re supportive of what’s going on,” Bob said on Monday afternoon. “We watch every game that both play. I will offer advice when asked. I’m more apt to be asking about how my grandkids are doing, than whether they’re going to be changing defenses in a game, or changing the lineup. I think that’s more appropriate.”
When Dan Hurley went through similar struggles his first two years at UConn, his father was always there on the other end of the phone to lend advice — if Dan asked for it.
“Danny’s more inclined to call Fran Fraschilla or Seth Greenberg than he is to call me over a basketball thing,” Bob said. “Just because he’s gonna see them a lot, and I’m viewed as being a very good high school coach, but I didn’t coach at the college level. If they ask me questions, I’ll answer what I think. But, it’s good to be dad and to watch the fun part and suffer silently when things aren’t going well.”
And so, much of Bob’s life now revolves around his and wife Christine’s grandkids. But while St. Anthony’s, closed down in 2017, Bob has hardly given up on coaching and mentoring young basketball players.
For the past five years, he has rented the gym where St. Anthony’s used to play and opened it up, at no cost, for local kids to come in, learn fundamentals and play some games.
Some of those kids are now starting to get college scholarships.
“It’s not coaching at St. Anthony’s,” Bob said, “but it’s been a good replacement.”
JERSEY GUY
Few sports figures are as synonymous with New Jersey as Bob Hurley Sr. His musical tastes run the Garden State gamut, from Sinatra (thanks to his parents) to the Duprees (an early-60s doo-wop group from Jersey City), to Kool & the Gang (the “Celebration” R&B band also from Jersey City). Hurley, 74, likes Springsteen, but in a bit of an upset, prefers Bon Jovi.
He liked “The Sopranos,” but wasn’t a huge fan.
“It was a little dark for me,” Hurley said, “because growing up here, I knew a lot of guys that were involved in high-jacking or loan-sharking or the numbers, the gambling.”
Some of these were bad guys. As not only a coach but a probation officer, Hurley steered clear of such figures as best he could. The closest he’d get maybe playing 3-on-3 in the playground on a Saturday afternoon — with Bobby and/or Dan in a carriage or running around on the sidelines.
But to Hurley, mostly they were just guys from the neighborhood.
“These are the people where, if you played on a tavern softball team, the pitcher might be the guy who’s taking in numbers,” Hurley recalled. “And the guy who drives a truck might be playing in left field, and he might be involved with highjackers. And you also could have a lawyer playing first base. It was crazy.”
Indeed, the shady figures never mixed their “extracurricular activities” with everyday life in the neighborhood.
“Except they would disappear every once in a while,” Hurley said, with a laugh, “for one reason or another.”
The close-knit world of Jersey City is why Hurley never took the next step up to coaching at the collegiate level.
“I lived in one neighborhood in Jersey City for over 50 years,” Hurley pointed out. “People weren’t doing anything out of the ordinary. Nobody moved. Kids I grew up with were all still in the neighborhood. The opportunity to go coach in college didn’t make any sense.”
It made a lot more sense for Dan. After a standout high school career, where Bob said he “was probably the best individual offensive player we had in 45 years at St. Anthony’s” as a senior, a mercurial career at Seton Hall, where he ultimately scored over 1,000 points and met his wife, Andrea, and a brief stint as a Rutgers assistant, Dan took over a dying program at St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark.
In 10 years, he turned the program into a breeding ground for stars like J.R. Smith, Lance Thomas and Samardo Samuels.
A SORT OF HOMECOMING
St. Benedict’s sits just a few blocks from the Prudential Center, where — omicron variant willing — UConn will play Seton Hall on Saturday at noon. It would be the Huskies’ first game since a Dec. 21 win at Marquette, and while they will likely be down a player or two, all signs point to the game being played.
At least as of Monday. “It’s such a shame you can’t get any continuity right now,” Bob Sr. said. “(Dan) likes the team. Those core kids that have been there from the beginning, (Tyler) Polley and (Isaiah) Whaley, represent the university well, terrific kids. The big term in sports now is ‘culture.’ They have a way they want to do things, they want a certain kid. That’s why the portal, they didn’t go in.”
The Prudential Center didn’t exist when Dan played at Seton Hall, but he has already coached three games inside the building with UConn: two Never Forget Tribute Classic games (a loss to Florida State in 2019, a win over St. Bonaventure last month) and a win over Seton Hall last March to which a small amount of fans were allowed.
If Saturday’s game is played, it will likely be before a large — if masked and vaccinated — crowd, perhaps a sellout. It will likely stir up different emotions for Hurley than his prior three visits to “The Rock.” On the sidelines will be assistant coach Donald Copeland, a St. Anthony’s and Seton Hall product, and Grant Billmeier, another ex-Seton Hall player. Heck, the Pirates’ new No. 1 fan, Kyrie Irving, might even be in the house.
“You can’t say it’s a homecoming, because they want to chop your head off,” Bob said. “But, you’re coming back to a place where you have good memories.”
On UConn’s side will be five Jersey products: R.J. Cole, who helped lead St. Anthony’s to an undefeated season as a junior, Jalen Gaffney, Adama Sanogo, Samson Johnson and redshirt Corey Floyd Jr., whose dad played with Bobby and Dan for the AAU Roadrunners and who has remained close to Bob Sr. over the years.
“They’ve got a really good one,” Bob Sr. said of Floyd Jr. “He’s going to be an outstanding player. He’s tough, he’s focused, he’ll be the same person every day. When they get these kids from Jersey, they’re all solid kids who you’re not gonna worry about when they get on campus.”
Bob Hurley Sr. will be at Saturday’s game, as well. And whether UConn wins or loses, he’ll be available to lend an ear to his son when it’s over.
If Dan asks for it.