Beat writers: best coach you've ever worked with/interviewed?

Former Texas Tech Spike Dykes would take out of town writers to dinner or lunch and drive you in his car if you didn't have a rental. Sometimes he didn't get along with the local beat guys, but that happens more often than not. Familiarity breeds....

 

Tom Davis, formerly at Iowa, now at Drake.

Always gracious, takes the time to talk.

 

Hayden Fry.

Hard to get to these days, but one hell of a story teller.

 

One of the all-time great lines. That NFL Films piece about the Bucs back then was gold.

 

Dick Bennett was outstanding the two times I dealt with him. Current Princeton boss Joe Scott is good, too. Joe Glenn at Wyoming is colorful.

 

Phil Martelli at St. Joe's

was on campus doing a story on a kid and SID said Phil would give me five minutes in his office

an hour later, I was on my way

 

He was talkative. Nice enough. But, when you looked closely, didn't you see a little bullshit coming out of his mouth? I always got a "used-car salesman" sense with him.

 

Bill Raftery, as one might expect, was an absolute treasure in his coaching days at Seton Hall.
My all-time favorite, however, is Pete Carrill ... funny, self-effacing, great story-teller.
I covered Petey's worst season at Princeton in like '83 or '84 (13-13, I think) and the worse they played and funnier he became.

 

A few others worth mentioning:
Don Haskins.
Rick Majerus (Yes, I know, he was a prick to the local media, but he was great the few times I dealt with him).
Bob Toledo
Scott Skiles
Mike Holmgren

 

spnited, not surprisingly Raftery remains a class act. I bump into him quite often and he always has a minute.

I'd be interested to hear something about Majerus' prickishness to the locals when he was at Utah. Sounds like another classic case of two-facedness.

 

I'll second Phil Martelli. And I'll agree with Wingman....Spurrier in limited doses is outrageously funny. Once you realize that every other word out of his mouth is BS, Tuberville is fun to interview. John Chaney was an interesting interview.

 

Doc Rivers has lost 10 games in a row, and no one in the Boston press is calling for the ax -- which is surely due in large part to the fact that he's so good with the media.