Who was the Best and Worst Head Coach you have ever spoken with

I forgot about Schmidt. Didn't really think he was bad. Just kinda boring. Seems like Dixon has improved a bit since he took over, but I could be wrong.

 

Schmidt is indeed boring, but he also seems to loathe any sort of interesting question, especially if you decided to actually use that question in a press conference setting where he had to come up with some way to skirt the answer.

Or maybe he just doesn't like me.

 

That's awesome... Great story...

 

Calhoun's dad coaches at a local high school (hoops), I know where Troy gets it...fantastic coach and a great interview.

 

Best: Jim Grobe or Bobby Bowden. Take your pick. Nothing bad to say about either guy.
Worst: Cheryl Miller, who, it is easy to forget, once coached the USC women's basketball team.

 

Few coaches are as undeserving of their smugness as Bruce Arena. Although I bet he'd be a blast off the record.

 

Most women's basketball coaches are pretty good because most have to be...

But Pat Summit is amazing to deal with. I did a story on one of her former assistants and put in the call to her. This was being done during the summer because the coach in question was winning some award and Summit was on vacation. She called me from vacation, I missed the call and she left her cell number.

I talked to her for over an hour. Awesome woman.

 

One more reason to dislike Geno Auriemma.

 

No.

 

I can't think of a single baseball manager who I encountered who I would go as far as to even say they stood out as being decent to deal with. I might be forgetting one. I never talked to Torre 1 on 1, but he seemed like a good guy as press conferences. To be fair, I was very, very young at the time and didn't develop the relationships with the coaches I dealt with that I did when I covered colleges and the NFL at the end of my newspaper career.

NFL

Off the top of my head... I'm sure I'm forgetting quite a few...

Holmgren - Liked him. Always called me back.
Mariucci - The best to deal with. Tells great stories. Goes off the record a lot. Would call you back.
Payton - Complete dick.
Brad Childress - Complete asshole.
Shanahan - Prick.
Coughlin - Seems to have mellowed, but not very good.
Fisher - Great. Will call you back.
Parcells - Fills the notebook.
Belichick - Says very little.
Kubiak - Learned from Shanahan.
Gruden - Full of shit, but easy to deal with.
Lovie - Boring
Marvin Lewis - Surprisingly good off the record. Never told me anything interesting that I could use.
McCarthy - Friendly, but boring.
Jauron - Very nice guy.
Wade Phillips - Very pleasant.
Andy Reid - Would surprise every once in awhile with a great sarcastic comment. Although, based on my experience, the out of town media appears to like him more than the locals do, which happens a lot.
Turner - Very easy to deal with.
Billick - Good quote, but a dick.
Dennis Green - Batshit crazy, but fills the notebook.
Mike Tice - Loved the guy. Funny as shit. Tells you all kinds of things he shouldn't be talking about. He sat down at a take with a bunch of us at the combine when he was the HC in Minnesota and was hilarious. Every bit the meathead everyone says he is, but a very nice guy.
Dungy - Nice, but dull.
Edwards - Liked him. Could be very thoughtful when he wasn't putting on a show.

 

I'll second this. I was doing a story about a girl who was being recruited by every big program in the land, including, of course, Tennessee. About halfway thru the practice I'm attending who wanders in but Pat Summitt. I got that jolt of "Jesus Christ, I have GOT to find a way to talk to her, even if I can't ask her about Player X." I managed to come up with a question about how the game and recruiting had changed in the last few years (this was 1998 or so, just as women's hoops was exploding in popularity). I went up to her, introduced myself and she was fantastic. Absolute gold and I was a complete nobody from a completely irrelevant publication.

 

I second Northeastern hockey coach Greg Cronin as a good one. Ask a question, he'll colorfully fill up a notebook.

Hated dealing with Gary Williams. Ralph Willard, too.