{"id":76304,"date":"2014-12-29T14:00:37","date_gmt":"2014-12-29T14:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sandbox.web.rcn.net\/rcntv\/?p=76304"},"modified":"2023-02-24T16:46:50","modified_gmt":"2023-02-24T16:46:50","slug":"behind-mic-coach-tracy-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/behind-mic-coach-tracy-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the Mic: Coach Tracy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Whitehall High School dedicated their court to Coach Dick Tracy this week. I was honored to emcee the event.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPleasant\u201d, \u201ccongenial\u201d, \u201csympathetic\u201d, \u201csociable\u201d, \u201ccomplaisant\u201d are all words I would NOT use to describe Dick Tracy. \u201cCranky\u201d, \u201cobstinate\u201d, \u201chard-nosed\u201d, and \u201cornery\u201d seem to come to mind more easily. Yet, he was absolutely loved by his players, respected by his peers and loved by me. Dick Tracy has always been an enigma. I went to visit him at Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Center two weeks ago and asked the receptionist to direct me to Dick Tracy\u2019s room. She said there was no Dick Tracy there. I knew there was some mistake. Maybe he was listed as Coach Tracy. No. But they had a Frances R. Tracy on the third floor. I worked with the man for forty years, thought I knew him better than anyone, and never knew his name was Frances. And yet, I was not surprised. He was always hard to figure out, but, one thing he did figure out was how to motivate people and how to coach basketball. Boy, could he do both!<\/p>\n<p>Coach Tracy was 205-51 in his nine years as a head coach at Whitehall, winning 80% of his games. He never came close to having a losing season. His worst record was 20-9 in 1979 when he came back to coach a program that was 6-17 the year before. His teams won five League championships, three district titles, and a PIAA state championship. In 1981, his team was 33-2 winning both the conference and district championships, losing in the PIAA state semifinal to Springfield-Delco. That loss ended Whitehall\u2019s 30-game winning streak.<\/p>\n<p>1981-82 was the magical year. Whitehall lost to Allen 46-44 in the first game of the year in a non-league contest. They went 18-0 in the conference, 3-0 in Districts, and 5-0 in the state playoffs, beating Shamokin, Freedom, Williamsport, Springfield-Delco, and finally New Castle at a sold-out Hershey Arena 42-38. New Castle had been averaging close to 75 points a game. Not against the Tracy \u201cmatch defense\u201d. The starters\u2019 names &#8211; Coval, Noack, Heydt, Bobyak, and Pizarro were etched for life in Lehigh Valley basketball history. And so was the name of their legendary coach \u2013 Dick Tracy.<\/p>\n<p>I have known Dick as a coach, a teacher, a professional colleague, and, most importantly, as a friend ever since I began my broadcasting career 44 years ago. What I most remember, however, about the man I spent so much time with the past 30 plus years is the iconic persona thrust upon him by so many people. Dick is a former marine and certainly knows the meaning of \u201csemper fi\u201d- \u201calways faithful.\u201d His former students, his former players, his former assistant coaches absolutely adored the man and I always had the sense they would do anything for him and knew him so well he did not have to solicit their help. They knew what he needed. If respect and friendship are the true measure of a man, Dick Tracy is immeasurable. Today they refer to these people as \u201cpeeps\u201d or the \u201cposse\u201d. Dick only hears the words \u201cCoach\u201d or \u201cMr. Tracy\u201d. These three words represent who this man was to so many people and the love and respect they have thrust upon him. Those he has touched have remained \u201calways faithful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It is very special for so many people, including myself, to walk into Coach Tracy Court at Whitehall High School!<\/p>\n<p><strong>ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS)<\/strong><br \/>\nHAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!<br \/>\nMERRY CHRISTMAS!!!<br \/>\nHAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/atvn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Garys-Picks1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-75825\" src=\"\/atvn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Garys-Picks1.jpg\" alt=\"Gary's Picks\" width=\"343\" height=\"177\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>(Last week \u2013 12-4)\u00a0 (171-82-1 overall \u2013 68%)<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0CAROLINA<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 PITTSBURGH<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 INDIANAPOLIS<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 DALLAS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whitehall High School dedicated their court to Coach Dick Tracy this week. I was honored to emcee the event. \u201cPleasant\u201d, \u201ccongenial\u201d, \u201csympathetic\u201d, \u201csociable\u201d, \u201ccomplaisant\u201d are all words I would NOT use to describe Dick Tracy. \u201cCranky\u201d, \u201cobstinate\u201d, \u201chard-nosed\u201d, and \u201cornery\u201d seem to come to mind more easily. Yet, he was absolutely loved by his players,&#8230;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"Yoast SEO Relevanssi index exclude","inline_featured_image":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-behind-the-mic","category-featured","category-sports"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Behind the Mic: Coach Tracy - ATVN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Behind the Mic: Coach Tracy - ATVN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Whitehall High School dedicated their court to Coach Dick Tracy this week. I was honored to emcee the event. \u201cPleasant\u201d, \u201ccongenial\u201d, \u201csympathetic\u201d, \u201csociable\u201d, \u201ccomplaisant\u201d are all words I would NOT use to describe Dick Tracy. \u201cCranky\u201d, \u201cobstinate\u201d, \u201chard-nosed\u201d, and \u201cornery\u201d seem to come to mind more easily. 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