{"id":77362,"date":"2015-09-15T19:54:13","date_gmt":"2015-09-15T19:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sandbox.web.rcn.net\/rcntv\/?p=77362"},"modified":"2023-04-12T21:40:21","modified_gmt":"2023-04-12T21:40:21","slug":"sportstalk-shop-coach-tracy-remembered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sportstalk-shop-coach-tracy-remembered\/","title":{"rendered":"The SportsTalk Shop:  Coach Tracy Remembered"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It was a tough week for many of us on the RCN sports staff, and for the many people whose lives were touched by our former colleague, and legendary head basketball coach, Francis Richard Tracy.<\/p>\n<p>For me personally, I had the good fortune of knowing Coach Tracy in many roles throughout my life\u2026<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>As a youngster, playing tag under the bleachers at Whitehall\u2019s Gym during basketball games (which, for some five-year olds, is more fun than watching a basketball game\u2014and a low scoring one at that).\u00a0 I later wondered if my hearing issues are a direct result of Coach\u2019s trademark kicking of the bleachers during games (see video below for a reminder).<\/li>\n<li>As a pre-teen, seeing this larger-than-life man, who curiously had the same name as one of my favorite comic strip characters, leading a parade of fire trucks through town following his team\u2019s state championship win in 1982.<\/li>\n<li>As a high school student\u2026he was an English teach and my journalism\/yearbook advisor.\u00a0 His first instructions upon hearing my name was that I could rob a bank using my real name, then legally switch my first and last name to avoid persecution (the way he delivered the line, I actually believed him for a few seconds).\u00a0 \u00a0As he noticed my intense passion for sports as a writer on his staff, he\u2014gradually\u2014warmed up to me, and provided invaluable instructions on my first ventures into the sports writing arena.\u00a0 He was a tough critic\u2026and an incredibly accurate<\/li>\n<li>As a senior, and after his departure from Whitehall \u2026 a man whose eyes widened while smiling exuberantly as he approached me at the Whitehall Library (where his beloved wife, Mary, worked), genuinely seeming interested in my progress and my college planning, followed by him giving me a laundry list of things to work on if I wanted to make a living working in sports.<\/li>\n<li>As a high school football radio announcer \u2026 Dick was the first one to greet me if we were doing the same game, and quickly went over all of his numerous notes with me, and made sure I knew all the latest news, rumors and a full rundown of items that I should be aware of for that game and for my broadcast.<\/li>\n<li>As a colleague at Twin County\/RCN \u2026 Coach always commanded an amazing, and unique, presence, with everyone he came in contact with.\u00a0 Among our staff, current and former coaches, athletic directors, players, fans\u2026everyone.\u00a0\u00a0 And heaven help the game manager if the game was running long and an important Yankees or Notre Dame football game was scheduled for that evening.<\/li>\n<li>As Dick\u2019s driver, set-up man and his foil.\u00a0 There\u2019s no two ways about it.\u00a0 When I had the opportunity to work with Coach on-air, he was the broadcast.\u00a0 I made sure to announce the particulars of the game, confirm we hit all the sponsors, liners and commercial breaks and every once in a while I\u2019d bring up a storyline that I thought Dick might not know about.\u00a0 He always responded to, and then augmented, whatever facts I mentioned.\u00a0 Some of the happiest moments of my life were preparing for the broadcasts with Coach, driving to the site (including an unbelievable story regarding a flat tire suffered en route), having a pre-game meal (no one got more free food than Coach) and all the discussions that went on before, in-between (oh, the facial expressions I would get for an athlete\u2019s mental error and during blow-out games!), and after, the broadcasts.\u00a0 The rides home were filled with reflections \u2026 on the game, the broadcast (\u201cNEVER take the game home with you!\u201d), and\u2026strangely enough, about nearly everything else you could possibly imagine.<\/li>\n<li>As a fly on the wall for his tribute show, featuring many of his former players and closest friends.\u00a0 During one of our many long conversations, I once asked him, if he could have one afternoon to relive ANYTHING he experienced during his life\u2026anything at all, what would you do?\u00a0 My mind raced through games during his championship basketball seasons, running the Wing-T during his football playing days, the various sports he announced, his trips to Yankee Stadium and South Bend\u2026what would he say?\u00a0 I still remember his response.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>He paused for a quick moment, then a smile flashed across his face\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know, Chris, that\u2019s an easy question.\u00a0 If, for one afternoon, I could sit down with some of my former players \u2026 and just talk.\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t have to be about basketball\u2026it doesn\u2019t have to be about anything, really.\u00a0 Just to sit down, and talk with some of those guys\u2026I don\u2019t think I\u2019d want anything more than that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>*********<br \/>\nFollowing Dick\u2019s passing last Friday, we had an opportunity to memorialize him, and to reflect on the many aspects of this colorful man\u2019s life.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a clip of our discussion of \u201cCoach\u201d on last week\u2019s \u201cSportsTalk\u201d show and a sample from our Liberty\/Becahi football broadcast last Saturday.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mSwg8em69lw\" width=\"529\" height=\"436\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>RIP\u2026Coach Tracy<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content 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For me personally, I had the good fortune of knowing Coach Tracy in many roles throughout my life\u2026 As a&#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":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":[3,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-sports","category-the-sportstalk-shop"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The SportsTalk Shop: Coach Tracy Remembered - 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=\"The SportsTalk Shop: Coach Tracy Remembered - ATVN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It was a tough week for many of us on the RCN sports staff, and for the many people whose lives were touched by our former colleague, and legendary head basketball coach, Francis Richard Tracy. 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