Here\u2019s a detail about Al McGuire you likely don\u2019t know: Among his many habits, he liked to lie on the floor. Often, when he was in a hotel room, he would sleep through the night on the hard tile floor of a bathroom.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s another one that carries more weight in showing what made McGuire such an amazing person: When he would drive from his home in Brookfield to Marquette University, there was a place where the route called for him to turn left and head for downtown. Once a month or so, he would turn right instead, with no destination in mind, determined to spend a hunk of time wherever he ended up, just exploring and immersing himself in real life.<\/p>\n
That latter habit gave rise to one of the things McGuire would say to people: Take that right hand turn sometimes. Do things differently sometimes. Do the unexpected. \u00a0Experience life to the fullest.<\/p>\n
These were among anecdotes and insights into the legendary Marquette basketball coach offered Tuesday by one of the nation\u2019s best known sports broadcasters, Dick Enberg, during an \u201cOn the Issues with Mike Gousha\u201d program at Marquette Law School.<\/p>\n
McGuire coached the Marquette team from 1964 to 1977, ending his career with Marquette winning the NCAA championship. For almost 20 years after that, he was an analyst on national telecasts of basketball games, paired with Enberg as the play by play announcer. The two became close friends.<\/p>\n
After McGuire\u2019s death in 2001, Enberg wrote a one-man play about McGuire. It is returning to the stage in Milwaukee, with a run at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater\u2019s Stackner Cabaret from Jan. 20 to March 19. The revival of the play brought Enberg, who recently retired after a six-decade career that included broadcasting just about every major sports event, to Milwaukee and to Marquette, which he called \u201cmy adopted university.\u201d<\/p>\n
Enberg said McGuire was \u201cthe most incredible character in my 60 years (as a broadcaster) that I\u2019ve ever met.\u201d He added, \u201cThere\u2019s no one in second place. He was by far.\u201d<\/p>\n
McGuire, Enberg said, was incredibly complex. \u201cHe didn\u2019t mind being controversial,\u201d Enberg said. \u201cHe was distrustful, paranoid even sometimes . . . . He didn\u2019t want too many people to get in his electrical field.\u201d It took a while, but McGuire let Enberg inside his life.<\/p>\n
McGuire was \u201ca street genius that saw life so differently than all the rest of us,\u201d Enberg said. He said that McGuire would see things happening on the street and offer deeply insightful explanations of what was going on that Enberg had missed.<\/p>\n
Enberg said no one could coach a basketball game better than McGuire. He could work the players, the referees, and the crowd like no one else.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really do think about him every day,\u201d Enberg said.<\/p>\n
In the course of the hour-long program, Enberg also offered observations about his own career. Among them:<\/p>\n
Baseball is the best game for an announcer. Enberg, who was the long-time voice of the San Diego Padres, said that if you can announce baseball well, you can announce anything.<\/p>\n
The Wimbledon tennis tournament was his favorite sports event overall \u2013 and he saw just about every major event there was. He said he fell in love with Wimbledon, from the grass courts to having the best men and women tennis players in the world competing for two weeks to the drama of center court.<\/p>\n
His favorite sports figure? There are so many good answers, Enberg said. He said John Wooden, the legendary basketball coach at UCLA, was \u201cthe greatest man I ever met,\u201d except for Enberg\u2019s own father. Baseball great Ted Williams was a huge childhood hero for Enberg and he got to know Williams in later years. A chance to have breakfast with Williams and chat casually, \u201chow good is that?\u201d Enberg asked. And golfer Arnold Palmer, \u201cyou felt you were in with royalty every time you were around him.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for one of his broadcast trademarks \u2013 the use of the phrase, \u201cOh, my\u201d \u2013 Enberg gave examples of how many different ways it can be used, including at moments that are thrilling, dismaying, surprising, and tense. He said he used the phrase because it fit so many situations and because \u201cthe holies\u201d (as in holy cow, holy Toledo, and holy mackerel) were already taken by other announcers.<\/p>\n