Al McGuire

Alfred James McGuire (September 7, 1928 – January 26, 2001) was an American college basketball coach and broadcaster, the head coach at Marquette University from 1964 to 1977. He won a national championship in his final season at Marquette, and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992. He was also well known as a longtime national television basketball broadcaster and for his colorful personality.

McGuire grew up in Rockaway Beach, Queens, New York. He played three years of basketball at St. John's Prep, then located in Brooklyn (graduated 1947), and went on to star at St. John's University (1947–1951), where he played for four years and captained the 1951 team that posted a 26–5 mark and finished third in the NIT.

After college, McGuire played in the NBA, with his hometown New York Knicks for three seasons, 1951–54. While with the Knicks, he once famously pleaded with his coach for playing time, with this guarantee: "I can stop Cousy." Inserted into the lineup, McGuire then proceeded to foul the Celtics star on his next six trips down the court.

On September 17, 1954, the Knicks traded McGuire and Connie Simmons to the Baltimore Bullets for Ray Felix and Chuck Grigsby. McGuire rode the bench for the Bullets, playing just 98 minutes in ten games and scoring 23 points; actually, the record books don't even credit McGuire for those numbers. In late November, the NBA revoked the franchise of the 3–11 (and bankrupt) Bullets, and decided to wipe Baltimore's games away as if they had never been played, along with all individual statistics. Several ex-Bullets (including All-Star Frank Selvy) hooked on with other NBA teams, but McGuire (who had been sidelined by a leg injury) did not, ending his playing career.

McGuire began his coaching career as an assistant at Dartmouth College (1955–1957) for head coach Doggie Julian. McGuire coached the freshman team at Dartmouth. One of his players was Dave Gavitt. McGuire then took his first head coaching job at Belmont Abbey College (1957–1964), in Belmont, North Carolina, where he recruited many high school players off the streets of New York. McGuire became head coach at Marquette University in Milwaukee in 1964 where he enjoyed success, including the NIT Championship in 1970 and a Final Four appearance in 1974 against the eventual champion NC State Wolfpack. He also served as athletic director for the program starting in 1973.

His final assistant coaches were Hank Raymonds (hired in 1961) and Rick Majerus (hired in 1971), who became a successful college head coach. He cited them as the final key to the team's success in 1977, stating, "We worked because we didn't associate socially and our rhythms were different. Hank was the encyclopedia, the administrator, the rule book with solid basketball knowledge. Rick was the cousins sandwich, the guy to bridge the age gap with the players, the recruiter with a flair for modern-day basketball. I was the Houdini, who did his disappearing act. I know that 85 percent of me is buffalo chips, and the other 15 percent is rare talent. I'd say in that 15 percent, in the mental toughness, the media, keeping an eye on the elephant, not the mice, and extending the life of the extinct kiwi bird, which is nocturnal."

McGuire led Marquette to its only NCAA basketball championship in 1977, his final season as a head coach. On December 17, 1976, McGuire stunned fans by announcing that he would retire as coach after the end of the current season, to become vice chairman of Medalist Industries, effective May 1, 1977; he had served on the board of directors of the sporting goods firm for six years. North Carolina coach and friend Dean Smith had stated that McGuire never intended to be a "lifer" as a coach. McGuire was an executive with the company for less than a year, resigning on March 20, 1978. For the entire tournament, Maguire would wear a black sport coat and gray pants that he believed was lucky. Marquette's team, led by Alfred "Butch" Lee, Maurice "Bo" Ellis and Jerome Whitehead would have a run that Maguire later referred to as "the magical weekend", which saw Whitehead receive a full-court pass and subsequently made a last-second shot to propel Marquette past UNC Charlotte in the national semifinals. Two days later, they defeated Dean Smith's North Carolina Tar Heels for the title. Ranked sixteenth, Marquette had seven losses going into the NCAA tournament, the most losses up to that time for a team that would win the NCAA Championship. The thrilling weekend in Atlanta's Omni Coliseum provided a happy sendoff. Maguire was succeeded by his assistant Hank Raymonds, who in turn was succeeded by Majerus in 1983; Marquette would not reach another Final Four until 2003.

While at Marquette, McGuire founded "Al's Run," a charity event for the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin. The race celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2017.