Personalities ...Twas just 22 years ago that we launched our Person to Person section and it was an immediate success. It became something of a Who's Who Who’s Who biographical dictionary of notable living people. [Am. Hist.: Hart, 922] See : Fame in coaching. In the early years, we'd send invitations to three or four potential subjects, at a time and arrange for telephone interviews as soon as they responded. It was all quite exhilarating. We never really knew how it would all come out. Our earliest surprise was John Wooden. We knew John as a fabulous coach, very serious, and deep. What we never suspected was a delicious wit. Here is the way he accepted our invitation to the dance on June 19, 1985. "I will be happy to participate in the interview. After all, it is rather flattering to be mentioned in the same breath as Don Shula Donald Francis Shula (born January 4, 1930 in Grand River, Ohio) is a former professional football coach for the National Football League. He is best known as coach of the Miami Dolphins, the team he led to two Super Bowl victories, and to the NFL's only undefeated Perfect Season , Al McGuire Al McGuire (born September 7 1928 in New York City - died January 26, 2001 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) coached the Marquette University men's basketball team from 1964 to 1977. , and Joe Garagiola Joseph Henry Garagiola, Sr. (born February 12, 1926 in St. Louis, Missouri) is an American former catcher in Major League Baseball who later became an announcer and television host, popular for his colorful personality. , your other designated guests. "I have to assume that you will expect Don Shula and me to furnish all the humor and levity lev·i·ty n. pl. lev·i·ties 1. Lightness of manner or speech, especially when inappropriate; frivolity. 2. Inconstancy; changeableness. 3. The state or quality of being light; buoyancy. in the interviews, since we all know that Al McGuire and Joe Garagiola are very serious people who have very little senses of humor." The interview with John was so stunning that we had to run it in two installments. The Garagiola and Shula interviews also turned out memorably, but the McGuire interview never happened. Everytime we called, he was off somewhere exotic--biking in New Zealand New Zealand (zē`lənd), island country (2005 est. pop. 4,035,000), 104,454 sq mi (270,534 sq km), in the S Pacific Ocean, over 1,000 mi (1,600 km) SE of Australia. The capital is Wellington; the largest city and leading port is Auckland. or shooting pool in Fiji. We finally had to substitute for him. We chose the coach at Duke, Mike Krzyzewski, who turned out to be a fabulous sixth man. Almost as good as our third man, Orson Welles. |
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