Sports Poets Society

How many roads you've traveled How many dreams you've chased Across sand and sky and gravel Looking for one safe place -- Marc Cohn, "One Safe Place" Chissà quale sarà il prossimo "posto sicuro" di Tom Brady. Per lui una nuova vita 44 anni, Negli ultimi ventidue, trascorsi a dominare la NFL, il "suo" posto sicuro è stato quello più temuto da tutti: palla in mano sul gridiron, il campo su cui è stato il più forte quarterback della storia. Sette Superbowl vinti, mai nessuno come lui; cinque dei quali da MVP; vent'anni filati ai New England Patriots e, quando tutti o quasi lo davano finito, la rivincita più dolce: subito il titolo con i Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  Altro che nonnetto finito a svernare in Florida. E anche quest'anno, con la sua gemma sprecata in 40" dalla difesa contro i Los Angeles Rams, per poco non ci scappava il bis. Il ritiro da campione. Sarebbe stato un lieto fine troppo perfetto anche per lui, che non ha mai voluto una f...

https://www.nba.com/pistons/news/blaha_blog_080501.html by George Blaha May 1, 200812:08 PM EDT Thursday, May 1, 2008 Long before I went to work as the voice of the Pistons, I had heard of Will Robinson, the great basketball coach and even better man who spent almost 30 years as a most valued set of eyes for first Jack McCloskey and eventually for Joe Dumars . Will died the other day, as you’ve no doubt heard by now, and it leaves a tremendous hole in not only the Pistons’ organization but in the basketball community and, beyond that, in the world at large. I had heard of Will Robinson going all the way back to my college days. In my grad school days in the late ’60s, he really put some great teams on the floor at Detroit Pershing. That squad won his first state championship and had Spencer Haywood and Ralph Simpson and was arguably the gr eatest high school team in history, to this day . I’d like to see that Pershing team, with all that talent and coached by a guy with the razor-sha...

Former Pistons' star Isaiah Thomas (left) honors Will Robinson at a Pistons game. Mr. Robinson was the first black coach in Division I college basketball.  (Detroit Pistons via ap/file 2005) http://archive.boston.com/bostonglobe/obituaries/articles/2008/04/29/will_robinson_basketball_pioneer_as_coach_scout/ By Larry Lage Associated Press / April 29, 2008 AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - Will Robinson, the first black basketball coach at a Division I school and a Detroit Pistons scout who discovered Joe Dumars and Dennis Rodman, died yesterday at a Detroit hospital. He was 96. Mr. Robinson had been in a nursing home for about a year, said Matt Dobek, a Pistons' spokesman. Mr. Robinson broke a racial barrier in the 1970s when he coached Illinois State . He joined the Pistons as a scout in 1976, and the additions of Dumars and Rodman were keys to Detroit's 1989 and 1990 NBA championships . Those teams were coached by Chuck Daly, who took the job after Mr. Robinson declined an offer by fo...

NBA legends Bob Lanier, Will Robinson, Earl Lloyd and Dave Bing pose for a picture during half time of the game between the Detroit Pistons and the Orlando Magic in Game two of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals during the 2003 NBA Playoffs at The Palace of Auburn Hills on April 23, 2003 in Auburn Hills, Michigan. The Pistons won 89-77. https://vault.si.com/vault/2001/11/19/this-bird-dog-still-hunts-detroit-pistons-scout-will-robinson-90-thinks-hes-way-too-young-to-retire NOVEMBER 19, 2001 MARTY BURNS ORIGINAL LAYOUT At an age when many of his contemporaries are pushing up daisies , Will Robinson is still beating the bushes . " Indianapolis, Toledo, East Lansing ," the spry 90-year-old says with a chuckle, listing his next scouting itinerary for the Detroit Pistons. "Looks like it's going to be a light week." Hopscotching the country in search of college talent might leave another nonagenarian lost in space, but not Will Robinson. Every few days he packs his ...

WILLIAM J. ROBINSON CLASS 1937 INDUCTION 1981 SPORT(S) Football, Baseball, Basketball, Gymnastics Publication: CHARLESTON DAILY MAIL Published: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 Page: 1B Byline: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - Will Robinson, a West Virginia State alumnus and the first black basketball coach at a Division I school , died Monday. He was 96. Robinson was the Detroit Pistons scout who discovered Joe Dumars and Dennis Rodman. Born in Wadesboro, N.C., Robinson quarterbacked the Steubenville (Ohio) High football team and finished second in the state high school golf tournament despite not being allowed to play the course at the same time as whites. He won 15 letters in four sports at West Virginia State, where he graduated in 1937. Robinson was inducted into the Institute school's Sports Hall of Fame in 1981. Robinson died at a Detroit hospital, Pistons spokesman Matt Dobek said. Robinson had been sick for 15 months and in a nursing home for more than a year, Dobek added...

https://www.thedp.com/article/2013/12/qa-with-former-penn-head-basketball-coach-jack-mccloskey By Seamus Powers 12/02/13 8:44 pm With former Penn basketball coach Jack McCloskey at the helm, the Quakers went 87-53 in Ivy competition and won the school’s first Philadelphia Big 5 Championship in 1963 . McCloskey left Penn with an overall record of 146-105. Jack McCloskey coached Penn basketball during the dawn of the Big 5, from 1956 to 1966. In his 10 seasons coaching the Quakers, McCloskey went 146-105 overall and 87-53 in Ivy League play . McCloskey later coached the Portland Trail Blazers from 1972-74 and was on Jerry West’s Los Angeles Lakers coaching staff in the late 1970s. He is most well-known for his role as the general manager of the Detroit Pistons during the “Bad Boys” era, in which the team won two NBA titles. He has his own banner hanging in the Palace of Auburn Hills. The Daily Pennsylvanian : First off, can you talk about your undergraduate experience at Penn? Is there ...

Jack McCloskey (center) with Penn  standout  players  Jeff Neuman and Stan Pawlak. (Penn Athletics) https://ivyhoopsonline.com/2017/06/04/jack-mccloskey-former-penn-coach-and-player-dies-at-91/ June 4, 2017 - by Mike Tony Jack McCloskey, who led Penn to an Ivy League championship as a coach in 1966 and led the Detroit Pistons to NBA titles in 1989 and 1990 as a general manager, died Thursday at 91 in Savannah, Ga., per the New York Times , due to complications from Alzheimer’s disease. The son of a coal miner and a native of Mahanoy City, Pa., McCloskey lettered at Penn in 1943-44 and then served in the Navy at Okinawa during World War II. He became head coach at Penn in 1956 , posting a 146-105 overall record, including 87-53 against Ivy League competition. He led Penn to its first ever Ancient Eight title in 1966. The 1965-66 Quakers were denied a NCAA Tournament berth when then-athletic director Jerry Ford refused to comply with a new NCAA rule calling for student-at...

https://nypost.com/2009/05/10/bad-boys-leader-had-heart-of-gold/ By  Peter Vecsey  - May 10, 2009 6:19am SEVERAL weeks after Chuck Daly was diagnosed with stage-four pancreatic cancer on Feb. 9, Jack McCloskey, Don Casey, Bob Weinhauer and Bob Staak — whose coaching careers were knotted at the high school/college level in the Philadelphia/New Jersey area — arrived in Jupiter, Fla., to see their friend for what they knew would be the last time. Daly’s Hall of Fame fantasy-come-true journey began on the sidelines at Punxsutawney (Pa.) High School, where he spent eight seasons before Vic Bubas hired him at Duke. Bucky Waters, who played for McCloskey at Collingswood (N.J.) High School and already was a Blue Devil assistant, recommended Daly. When Waters became West Virginia’s head coach and Tom Carmody took over Rhode Island, Daly recommended Hubie Brown , who’d made a local name for himself at St. Mary’s (Elizabeth, N.J.) before advancing to William & Mary as an assistant. ...