I came across a memoir written by a woman whose father is a former college basketball and NBA coach.
Susan McKinney-de Ortega is the author of Fast Break South; (the book is only available in Kindle Edition from Amazon.com); her father is Jack McKinney.
When, in 1979, my father fell from my brother´s bicycle and suffered a massive head injury, all that “specialness” was put in jeopardy. And sure enough, Dad was fired from the Lakers one game before they one championship in 1980, and a few years later, he left the NBA. This sent me into a decade-long search for my own identity, apart from being the coach´s daughter, a quest which led me to Mexico, where I live now. Being the coach´s daughter, and riding the waves of my father´s teams victories and defeats make up the first section of my memoir, Fast Break South.
During the 1980’s I was addicted to basketball. I attended as many New York Knicks games as possible at Madison Square Garden (I even took a bus from Port Authority to the Meadowlands to watch the Nets…when they were good). I recall watching the Indiana Pacers come to the world’s most famous arena with guys like Clark Kellogg, Louis Orr, Billy Knight and Herb Williams. I always noticed Coach McKinney on the sidelines; maybe it was one of his cool looking sports jackets or maybe it was his leadership stance that made a lasting impression on this teenager sitting nearby. McKinney was also an assistant coach with the Portland Trailblazers in 1977 when they captured the NBA championship.
I recently caught up with Susan and asked her five questions. I must also mention that I reached out to Coach McKinney who is now residing in Florida with his wife. He was kind enough to write back and send me an autographed copy of his book, “Tales from Saint Joseph’s Hardwood: The Hawk Will Never Die“. Not to mention a personal, inspirational and motivating message on the inside cover.
Coach Finamore: What was it like growing up with a father who was a coach?
Mrs. McKinney – de Ortega: Basketball surely dominated our lives, not in a bad way. I actually felt luckier than other kids. I got to go to things like pep rallies, and games at the Palestra, which I consider a shrine; and travel to places like New York and Hawaii for holiday basketball tournaments. Not only that, my dad was handsome and tall and athletic-looking and got his name in the newspaper all the time. The other fathers wanted to talk sports with him. The nuns licked gold stars and pasted them onto my uniform blouse collar when St. Joe´s won games. How could I not grow up believing we were a little bit special? Then, to assure me I wasn´t fooling myself, my dad, mother, sister and I rode on the back of a convertible through the streets of Portland while fans threw roses and confetti on us in 1977 after the Portland Trailblazers won the NBA Championship. My dad was the assistant coach to his long-time friend Jack Ramsay.
Coach Finamore: Did you have a favorite player your father coached?
Mrs. McKinney de Ortega: My dad had a basketball camp in the Pocono Mountains every summer called Camp Canadensis. He had about 100 boys for the week. One of his counselors was a Philadelphia-area player named Ron Righter. He was friendly and joked easily with me and my sister and two younger brothers; he became a family favorite. Ron played at Duke University for two years, then transferred to St. Joe´s and played for my dad. So now we got to see our summer pal all the time. Sure enough, he always had a laugh and a joke for us McKinney kids. He even stayed with us in our Drexel Hill home when my parents went away for a weekend once. I remember sitting in the den with him watching the Three Stooges. It was like having an extra-tall big brother. Wish I still had one of my Camp Canadensis t-shirts.
Coach Finamore: With your father coaching in a few different cities, how was moving to a new neighborhood/starting a new school/making new friends? Any interesting story to pass pertaining to a certain move?
Mrs. McKinney de Ortega: The first time we moved was the hardest. I assumed I would always live in Philadelphia close to my grandparents and cousins, but then St. Joe´s fired my father in 1974; this after he´d taken the team to the NCAA tournament and been named Eastern Coach of the Year. Why did he get fored? It´s still a mystery after all these years. Some say the school´s athletic director Rev. Blee, thought my father was too liberal with the players. Alumni donations to the school dropped drastically the following year, and the McKinney’s found themselves in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a squat, orderly city of German descendants. Since I was a trying-to-be-hip kid, interested in Soul Train and Puerto Rican culture (after my father had coached several seasons on the island), the transition to a conservative town where kids went to cotillions was wrenching.
Coach Finamore: Did you play sports as a kid in high school or college? If so, how was your dad a part of your progression as an athlete? And does Coach McKinney ever have any words of encouragement for your kids regarding participation in athletics?
Mrs. McKinney de Ortega: I ran track my freshman year, and later jogged seriously as an adult. I ran a half marathon in Sea Isle City, New Jersey where my parents maintained a house to retire to after NBA seasons. I ran a 20-mile race from Madison to Stoughton, Wisconsin and did a story on the journey when I was a news reporter for WISC-TV in Madison.
I played girls basketball at Whitefish Bay High School my junior year. I was the only team member to not score a point in the entire season, while my freshman sister started. In other words, I didn´t give up, always gave a good effort, never failed, but was not a star in team sports. But I absorbed my dad´s creed. Drive, Determination and Desire. (Editor’s note, I will now adopt Coach McKinney’s slogan)
My sister Ann and I would go to Knights of Columbus breakfasts’ with my dad on Sunday morning’s and listen to him say these words (over plates of scrambled eggs) so often that we could recite his talk along with him. He preferred the scrappy player who gave 110% to the talented star who gave less, every single time. His favorite teams were made up of these types players. The 1977 Trailblazers and the 1974 Hawks of St. Joseph´s College.
My dad never gave us the idea we had to be athletes or stars to be accepted. He supported whatever we did. Me, as a writer. Me, as a vagabond traveler who wanted to marry a 21-year old Mexican who hadn´t finished high school. If that was my choice, then he was behind it. This, really, is what made him my hero.
My two girls have grown up in Mexico and have an idea that the guy who gives out presents on Christmas morning was once sort of well-known in the sports world. I´m not sure how much they understand about his career and impact as a coach. Their sport is dressage. They compete against men and women of all ages. Not exactly something in common with Jack. But it´s sports after all. When Carla, at age 12 has a conflict about whether to be a counselor at a horse camp where she trains for no pay, which is what her trainer expects of her; or go to a sports camp that she loves to play soccer, basketball and volleyball, where she has no responsibilities, she talks to him then dismisses me.
“I have to talk to Guy (their name for my dad),” she says. She calls and wakes him late at night because sports camp starts the next day. Jack fully wakes up and talks a good 20 minutes with her. She hangs up, resolved and happy with it. “What?” I ask. “Guy says I should do what I really want to do. I´m going to sports camp.” So Carla brushes her teeth and goes to bed with her shorts and sneakers laid out for the next day.
Coach Finamore: Why did you write the book?
Mrs. McKinney de Ortega: Writing is my God-given talent and I feel a responsibility to use it. Thus, I write; probably for the same reason as you coach. I started writing my memoir trying to define my history and my identity to myself. What happened to us as a family after Dad´s accident? (My father fell from a bicycle and suffered a head injury that left him in a 3-week coma during the year he was head coach of the LA Lakers.) First my memoir was about being the coach´s daughter but along the way I came to Mexico and met a guy who was too young and too poor for me. I began to write about that too.
For a few years my struggle was how to mesh the two stories. I met with my two writer pals, Beverly Donofrio (Riding in Cars with Boys) and Sandra Gulland (Mistress of the Sun, The Josephine Trilogy). For five years with their help we figured out a thread that connected the two stories. That thread being me trying to find my place in one macho culture after another.
In the end the memoir really is a story about my love for the two men in my life; my father and my husband. It gives me a bit of a pang to say that because it ignores my mother, who is in the memoir as well, just being her own fab self all through the chapters.
You can find out more about Susan by visiting her blog:
www.susanmckinney.blogspot.com
-Coach Finamore
Hoops135@hotmail.com
(Courtesy of 40Acres Sports)
