David Pauley, Hall of Famer beyond University of Sciences | Mike Jensen
The University of Sciences coach has been inducted into a small-college Hall of Fame.
If University of Sciences men’s basketball coach David Pauley worked in Division I, he might have his own prime-time show. Within his profession, put him down as a cult legend.
Pauley could have started down the D-I road. He was offered the chance, by John Giannini, when Giannini left Rowan to take over at the University of Maine. Giannini explained Monday night how he had offered Pauley, then an assistant on Woodland Avenue, a job as a part-time Maine assistant. Pauley asked what it paid. Giannini told him.
“I spend more than that on cigars,’’ Pauley told him.
Pauley stayed on Woodland Avenue, soon took over for Hall of Famer Bobby Morgan as head coach, and now is a Hall of Famer himself, inducted Monday night by the Philadelphia Small College Basketball Coaches Association at its annual banquet.
Pauley was the first to say April Fools Day was perfect for his induction. He began his acceptance at J.D. McGillicuddy’s in Upper Darby paraphrasing Mark Twain, how on this day we’re reminded what we are the other 364 days.
The banquet honored players from various schools, and Arcadia’s Justin Scott as the organization’s coach of the year, after Scott coached Arcadia to its first NCAA Tournament appearance.
The centerpiece of the banquet was Pauley’s induction. Pauley, head man since 2000, noted the assistants who had moved on to Division I, the mentors in his life, starting with the late Ray Edelman and the late Jim Maloney. He noted some of the great players who had gone through the program, and the importance of having a boss such as Morgan. He pointed to Sciences women’s coach Jackie Hartzell and the astounding job she is doing with her program.
Pauley started a list: How he had taught 15,000 kids in gym class, had done 7,800 loads of laundry, “men and women’s team.”
“I’ve taught 18 sets of brothers,’’ Pauley said, and when you think about it, that might be a greater legacy than wins and losses, since families apparently decided what was good enough for the first son was good for another.
“It’s not a four-year deal. It’s a 40-year commitment,’’ Pauley said, as he always says, noting that his players might not get what he’s all about until they’ve hit 30 years old or so.
He jokes about not being able to pronounce, let alone pass, the science courses his players have to take.
“It’s a different place,’’ Pauley said, noting the 100 percent graduation rate, but also that three of his graduates were playing professionally overseas this season.
If you figure Pauley is just a funny guy — a fearless humorist, in the Twain tradition — you miss the rest of it, how this man is a first-rate historian of his sport. When you’re getting congratulated by John Wooden’s grandson for this honor, it tells you about the relationships you’ve built. On Pauley’s office shelf, a full library of hoops instruction, are three copies of Basketball Methods by Pete Newell. Pauley didn’t just read up. He went out to work at Newell’s legendary big-man camp.
For this occasion, a coaching pal had printed up hats. Giannini got there late coming from an event on Rowan’s campus, arriving just before Pauley’s speech, but Giannini made sure he grabbed a hat.
Staying put, Pauley never got rich, but he never ran out of cigars.