From Purdue to Columbus with Jim Stone

Way back yonder, Ohio State had some growing pains–key seniors had graduated, so a heavy burden was put on sophomores and teams were gunning for OSU since it had reached the Final Four and won the Big Ten the previous year (1991). ’92 was my first year working with Ohio State–so I’m pretty green and in October, still getting the lay of the land.

In the old days, there weren’t planes for most trips–there were buses. Lots of bus trips. These are better than what women’s teams of the 70s/80s endured with coaches driving vans with players packed into the vans. In any event, we played at Indiana on Friday and won.

I didn’t mind these trips most of the time–time to do my grad school reading and then I’d be roommates with Yao Li-yang and we’d stay up ’til 3am watching John Wayne and Clint Eastwood film fests on TBS and in the morning, there’d be what Yao called ’30 Minute Nap’.

So we go to Purdue and even relatively new to coaching, there was a vibe–something was off that weekend. It happens sometimes. Who knows why…tiredness, maybe homework loads, nagging injuries–or overconfidence because Purdue wasn’t really a top program at that point. Well, top or not, when you’re in the Big Ten, you better show up every night. OSU didn’t, Purdue did, and that was that.

That night, we were joined at the gym by Linda, Jim’s big kahuna assistant–she’d been at a high school tournament and came from there. Afterwards, my responsibilities done, I was climbing on the bus when Jim said “Hold up.” Boss says that–you hold up. Everyone else got on–it was just me, Jim, and Linda in the dark, cold parking lot. Yao was on the bus. Jim stepped on the bus, got off a minute later. He looked at me, “You want to ride with us?” So I asked–“Not on the bus?” “Nah,” he answered, “Suck can be contagious.” Definitely not in a good mood.

Linda said she was tired of driving so I volunteered. I like driving, always have. Jim rode shotgun, Linda sat in the back. As we left the parking lot, Jim gave his one directive of the ride: “We need to find some ice cream.” Yeah, like I’m *ever* turning ice cream down.

We got the ice cream, got on the road, and shortly Linda was asleep in the back.

That’s where the story became memorable. We talked about quite a bit of stuff, going back to how he was taught to be a great basketball player–>his dad dropping him off at an inner-city YMCA and saying “See you in a few hours” and what college was like at Ball State back in the 70s and how he fell in love with volleyball. Good stuff…and then it got better.

A song came on the radio and Jim picked it up in about three notes–that was pretty good. The next song I was able to do that and he was amused to find out I’d been a radio DJ for a year as an undergrad. We then spent the next two hours going up and down the FM dial with rock stations punched into the quick-select buttons trying to be the first to name the song.

If it was the 80s–I Owned him. The late 70s I remember being a draw, but man, did he know his late 60s/early 70s rock…so that even when we weren’t changing stations, we had a long conversation about music–not just rock, but his enjoyment of Miles Davis or my preference for older Dixieland jazz.

Then we were back in Columbus. But from that point on, things were different–in a good way. I thought that trip brough me a better understanding of what being a head coach was like–and hilarious when Linda would wake up, check where we were, then go back to sleep. I think, in hindsight, that weekend was part of what made me want to become a coach.

Ultimately, it’s all well and good to mentor about technical details and esoteric sports knowledge, but there’s more to coaching. Coaching is about people. It’s about relationships….and my success over four decades worth of coaching now is based on that–building the best relationships possible. I owe that success to Jim and his willingness to take a chance and include someone like me (a total novice) on his staff.

I hope I have repaid him by paying his outlook forward in my time as a HC.