Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 9, 1994 TAG: 9402090049
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SPRINGFIELD, MASS. LENGTH: Medium
"I idolized my coaches," said the Louisville coach, who was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame on Tuesday along with two other coaches and two players.
"I thought they were the ones who should get most of the credit," Crum said. "They're the ones that teach the kids what to do and how to do it. I always looked up to them because of it."
Also entering the shrine are New York Nets coach Chuck Daly and Cesare Rubini, one of the founders of Italian basketball who led his Milan team to 15 Italian championships, five as a player and 10 as a coach.
Elected as players were Carol Blazejowski, the most prolific scorer in the history of women's basketball, and Harry "Buddy" Jeannette, a standout backcourt player in the 1930s and 1940s.
The new members will be inducted on May 9.
Blazejowski was nominated by the women's committee, Rubini was picked by the international committee and Jeannette by the veterans committee.
"It's the kind of thing you think of as Statistics in Scoreboard. B4 happening to someone else," Daly said.
"But let me tell you, it's a thrilling feeling," said the coach who won back-to-back NBA championships with the Detroit Pistons, four Ivy League titles at Penn and an Olympic gold medal with the Dream Team.
"I was talking about it with my daughter. The last time I was at the Hall of Fame was more than 20 years ago, and she was just a toddler."
Blazejowski, whose shooting focused the national spotlight on the women's game, said, "I feel like I'm in a dream."
No college player, man or woman, has scored more points in Madison Square Garden than her 52 against Queens College in 1976.
The 1978 Montclair State grad still holds the women's collegiate career scoring record, with an average 31.7 points a game, and the single season record with 38.6 points a game. The only college player to score more points was Pete Maravich.
Yet, she recalled that when she was a kid on the playgrounds of New Jersey, the Hall of Fame was not even a dream open to girls.
"It's no secret it was a struggle at times," said Blazejowski, now a director of consumer products for the NBA. "But this makes everything worthwhile."
At Louisville, Crum's Cardinals (18-2) are enjoying their best season since the 1980s, when they made four appearances in the Final Four and won the national championship in 1980 and 1986. The Cardinals reached the Final Four two other times under Crum in the 1970s.
During his 22 years at Louisville, Crum's teams have won more than 73 percent of their games.
"He was born to be a coach," said Hall of Famer John Wooden, Crum's coach at UCLA.
Jeanette, 76, now lives in Nashua, N.H., with his wife, Bonnie, whom he met in Warren, Pa., when he was the pro Rookie of the Year in 1938.
"I made $150 a month when I started the pros," said Jeannette, who played on five championship teams during his 12-year career in the old National Basketball League.
Jeannette later coached at Georgetown before returning to Baltimore as coach and general manager of the Bullets until 1967. In 1969-70, he came out of retirement to coach Pittsburgh in the American Basketball Association.
by CNB