John Dromo was the Louisville basketball coach The year before he had Wes Unseld and Butch Beard. He was an outstanding coach for them Then my freshman at North Texas State we were playing Louisville year, but both those guys graduated to the NBA and Dromo had Price, Grosso and Bacon and a few others I can't remember. North Texas lost its top player Winfield to the NBA. North Texas played in the Men Gym which holds 4.500 . It was the best home court advantage in the entire country. I always sit with all my buddies in the same seats but somehow I got to the game late and had to sit right behind the Louisville bench and sat one row from their coach John Dromo. Louisville was ranked 10th or 11th and think were 12-0 before they played NT. The home court dominated and North Texas upset Louisville 98-80 . I watched this little round coach Dromo go nuts screaming,kicking the bleaches and doing the " ma fa Coulee" to the crowd. An Italian gesture that none of the 4,500 fans saw or understood , But I did. North Texas beat and blew out the No 9 team in the country right out of Denton,Texas I loved watching Dromo try to get his team inspired to no avail . But I think he had an effect on me. I wanted to be like him someday . Maybe not in college but coaching basketball.
That summer I went back to NY and read Louisville Coach John Dromo had a massive heart attack and was being replaced. Crum was an asst at UCLA and replaced Dromo.
So now Louisville is ranked 9th coming to Denton under a new coach I;m telling everyone this team is Dromo's players and recruits. Crum hasn't earned his strips yet .
So now North Texas freshman team is playing a juco school team from Oklahoma before tonights big game. The louisville team walks into an empty gym watching the freshman play. I remember all the Cardinals players had Maroon turtle necks and blue blazers.
They all came in together and Crum was sitting all by himself under the bleachers. So I walked over and sat next to him I asked him how Coach Dromo was doing. He looked at me surprised and told me he was in rehab and doing better, I told Crum that last year he had an impact on me as I sat right behind him in the blowout upset. Crum told me the Missouri Valley conference basketball is one of the best .Last year his UCLA team won by 4 vs Drake in the final 4 I also remember him saying many of my players played in this gym last year you call " the Pit" He said it doesn't look to intimidating right now I said in about 90 minutes when people start pouring in you'll see . He laughed . Many times because of the crowd noise the players cannot hear the whistle and will play on. He was aware of the home court advantage and I thought tonight will be a close game. And I can't remember who won that game that night . I knew the year before we won 98-80 We were 14-0 my freshman year but think we were 12-2 my sophmore year. anyway it was nice sitting by ourselves for that half an hour,
So now 20 years later Crum is the guest speaker at the NY State Basketball clinic in Binghamton NY. After his speech I go up to him and remind him of our 1st meeting in Denton . I asked him about Coach Dromo and he tells me he passed away 2 years ago. I don't think he remembered me but pretended too . I was wrong about Denny Crum. I thought he took over a winning program but he became a hall of fame coach more successful then the guy he replaced. So Rest in Peace Coach Crum and thank you for spending some time with a freshman in college and later a HS coach
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