Dick Enberg’s COACH at NPAC

Coming to the Niswonger Performing Arts Center on Sunday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. on November 6 is a one man play entitled “COACH: The Untold Story of College Basketball Legend Al McGuire.”  It is written by the legendary sports broadcaster, Dick Enberg.  I was honored to meet and discuss briefly this play with Enberg at a special premier last January at the New York Sportsman’s Club.

Enberg, now the voice of the San Diego Padres baseball team is slowing down his broadcasting appearances, but can still be heard covering tennis and golf matches for CBS.  As he told those of us gathering at the club that night, he was looking for something to take up his time after baseball season a few years back.  He has always loved the theatre and so he decided to write a play.

One of the most interesting characters he has ever known ands worked with over the years was college basketball legend and Hall-of-Fame coach Al McGuire.  He wanted the world to know the real man behind the coach and didn’t want people to forget the man he says, “I first despised, then learned to love!”  Thus, the theatrical one-man play “COACH: The Untold Story of College Basketball Legend Al McGuire.”

I attended this premier not knowing exactly what I was going to experience.  Quite honestly, I went because I wanted to meet Dick Enberg and get into the Sportsman’s Club in Manhattan.  I took my wife, thinking she would enjoy the experience if not the actual play itself.

Well, as you can see from the picture, I did get to meet Dick Enberg.  He was a gracious and unassuming gentleman with that immediately recognizable voice so many of us grew up listening to on TV.  Who could forget his “Oh My!” after a spectacular catch in an NFL broadcast football game?  I also remember him being the first one I ever heard use the analogy, “He was as cool as the other side of the pillow” when referring to a quarterback under pressure.

OK- enough about the author of the play.  This is really about Al McGuire, the colorful coach, turned broadcaster whose life inspired Enberg to write this play.  McGuire grew up in Brooklyn and learned he needed to be a tough guy to survive.  He did exactly that and eventually went on to play college basketball, had a NBA career, coached college basketball where he won a National Championship with Marquette in 1977, and then went on to team with Billy Packer and Dick Enberg to create some of the most intriguing basketball broadcasts ever.

Selected to play McGuire is TV mainstay Cotter Smith.  Smith has appeared on many TV shows, movies and Broadway shows over the years.  When you see him at the Niswonger, you will probably recognize him.  I know I did when I saw him.  I knew I had seen him but couldn’t say exactly where.  If you do a search of Cotter Smith, you will see his many credits.

In this play, he portrays Coach McGuire in first person and really captures the emotion of this man’s life through the years.  There will be video dispersed throughout the play of McGuire at various points in his life, coaching and broadcasting career.

It is a very entertaining, informative, and even emotional play that Enberg wrote and Cotter Smith performs exquisitely.  I think any sports enthusiast will really enjoy this play, but I must say that even my wife (not that wives can’t be sports enthusiasts!) enjoyed the play.  It is so masterfully performed by Smith and the material is so colorful that you can’t help but be drawn into this play.

Tickets are on sale now at the NPAC box office.  You can call 419-238-NPAC (6722) or go on-line atwww.npacvw.org.  And even though there is construction work going on around the building, the box office remains open 12-4 M-F.  Just park on the north side and walk to the front entrance into the lobby.

I think this is a NPAC event you won’t want to miss!

FINE’