When Nate Blackwell last spoke to John Chaney, the Hall of Fame coach was in good spirits.
Chaney, who passed away at the age of 89 on Friday, formed a unique bond with the 1987 Atlantic 10 Player of the Year. Blackwell, who played at South Philadelphia High School, was Chaney's first recruit at Temple.
Blackwell said he otherwise would not have gone to college. He is eternally grateful for his former head coach, who changed his life forever.
Across his time on North Broad Street, Blackwell scored 1,708 points, in addition to dishing out 533 assists. He averaged 19.8 points as a senior, winning the conference player of the year award and helping lead the Owls to a 32-4 record in 1986-87.
Blackwell would go on to be drafted by the San Antonio Spurs in the second round (27th overall) of the 1987 NBA draft. After a brief two seasons in the NBA, one with the Spurs (1987-88) and Golden State Warriors (1988-89), Blackwell went into coaching. He served as an assistant coach at Coppin State for four years, before returning to the bench as a part of Chaney’s staff in 1996.
Here are some excerpts from OwlScoop.com’s exclusive interview with Blackwell.
Blackwell on some of his favorite Chaney memories:
“Even more recently, when I got inducted in the Ring of Honor, Coach Chaney had spoken and just said some tremendous things about me, almost made me blush. He gloated on me for a while there. It was really a tremendous honor to hear him talk that way about me.”
“Coach was such a funny guy. I think the thing that gets lost in his legend because he’s been branded as such a tough guy is his humor. Coach was extremely funny. When you’re practicing at five in the morning, you need someone to make you laugh a little bit and that’s something that he did every single day. Every single day he made us laugh about something. He found ways to keep practice interesting through humor. Like I said, when he wasn’t cussing us out, he was making us laugh. It was a tale of two sides. He was on you really hard or he was making you laugh. That’s who he was, that’s what made us love him. He was like the father who could punish you, but at the same time, make you laugh.”
Blackwell on Chaney’s legacy:
“I’ll tell you what he doesn’t get enough credit for that he should get credit for, there’s a whole bunch of guys out here, poor inner-city kids, who are now able to supply and take care of their families because Coach Chaney took a chance on them. More important than the basketball aspect, and I’m not talking about the guys who made the NBA, I’m talking about the rest of the guys, who he fought to help get them educated, which allowed their kids to become educated and allow their kids to have a better chance at life. That’s what he should be remembered for, he should be remembered for the guy who educated a lot of young men and allowed them to be able to take care of their families.”
Blackwell on Chaney’s impact on him and his family:
“I was one of those guys, I was an inner-city poor kid. I had no chance of going to college if I don’t get a scholarship. He came in there and he trusted me and put his faith in me and I did the same for him. He kind of changed the world as far as what we knew at Temple, he brought life back.
Blackwell on seeing something special in Chaney early in his career:
“I think you do realize it, you realize it pretty early. I had one tremendous experience which made me realize this guy knew everything he was talking about. It was my sophomore year and I’m kind of a rebel type guy and I’m not always the kind of guy who takes being hollered at well or takes words well all the time. Him and I kind of went back and forth arguing a lot during my early days, we argued a lot.
"One day, we played Villanova and it was the only time I ever lost to Villanova. Five times I played against them, I only lost just one time. Dwayne McClain tips a ball in at the buzzer, so they beat us by one point, two points, whatever it was. Later on during that season, we’re on the same plane with Villanova. And I mean, it’s like maybe January, we had played early in the Big 5 and it’s January now. We’re on the same plane with them. When they get off the plane, we get off the plane and Coach grabs us and pulls all of us over to the side. He says something I’ll never forget. He says, ‘See that team right there?’ talking about the Villanova team. He says, ‘They’re gonna win a national championship,’ and they did, they ended up winning the national championship. Can you imagine how I felt at that time, when a guy says, here’s a team that we just lost to by two points, and at the buzzer and he’s telling me they’re going to be a national champion? And, I’m saying to myself, get out of here, coach’s dreaming now. But he could see something in those guys and I still to the day don’t know what it was he saw, but he saw something. And he made that announcement to us as a team and my teammates will tell you, it was almost like Nostradamus. He made an unbelievable prediction and it came true and it was an unbelievable moment for me because I began to think, well maybe this guy knows what he’s talking about.
"And from that point, what Coach said, I did. No more arguing.”
Front page photo by Chris Gardner, Associated Press
