Bob Hurley

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Bob Hurley is the basketball coach at St. Anthony High School in Jersey City, New Jersey. Coach Hurley has amassed 23 state championships and more than 900 wins in 35 years as a coach, creating a national powerhouse despite substandard facilities and financial limitations.[1] Five of his teams have gone undefeated, including his 2007-08 team.

Hurley's undefeated 1989 team, which featured Jerry Walker, Hurley's son Bobby Hurley, Jr., Terry Dehere and Rodrick Rhodes, was ranked first in the nation by USA Today. Three of the players on that team — Bobby Hurley, Dehere and Rhodes — were first round draft choices in the NBA draft. That team won New Jersey's first Tournament of Champions and amassed 50 straight victories in a two-year span. It is generally considered one of the best teams in New Jersey history.[2]

Hurley's 2007-08 squad was also undefeated, finishing with 32 wins and no losses and ranked number one in the U.S. even though no starter is taller that 6-foot-6. The '08 team, with six seniors accepting Division I basketball scholarships, also won Hurley's 10th Tournament of Champions, winning its state tournament games by an average of more than 27 points per game. [3][4] The team also won St. Anthony's 25th state championship, more than any other school in U.S. history. [5] Hurley was the coach for 23 of those teams and an assistant coach on the other two. His teams are known for their speed, defensive intensity, and precise ball movement.

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[edit] A Basketball Miracle

Hurley's 2003-04 team, also undefeated and ranked second in the nation, is the subject of The Miracle of St. Anthony, a best-selling book by Adrian Wojnarowski. The book chronicles how the team marched to an unbeaten season, state title, and number 2 national ranking despite off-the-court crises and not having a single senior graduate to a Division I program. [6] St. Anthony, run by Felician nuns, has achieved this success with a student body of just 235, one of New Jersey's smallest.

Over the years, though, more than 100 graduates of the program have earned Division I basketball scholarships, including six from the 2007-08 team. Every senior to graduate from his program has won at least one state championship, with many winning several. Hurley has also produced a total of five first-round NBA draft picks: his son, Bobby, Dehere, Rhodes, David Rivers, and Roshown McLeod. Hurley has never been a teacher at or a full-time employee of St. Anthony. For most of his career, the coach was employed as a probation officer. Currently, his day job is director of the Jersey City recreation department.

Hurley gained national attention when his son Bobby graduated and became a four-year starter and All-American at Duke University. Bobby, along with Grant Hill and Christian Laettner, led Duke to two NCAA titles.

Over the years, Hurley has been offered a number of college coaching jobs. He has turned them all down. He is also one of just a few high school coaches to be nominated for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. [7]

[edit] Coaching Family

In the last five years, Hurley's teams have been challenged for supremacy in the state by St. Patrick's High School of Elizabeth and Saint Benedict's Preparatory School of Newark. St. Patrick's is coached by Kevin Boyle, who, like Hurley, is a graduate of Saint Peter's College in Jersey City. St. Benedict's is coached by Bob's younger son, Dan Hurley, who played for St. Anthony and then Seton Hall University. [8][9] All three schools are within 10 miles of each other and have been consistently ranked in the top 10 in the nation in the past few seasons. Indeed in 2008, when Bob's team was ranked #1 in the nation, Dan's St. Benedict's squad was ranked #2, and only a 3-point loss kept St. Benedict's from an undefeated season and a #1 ranking of its own. While St. Patrick and St. Anthony often meet in the state championship playoffs, St. Benedict's and St. Anthony never play each other because Bob's wife prefers that her son and husband not compete with one another.

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Hurleys Build a Dynasty by Grant Glickson, The New York Times, February 1, 2004. Accessed February 12, 2008.
  2. ^ St. Anthony Takes Title to End at 32-0. New York Times, march 20, 1989.
  3. ^ St. Anthony Captures T of C Crown. The Star Ledger, March 18, 2008.
  4. ^ For St. Anthony, a State Title Would Be the Perfect Ending by Zachary Braziller. The New York Times, February 27, 2008.
  5. ^ A Step Closer to Perfection by Kevin Armstrong. Sports Illustrated, March 6, 2008.
  6. ^ A Basketball Miracle by Dan Ackman. Forbes.com, April 1, 2005.
  7. ^ A Coach Who Likes Just Being in the Present by Dave Anderson. The New York Times, February 22, 2007.
  8. ^ The King and Prince of High School Sports by Dan Ackman. The Wall Street Journal, January 24, 2007.
  9. ^ Family first: Danny Hurley has built St. Benedict's into a power by Kevin Armstrong. Sports Illustrated, December 16, 2006.

[edit] External links