A Front-Row Seat with the Sportswriters Who Sat There
Sit down with host Todd Jones and other sportswriters who knew the greatest athletes and coaches, and experienced first-hand some of the biggest sports moments in the past 50 years. They’ll share stories behind the stories -- some they’ve only told to each other.
Jeff Jacobs: The Heart of the Matter
Jeff Jacobs is a writer who bleeds on the keyboard, and his passion for the craft has never wavered during 46 years in the business. You’ll hear it as Jeff recalls his first big career moment when he unexpectedly became part of the story at a minor league hockey fight. He puts us there in January1980 when the Philadelphia Flyers’ record 35-game undefeated streak ended, and he provides other hockey stories that depict the sport’s unique culture. Jeff brings the Hartford Whalers back to life with vivid anecdotes and a few bars of the defunct NHL team’s fight song. And he shares details and tales of dustups from many years of covering Geno Auriemma and Jim Calhoun, two Hall of Fame basketball coaches at the University of Connecticut. Hear about heart attacks, hate mail, and a memorable phone call from a particularly cranky senior citizen.
Jacobs has been named Connecticut Sportswriter of the Year 11 times (including 2022) by the National Sports Media Association. He has been honored four times by the Associated Press Sports Editors as one of the top-10 columnists in the country. Jeff spent nearly 34 years at the Hartford Courant before becoming sports columnist for the Hearst Connecticut Media Group in January 2018. He was the Hartford Courant’s sports columnist for 22 years after covering the Whalers and NHL as the paper’s beat reporter. Jeff has covered all four of the UConn men’s basketball national championships and 10 of the 11 NCAA titles won by Auriemma’s women’s program. He’s also covered multiple Olympics, World Series, Super Bowls, and Stanley Cup Finals.
Jacobs was born in Kirkwood, Mo., grew up in Newport, R.I., and is a 1977 graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism. He began his career as a hockey writer at The Times Herald in Port Huron, Michigan, and then covered the Flyers for The Courier Post (New Jersey) before joining the Hartford Courant in 1984.
Jeff likes to say that his hobby is surviving heart attacks. He had a double bypass surgery after his second one in 2019. His first heart attack, in 2005, required a quadruple bypass. Here’s to wishing Jeff great health and many more years of writing.
Follow Jeff on Twitter: @jeffjacobs123
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Jeff Jacobs edited transcript
PBA_Jeff Jacobs Show
Speakers: Todd Jones & Jeff Jacobs
Todd Jones (00:02):
Jeff Jacobs and I first met while covering the Olympics many years ago. I immediately felt a bond. We're kindred spirits, we're both a little crazy about the craft. I mean that with all respect for Jeff, he's a writer's writer. Readers have benefited from his passion and talent since the late 1970s.
Todd Jones (00:19):
Jeff is still writing for Hearst Connecticut Media after spending 34 years at the Hartford Courant, where he earned a reputation as one of the nation's top sports columnist. We're lucky that he's walked into our pub.
Todd Jones (00:33):
Jeff, have a seat. It's an open tab on Press Box Access. Welcome.
Jeff Jacobs (00:39):
Thanks so much for having me, Todd. I'm really excited about this. I saw the names before me and I'm a little intimidated.
Todd Jones (00:44):
Oh no, there's no intimidation. No.
Jeff Jacobs (00:47):
There's some big wigs on there.
Todd Jones (00:49):
No, we're all one crazy tribe here. And it is great to talk with you again, Jeff. It's been way too long. And I do feel a kindred spirit with you. I think I always admired the fact that the words mattered to you. You were somebody who would bleed on the keyboard. Is that right?
Jeff Jacobs (01:08):
Yeah, it's true. It's so different now.
Jeff Jacobs (01:19):
But like it was so different in that when I was in college and coming out, everything was about the written word, writing well, reporting well, and being involved in all sorts of sports.
Jeff Jacobs (01:34):
And now, it seems like you have to be involved in 28 different platforms. And it's best to be involved in one sport, so someone can call you up and say, “Hey, can you do video on volleyball? Can you write about volleyball?” It's so different.
Jeff Jacobs (01:48):
So, yeah. I grew up with the written word. And it's funny because I got to introduce my buddy, Jerry Sullivan, who I grew up down the street from in Newport, Rhode Island.
Todd Jones (02:00):
Right. Buffalo writer.
Jeff Jacobs (02:00):
Just down the street. Yeah. And he longtime sports columnist of the Buffalo News. And we just grew up together, playing sports, writing about sports.
Jeff Jacobs (02:13):
The big thing with us, we used to read the Sporting News. I know a lot of people talk about Sports Illustrated, and granted, we read it. But the sporting news had about, at the time, a half dozen or so columnists from around the country that came every week.
Todd Jones (02:26):
Right. Syndicated, yeah.
Jeff Jacobs (02:28):
Dick Young, Leonard Koppett, who was known as like the decimal points in his briefcase, And Larry King wrote for them for a while, believe it or not. And Art Spander, I think who he had on, he was one of them. And Joe Falls from Detroit.
Jeff Jacobs (02:46):
So, we would read those guys all the time. And it gave us a different types of columnists. But besides all the baseball and all that was in the sport, it was those columnists. They spurred us along.
Todd Jones (03:37):
So, you basically carried on the lineage of all those great writers of the sporting news that you read growing up. You became one of those guys who the words did matter.
Todd Jones (03:47):
And you covered hockey for many, many years as a hockey beat reporter, and then went on to be a general columnist. 45 years in the business, I believe. Almost half a century. And then including 34 at The Hartford Courant and where you were the sports columnist for 23 years.
Todd Jones (04:04):
And when you think about all those years and all those experiences, if somebody were to stop you on the street and says, “Jeff, what was it like to be a sports writer back in the day?” What comes to mind?
Jeff Jacobs (04:18):
Whew. The deadlines, the deadlines. I can only tell you. You haven't seen someone panic till you've seen me covering the Whalers games up in Montreal or Quebec. And that was in the old Adams Division.
Jeff Jacobs (04:41):
And you had the old acoustic couplers that you'd put the phone into from the RadioShack. And the sound quality from the phones crossing international borders wasn't particularly good. And then the Canadians would just score goal after goal after goal on the Whale. And it'd be like they'd play this … every time they scored.
Jeff Jacobs (05:06):
So, every time I tried to send, I'd get nothing but like (you've probably been there) that mishmash of just not letters, but just-
Todd Jones (05:16):
Symbols and noises and-
Jeff Jacobs (05:18):
Symbols, yeah. And that was panic. So, the deadlines-
Todd Jones (05:22):
Was there one particular night where you just felt like that's one that caused you extreme pain?
Jeff Jacobs (05:31):
Yeah. I don't know. They all run together because the Whalers always lost. Put it this way, it was always ... the NHL was always accused by Harry sitting in the Bruins for calling penalties early in the third period to lift the Canadians to get another victory.
Jeff Jacobs (05:46):
So, the worst point was early in the third period trying to send your second period running and Guy Lafleur would come out in the power play and nail one. And then the place went nuts and I couldn't send. And it'd be like you have to go back on the operator. She might be speaking French, and then back and forth. It was a mess. But-
Todd Jones (06:05):
Took a few years off your life, right?
Jeff Jacobs (06:08):
Yeah, it did. We'll get to that in a while. But yeah, that's one thing I think about.
Jeff Jacobs (06:13):
I just think about two parts of the brain when you were a sports writer. One was like the really organized part with the names (and with hockey, there were a lot of European names that you could just butcher on deadline) and the numbers, all those things.
Jeff Jacobs (06:34):
And on the other side, being creative. And I've watched just some masters. Mark Whicker comes to mind when I was working in the Philadelphia area. Could just write something in 45 minutes to an hour and just be spot free in terms of like errors and then just great writing.
Jeff Jacobs (06:56):
Mike Lupica later on when I used to watch him like at Yankees games right there in October, set the scene like few other people could, right on deadline and still have all the facts.
Jeff Jacobs (07:08):
So, the two parts of the brain trying to work at the same time is something that always fascinated me because I felt that I was very good at either of them, but only so-so at making them come together on deadline.
Jeff Jacobs (07:26):
It was a constant, constant battle to get everything right and be creative. I'd find myself too wooden sometimes, or I'd start writing creatively and I go like, "Oh God, I'm six graphs in and I haven't put a fact in it. Let's try getting the score in." That type of thing.
Jeff Jacobs (07:46):
So, there's a real art and science to sports writing especially column writing on Denver.
Todd Jones (07:53):
Well, I think you're being a little humble too because just recently you were named, for the 11th time, Connecticut Sports Writer of the Year. So, you certainly figured out how to make those two parts of your brain work in cohesion, even on some horrible deadlines. And you've been doing it for many, many years.
Todd Jones (08:11):
I basically think of you as a survivor. Survivor on deadlines, surviving the travel, the screaming matches with Jim Calhoun. Hell, you even survived two heart attacks, Jeff. Think about this.
Jeff Jacobs (08:25):
Let me tell you, the worst one … I laugh now because it's been 18 years, but it was right around my 50th birthday. And it actually started happening at the WNBA All-Star Game, which down at Mohegan Sun here in Connecticut. And I felt a lot of pain, but I went to the hospital and they let me out. And I was a little iffy on that. But two days later, I had a massive heart attack right in my kitchen.
Jeff Jacobs (08:56):
And boy, I'll tell you, the younger you are, they tell me the more it hurts, because you still have some like muscle mass and it feels like this is ... everybody's had a muscle cramp running. It feels like this gigantic muscle cramp at the chest.
Todd Jones (09:09):
You were 49 years old. This is 2005.
Jeff Jacobs (09:11):
Yeah. But it had been my family. My dad had one, a coronary in the late 40s. My grandfather died in his 50s in the 1940s. So, it's in the blood.
Jeff Jacobs (09:25):
But I'm laying there on the floor. I thought I was a goner. So, I'm going to my wife, she's standing there. I'm going, "Honey, I'm so sorry for everything I've ever done wrong and I love you so much," and everything like that. And it was like you think you're going down like in a plane crash. This is it.
Jeff Jacobs (09:44):
But they came and they gave me a whole bunch of nitroglycerin, which kind of opened me up a little bit. They rushed me in the hospital, then they put me in a helicopter to take me up to UMass and I ended up having like a quadruple bypass and everything like that. And I lived, so I always kid my wife ever since then, "When I go down for the count, honey, I got nothing left here to give you."
Todd Jones (10:08):
Didn't somebody write a letter to the Courant about your heart attack?
Jeff Jacobs (10:13):
Oh, well, one guy emailed me that his only regret was that I had survived and didn't return to the University of Missouri. Even by our standards, you got to admit that's a little harsh.
Todd Jones (10:28):
Yeah, talk about hate mail. I mean, the guy's wishing you death.
Todd Jones (10:32):
Well, thankfully, you survived that one in 2005. You survived another one in 2019 at age 64. And I'm so happy that you're with us and still writing. It's amazing to me that you're still grinding them out and still putting your heart into the matter.
I love being a storyteller, but I also love the controversy. I think the key to it is ... and my uncle told me this, and he lived a long time. Always remain curious.
Todd Jones (13:01):
Right. Curiosity, right?
Jeff Jacobs (13:02):
Curiosity is the key to life. Curiosity is the key to staying involved and staying young, I think.
Todd Jones (13:08):
Well, I'm curious about one thing here, Jeff. And that's in the late 1970s, you were 22 years old working for the Port Huron Times Herald in Michigan, and you're covering an international hockey league game.
Jeff Jacobs (13:24):
Oh, you're the man from digging this up. On everything-
Todd Jones (13:25):
The Port Huron Flags versus the Dayton Gems. Now, you talk about an rivalry, Port Huron versus Dayton. What happened that night?
Jeff Jacobs (13:39):
Alright. I grew up in New England, in Rhode Island. And Rhode Islanders, we're proud of being basketball and hockey fans at the same time. It seemed like so much of the country, it's like, "Oh, hockey this, or basketball that." It's like we were at once basketball and hockey fans. So, I'd watched the game for a long time, hockey.
Jeff Jacobs (14:05):
But I'm right out of college. And there was two fighters. Archie Henderson, who was like 6’, 6'7" Port Huron. Actually, there was a line on Port Huron, let's think about this. The one line had more than a thousand pair wounds. Three eyes. I could never find you another ...
Todd Jones (14:26):
The mean machine.
Jeff Jacobs (14:28):
They were crazy. But anyway, Archie was one of them. And there was a bench clearing brawl. when you're talking about your slap shot, think Slap Shot. Okay. And I'm a young Dickie Dunn. And so, they're fighting and it's going around and around, and they were tired. Trognitz was exhausting.
Todd Jones (14:48):
This is Willie Trognitz from Dayton.
Jeff Jacobs (14:49):
Willie Trognitz. Yeah. I'm sorry. Yeah, he was on Dayton and he was a fighter. And they had fought like to exhaustion, but Archie didn't have enough. So, he came at Trognitz and Trognitz had a stick, and just brought the stick right down on his crestas nose in his forehead. Cut him, broke his nose, gave him a concussion.
Todd Jones (15:11):
Like an axe. He took an axe to his head.
Jeff Jacobs (15:13):
Yeah, yeah. And oh, he didn't bring it all the way back. Like who was a ... oh, I can't think of a ... a Lizzie Board. It was more like boom down from there, but it was hard. And then he went down and there was blood.
Jeff Jacobs (15:31):
And so, I tried to cover it best I could. Went into the Dayton locker room, started to ask Willie a few questions, and his teammates kind of like took me by the arms and kind of like carried me or escorted me out of the locker room.
Todd Jones (15:48):
Wait a minute. They carried you out of the locker room?
Jeff Jacobs (15:50):
Yeah, yeah. I don't know if my feet were touching the ground or not. And the commissioner of the league banned him for life.
Todd Jones (16:01):
Who, Willie? Willie got banned for life?
Jeff Jacobs (16:04):
Guy's name was Bill. Yeah, Willie got banned for life. Of course, two weeks later, a week later, the World Hockey Association where anything went, they signed him to the Cincinnati Stingers. But for one week he was banned for life.
Jeff Jacobs (16:18):
And all of it, I come back, talk to my sports editor, and I think he thought that like, "Oh boy, here's this young kid that he saw a fight for the first time and was a little put off." But sure enough, it was real. And all of a sudden, like Sports Illustrated and Newsday and all these different people were calling me up and I'm going, "Wow." That's when I learned that things can spread in a hurry. And I mean, here I am one night-
Todd Jones (16:43):
You went viral back before viral was a word.
Jeff Jacobs (16:46):
Yeah. Right. Where wasn't even a word. And so, it's like, yeah, here I am, the only guy there in McMorran Place Arena. And all of a sudden, it's like all over the news nationally. So, that was a wake up call to me. Like, "Wow, you never know when the 15 minutes are going to come."
Todd Jones (17:07):
Some guys might have been a scared off by something like that. Why did you stick with it? What was it about that moment that said, "You know what, this is for me."
Jeff Jacobs (17:23):
That's a great question.
Jeff Jacobs (17:35):
I loved the excitement of it, and I always love the excitement of it if I know what I'm talking about. There are some things, especially when you become a columnist, as you well know, you're out there covering the Olympics and there's some events that you don't know anything about, let's be honest. And you do your best homework going into it, but still, it's not.
Jeff Jacobs (18:02):
And so, if something like that happens, it's like, “Ooh, boy.” You hate that. You come down with the volume up to 10 on something you may not be an expert on to play it louder than a three or four. But as long as I knew what I was talking about, I always enjoyed the excitement.
Jeff Jacobs (18:21):
I like the debate. And then goes into an argument. What’s funny about Newport, Rhode Island, when I tell them from there, people think of like mansions and like all these rich people, and certainly there, but there's a couple hundred rich people in 30,000 townies in ladies and gentlemen, one of the 30,000 townies and it's old Navy town.
Jeff Jacobs (18:47):
And lot of lovable Irish Americans who are not afraid to go down to Thames Street and have a good time. So, I kind of grew up in that environment of like having a good time and getting to a good argument. So, I always enjoyed that.
Jeff Jacobs (19:05):
Having said that, though, I always admired and I watched ... and I can't speak for other ones. I admire them and I distrust this aspect. They seemed to be, it didn't seem to bother them that much. I'm talking about the columnists that might be getting into a big-time argument and sort of all that. And they seemed almost immune from the criticism. Maybe they were buffalo and maybe they weren't.
Jeff Jacobs (19:36):
But I always seemed to take it more ... I don't want to use it personally, but I think I'm oversensitive to criticism a lot of times, even though I've had it a million times and I'm used to it. And I don't carry it for years or anything like that. But in the moment, you can sting me.
Jeff Jacobs (19:58):
Some people are hard as a shell, man, but it goes through about three layers of skin on me before I start toughening up and stop it from hurting. But you loved the debate. You loved the excitement of it. You also loved hockey, right?
Jeff Jacobs (20:57):
Yeah. I'll tell you, hockey at the time, was a way of getting into bigger newspapers because the sport was expanding. Remember it was six NHL cities, and then where you are in Columbus, you now have a team, and we don't have one in Connecticut. But it was expanding. And I saw, I said, "I feel this is on an automatic that I could get to a major league team."
Jeff Jacobs (21:24):
And I loved all four sports, but I just saw hockey as an automatic. So, it was at a time where it was a little unusual nationally, and maybe some cases it still is. But that's why I chose that one. That was just a professional choice. I knew it would work. That was how much-
Todd Jones (21:42):
And it did work because two years later, you were covering the Philadelphia Flyers, right?
Jeff Jacobs (21:47):
Right, right. And first year in, they went on a 35-game unbeaten streak. ’79, ’80, they ended up losing on a very controversial call to the Islanders. It was Islanders first year of that [crosstalk 00:22:01].
Todd Jones (22:01):
The Stanley Cup finals game six, right?
Jeff Jacobs (22:03):
Yeah, yeah. Game six. You know what's really funny about that, Todd was, I was so engrossed in that, that the 1980 Olympic. And this thing-
Todd Jones (22:15):
Miracle on Ice.
Jeff Jacobs (22:16):
… didn't have as big an impact on me as it would later, or as it did on America at the time. I'm going like, "The Flyers would wipe the deck with those guys." All together missing the cultural significance of it all. Thank you very much.
Todd Jones (22:36):
You were all in on the team you were covering.
Jeff Jacobs (22:40):
I was all in on that 35-game unbeaten streak, which stands to this day, by the way, 25 out of 10.
Todd Jones (22:45):
It's incredible. Think about that. 35 in a row you don't lose.
Jeff Jacobs (22:49):
I got a story on the night it ended.
Todd Jones (22:52):
Alright, let's hear it.
Jeff Jacobs (22:52):
It ended in Bloomington, Minnesota of all places. The Minnesota North Stars before it went downtown, the stadium and the arena were out there in Bloomington, near the airport. And it was cold. And I still was using a typewriter at the end row, with the fax and things, stuff.
Jeff Jacobs (23:11):
So, it was a relatively short walk from the arena to the hotel. It was a big parking lot, but it was relatively short walk. But it was also like zero degrees. And true to my ways, I was sweating on deadline.
Jeff Jacobs (23:29):
And as I walked carrying the typewriter … boy, I haven't told this story in a long time. As I walked out across the big parking lot to the hotel, I got into the hotel and I discovered that my hand had frozen to the handle. Like in the Christmas story where the kid's tongue sticks to the pole, my hand was stuck to the typewriter again. And I was absolutely panicked. And I'm talking about two, three minutes, and I'm going, “Where do I go? To the hospital, or do I-“
Todd Jones (24:07):
Wait a minute, you're lugging around, the typewriter stuck to your hand?
Jeff Jacobs (24:11):
In my hand. And it wasn't giving up. So, finally, I walk up to the guy at the desk, and he goes, "Oh, no problem." He walks me over to the hall — oh, excuse me, the wall heater and puts me down next to it. And sure enough, it just gave away. And I go, "Oh man, I'm so embarrassed." He goes, "Don't be, you'd be surprised how many people hands get stuck at things in the ice." So, I didn't feel as smoothen.
Todd Jones (24:41):
That must have been — was that at Marriot, a lot of sports riders were staying there.
Jeff Jacobs (24:44):
Yes, it was in the Bloomington Marriott.
Todd Jones (24:49):
So, a lot of sports writers had experienced this.
Jeff Jacobs (24:52):
Yes. So, but like, yeah, that's how the 35-game unbeaten streak ended with my hand stuck on the type writer.
Todd Jones (24:59):
That's one of the craziest things I've heard. Well, hockey had those crazy moments, those experiences, the passion, the characters. You covered so many years.
Todd Jones (25:17):
But in hockey in general, what was it about the sport that was so much fun to cover back in those days?
Jeff Jacobs (25:26):
Well, it was their money lagged way behind. I remember looking at some of the salaries. They didn't make them public in those times, but some of them I'd hear, and guys making $140,000 going 40 goals and stuff. Marcel Dionne, some of the kings, and some of the rangers made some money, 3, 400,000. But everybody was woefully underpaid.
Jeff Jacobs (25:51):
But I think that also led to a certain amount of humility. That and the Canadian spirit. Especially the western guys, very humble, used to getting up at early in the morning and milking cows in the frozen weather.
Jeff Jacobs (26:05):
And so, there's a lot to admire about those guys. They were rough and tumble, a lot of them, but there was also, a real humility about them and a kindred spirit. And I think that's changed some over the years-
Todd Jones (26:19):
Right. The money has grown, and yeah.
Jeff Jacobs (26:20):
… I've seen a lot. The money's gotten bigger. They're not immune to acting like a lot of the other sports. But part of that was, yeah … and also, I mean, you probably speak to this in Columbus in a way as far as like the team and stuff. It's not like New York and Boston where there are a million people that covered it.
Jeff Jacobs (26:44):
So, I was traveling alone a lot of times. And so, things I'd never write or say, I saw. And things I'd have to make a decision on what I'd write and say.
Jeff Jacobs (26:53):
Think about this, Ray Ferraro, now, he's national television announcer, he was out in Canada. Now, he’s down here in the States and everything. He was a quote machine.
Jeff Jacobs (27:07):
And guys would complain to me to interview them more because I quoted Ray too much. Think about that. They run away from reporters nowadays. Now, I had guys like arguing for me to quote them more in the paper, that is something you would never see and maybe never even saw at that time in the larger cities.
Jeff Jacobs (27:27):
I mean, I was on a commercial flight one day and defenseman, Doug Houda was all of a sudden throwing $20 bills at me, I guess from his per diem. And it was a commercial flight, and the money's coming over and he's going, "How much do I have to pay you for you to write one nice thing about me?"
Jeff Jacobs (27:49):
And Frank Pietrangelo, who was the goalie at the time, was sitting right behind me. He goes, "Pick the money up, Jeff. Take it, take it, keep it." And I look over the lady next to me and I go, "I don't know if you know who we are." And she goes, "Oh, I know."
Jeff Jacobs (28:06):
We were flying out of Hartford to like out on West Coast trip. So, and that's how close it was though, you know what I mean? You just see people at bars and things like that. And it was just a different time.
Todd Jones (28:22):
Well, it was also different in Hartford, right? So, the Whalers are there for 23 years, and they came over from the WHL originally as the New England Whalers.
Jeff Jacobs (28:31):
WHA.
Todd Jones (28:31):
And then they become the Hartford Whalers. You started covering them as a beat rider in 1984 and did it for 11 more years.
Jeff Jacobs (28:38):
Right, right.
Todd Jones (28:38):
The relationship between Hartford and the city was special, right?
Jeff Jacobs (28:47):
Yeah. I always say this. They say, "Why didn't it work?" Well, I said, "Well, Hartford itself is not necessarily a major league city. It's not." Connecticut's a major league state as you find out like how big UConn Nation is and everything like that.
Jeff Jacobs (29:04):
But people in certain suburbs of Hartford, they bought season tickets better than Canadians did. Avon, Farmington, Glastonbury. The people were so invested in it, and it was before UConn really hit big in the '80s. So, I mean, they won one playoff round, they had a parade.
Todd Jones (29:24):
Really?
Jeff Jacobs (29:25):
You don't find ... yeah. Now, I like to say I was in the Adams Division, Buffalo, Boston, Montreal, and Quebec, so I knew all those towns. I used to have an Adams Division wallet, American money on one thing divided by Canadian money on the other side. But the Montreal Canadians, they were, who had been — that's like the New York Yankee stuff.
Jeff Jacobs (29:46):
Those guys like Larry Robinson and Bob Gainey, they were always amazed, like you had to win the Stanley Cup in Montreal at that time just to break even. And they had a parade for winning one round, like absolutely. And it was great.
Todd Jones (30:02):
Well, it was great until I think 1991, they made one of the most infamous trades in hockey history when general manager, Eddie Johnson decided to trade the franchise's best player ever, Ron Francis and Ulf Samuelsson to Pittsburgh. You were around that. That just must have shook everybody in town.
Jeff Jacobs (30:23):
Yeah, it turned out to ... when you talk about classic bad trades in the sport, that was it. I mean, the Penguins won two Stanley Cups. Ron Francis went to Hall of Fame, and I think he was like the fourth or fifth leading scorer when he retired, but he was just a rock as a person.
Jeff Jacobs (30:44):
I always say this, people ask me, who are the nicest people you covered in Connecticut. You always have to have a male and a female athlete, because we are very big on women's sports. Ron Francis and Rebecca Lobo are the two nicest people you ever want to meet.
Jeff Jacobs (31:02):
But yeah, it crushed the franchise. It never quite recovered. And there was just a series of mishaps there. Chris Pronger turned out to be a Hall of Famer. He got traded, but before he did, he was a top round pick. Like seven of them got arrested for a gigantic bar fight in Buffalo.
Todd Jones (32:06):
You were around a lot of hockey fights, Jeff.
Jeff Jacobs (32:07):
Oh yeah. That I did.
Todd Jones (32:09):
Weren't you once out a fight — you saw a hockey fight at Chuck's Steakhouse at a mall?
Jeff Jacobs (32:15):
Oh yeah. Well, unfortunately, it was Ace Bailey who died in 9/11.
Todd Jones (32:20):
Oh yeah, the great Boston Bruins.
Jeff Jacobs (32:21):
Ace Bailey was a Bruins player. Yeah, Boston Bruins. And he then worked as like a head scout for Los Angeles, but he still lived in Boston. So, he'd come down to Hartford a lot. He'd watch the games in Boston and in Hartford, you could knock out a lot of teams by doing that. So, he stopped at Chuck's Steakhouse. I knew him a little bit.
Jeff Jacobs (32:39):
And one night, they got each other by the necks, these two guys and they're yelling at him, yelling at him. Finally, I looked at the guy, a fan I'd seen around, big Whalers fan. I go like, "Don't you know that's Ace Bailey?" And the guy goes, "Oh, hey, let me buy you a bear." They went from like right at each other's neck, ready to go a Pire brawl. And next thing you saw this got his arm around him like wanting to buy them a drink.
Jeff Jacobs (33:08):
Yeah. As the New York Rangers fans like to remind the Whalers, they used to come up and them and the Bruins, when they didn't sell out, they'd buy up the upper ring up there, make for like a sellout. But they chant things. And the Rangers fans used to chant like, “You play in a shopping mall.” Because anybody's been to Hartford, they used to be like it was attached to a shopping mall.
Jeff Jacobs (33:30):
And then all of a sudden they, "You play in a shopping mall." And then if anybody knows even the Rangers, all of a sudden the minute they go like, "Potvin sucks." Like that was [crosstalk 00:33:40] when they-
Todd Jones (33:40):
That's always a great come back, right?
Jeff Jacobs (33:42):
That's right. They're chanting, "You play in a shopping mall all," of a sudden went to like they magically knew to chant, "Potvin sucks." They'll do that now, 30 or more.
Todd Jones (33:51):
Well, you see Ace Bailey fighting a fan in a steakhouse in the mall. So, I mean, that kind of sums up with the way the hockey is built on passion. And now, they went from fighting to hugging.
Todd Jones (34:04):
But I think the relationship with the city and the passion for the town, it really hit home when all of a sudden the ownership group led by Peter Karmanos, decided they're going to leave Hartford. And by this time, you're a columnist and not on the beat, but you're putting your opinion out there and you're really having to fight for the city, right? What was that like as a young columnist trying to take on an issue like that?
Jeff Jacobs (34:34):
Yeah, it is really interesting. I found myself, because you could make an argument that the Winnipegs, well, they've recovered, Quebec hasn't gotten on ... the thing that was so tough about Hartford was not the size, it was that were squeezed by Boston and New York. You know what I mean?
Jeff Jacobs (34:54):
So, you have people that are UConn fans and they might be Bruin's fans, they might be Rangers’ fans, depending on what time the state. They're either Red Sox or Yankee fans. That's always crazy with us. Patriots or Giants’ fans. So, we were squeezed by lack of living space and that always hurt.
Jeff Jacobs (35:15):
But at the same time, I felt obliged and anything rightfully so to stick up for the city. And then at the end, the governor who later spent a couple stints in jail, John Rowland, and who fought like crazy to bring the Patriots here unsuccessfully a couple years later, he wasn't a big hockey fan, unlike Lowell Weicker.
Jeff Jacobs (35:40):
He of Watergate hearings, the famous Lowell Weicker, and later became governor who once call ...
Jeff Jacobs (35:45):
Listen, I'm one of the few guys that ever got called across the street into the state capitol to come in. The governor calls me and he goes, "Jeff, sit down. The Whalers are not leaving on my watch. Now, get out of here." The governor of the state. He was like the previous governor. So, like you don't often get called in to the governor's office. He was a huge hockey fan. His son was a goalie. And that was-
Todd Jones (36:09):
But it turns out they did leave. Karmanos moved a team to Carolina, they’re now, the Carolina Hurricanes. And they left April 13th, 1997, that last game. What was that like to cover?
Jeff Jacobs (36:23):
Yeah, people were crying, sighing. But they had reacquired Kevin Dineen who played in Columbus. He was a heart and soul guy in the '80s. He went and played in the Flyers, he came back and he scored the last goal and he spoke to the crowd. So, it was like John Wayne and the Alamo, you know what I mean? And he was going down with everybody. It was so sad. I mean, that's the only thing I could think about, how sad it was.
Jeff Jacobs (36:53):
They played Tampa Bay, which wasn't particularly ... being fitting, they would've played the Bruins or the Canadians or something. But still, it was just sad. And then, that was it. And people go, "Oh, well, we recovered minor league. This and that." Town never really recovered. Was replaced by UConn as a state entity, but the town was never the same.
Todd Jones (00:05):
Well, the Whalers still have a booster club that's still alive and there's still the song, the Brass Bonanza, the Whalers team song, the fight song — what's the story with that?
Jeff Jacobs (00:19):
Todd, it's more famous than the team now. People just talk about it. They buy the vintage jerseys. And it was a song that was originally used as a filler between those ... you know the albums they used to have in the old days of like seasoned highlights? And they'd have like, yeah, it's hit a home run, and they had some music filler, and that was the song.
Jeff Jacobs (00:42):
And they liked it and so they decided that maybe they'll use some introductory music at the games and after they scored goals.
Jeff Jacobs (00:54):
So, it was always uniquely Hartford. Some people made fun of it. Brian Burke came in, thought it was minor league. But anyway, even after they left, it was being played at 2004 Red Sox when they won the World Series. I hear it everywhere.
Jeff Jacobs (01:10):
And so. The same day in my life, this was an earth-shattering day. I got an iPhone, I got on Facebook, and I got Twitter all on the same day. My daughter said, "Your head's going to explode." Well, anyway, two weeks I'd been searching for the guy who wrote this song. He disappeared into Europe.
Jeff Jacobs (01:35):
And I got on Facebook and found him in Belgium. He's since passed, but he was like an 88-year-old guy named Jacques Ysaye and he went by the name Jack Say with Brass Bonanza. So, I found him, people were looking for him for like 30 years.
Jeff Jacobs (01:56):
He was in Belgium, he didn't speak English. He spoke French/he spoke a little English. And he was like a grandson of a famous classical musician. I'm talking like top 200 all-time back from like 19th century. But like two weeks and then like everybody's going, "I told you this social media stuff is going to work."
Jeff Jacobs (02:20):
I didn't have an iPhone, I had a little flip phone. Flip phone, no iPhone, no Twitter, no Facebook. Two weeks, I find Jacques Ysaye. So, it's like I'm famous for that, believe it or not. Like I don't know if I should be proud of it, but I found him. He was 88-years-old and living-
Todd Jones (02:41):
Well, it shows your diligence, right? Hey, can you give us a little Brass Bonanza?
Jeff Jacobs (02:46):
Alright.
[Humming to Brass Bonanza]
Todd Jones (02:56):
That's wonderful.
Todd Jones (37:19):
Well, like you mentioned, Hartford it is squeezed by Boston and New York. Boston's like a hundred miles away. New York's like 120, I believe. But as a columnist, that also opened up your world to other topics, right?
Todd Jones (37:32):
So, you went from being a hockey beat writer to now you've got a bigger canvas to paint on. And not only that, but with Boston and New York, during your tenure at The Hartford Courant, especially, you have the Yankees with Derek Jeter winning five World Series.
Todd Jones (37:49):
You have the Red Sox breaking the curse, winning four World Series. You have the Patriots with Belichick and Brady winning six Super Bowls. I mean, you had so ... you were covering royalty, Jeff.
Jeff Jacobs (38:01):
Oh, yeah. And the weirdest thing, Todd, was this, is that when you're in a regional thing, you're just not as big as some of those other writers. You had Bob Ryan, Dan Shaughnessy, and you had [inaudible 00:38:15] in Olton, the New Yorkers and all that.
Jeff Jacobs (38:18):
And I always felt, and I always said this, I could write something so good or so bad or so spastic and nobody would say boo, but misplace a comma about UConn and my whole world would blow up.
Jeff Jacobs (38:34):
So, it was really weird. Like I had to learn to like ... you had all these talk radios at these gigantic metropolis of New York and Boston and you had where I was at. So, I always call it keeping your hands on the volume. And sometimes I did a better job than others.
Jeff Jacobs (39:00):
It was okay to let it loose in New York if you thought that ... because who's going to scream louder than the New York Post? Or who's going to scream louder than Boston Sports Radio? So, there was nothing that I was going to say or do that would be so audacious that was going to like shake my world.
Jeff Jacobs (39:19):
But on the other hand, you have to come back the next night and write about the UConn Women or something like that. And it's like, "You better be careful, Buster. You better be careful your world's going to explode."
Todd Jones (39:29):
That's the difference between regional and hyper-local.
Jeff Jacobs (39:32):
Yeah. My views didn't change. I was really honest to my views, but you had to be careful on the volume.
Todd Jones (39:38):
Right. When you think about all those great championship moments for Boston and New York that you were covering as a regional columnist, is there one in particular that sticks out?
Jeff Jacobs (39:58):
Well, certainly the '04 curse of the Red Sox was truly unbelievable.
Todd Jones (40:08):
When they broke the curse, won the World Series, beat the Cardinals.
Jeff Jacobs (40:11):
Yeah, it shook people in Connecticut too, the same as the ... a lot of the 2004 was about the fans. So, the fans in Connecticut were as invested as the fans in Massachusetts or New Hampshire. So, a lot of that was a lot of people, "I can die happy now," and all those things.
Jeff Jacobs (41:19):
But when the Red Sox and the Yankees went against each other, the Connecticut was split. So, the biggest idiot I was to the fans was not writing about their team when they played for it all. And they played a lot against each other and it got really heated.
Jeff Jacobs (41:40):
So, you could call them bad or lousy, but as long as you wrote about them, be like, "Jacobs, what are you writing about the Red Sox for when Wade Boggs is gone." So, like that's where I learned ignoring people is like the biggest sin you can commit against them, not writing horrible things about them.
Jeff Jacobs (41:58):
So, yeah, that was interesting to me. We'd call it the Mason-Nixon line and things like that. To got Jim Mason, Trot Nixon and things like that. And so, I could go right through the towns where the line was, you could build the wall.
Jeff Jacobs (42:13):
Although, I will say, there were certain Yankee fans of Italian heritage that was passed down through the family through being DiMaggio fans and Yogi Berra fans. That was the same as [crosstalk 00:42:25].
Todd Jones (42:24):
Well, how did you make that decision?
Jeff Jacobs (42:28):
I really tried to pick the best story. You know how you root for the best story, like that's real true? So, I was doubly rooting for the best story, for the best story itself and God hope let me pick the right town to write about, so they’d look out for me.
Todd Jones (43:17):
Well, you mentioned about the regional aspect of writing about the Red Sox, the Patriots, the Yankees, the whole Boston, New York thing as a columnist in Connecticut, but then there's the hyper-local.
Todd Jones (43:27):
And during your time in Connecticut, nothing became bigger than Connecticut basketball. University of Connecticut men and women. Jim Calhoun built the men's program. Geno Auriemma, obviously, built the women's program.
Todd Jones (43:43):
Let's start with the women. Geno's in his 38th season, incredible. 11 national titles, 22 Final Fours, 14 in a row. What has it been like to see that come to life all these years?
Jeff Jacobs (44:02):
I started, I covered all their ... they won 11 national champions, I covered 10 of them. The one I didn't cover was the very first one because they won it in 1995 and I was still doing the Whalers. So, it took them about a decade to really get going.
Jeff Jacobs (44:17):
And when they first hit, it was in '94, '95, the New York media, especially New York Times, Sports Illustrated, they really hopped on board. They were the right team at the right time and the right coach to really, really help that sport expand.
Jeff Jacobs (44:39):
And I looked at them sort of as in a fascinating way. They became a phenomena.
Jeff Jacobs (44:58):
And so, he won first. And he's just a remarkable person.
Todd Jones (45:06):
Geno?
Jeff Jacobs (45:06):
Geno, yeah. He can tell stories. You sit at the bar with him, you can listen. He's very generous. You cross him and it can go bad. I only had one truly ugly scenario with him, was that he staged the basket for Nykesha Sales to become the all-time scorer at UConn. She had blown out her Achilles.
Todd Jones (45:33):
Right. She got hurt. Yeah, she gets hurt. She's like one point shy off the record. And then they engineered something with the opposing coach.
Jeff Jacobs (45:39):
Yeah, she came out on crutches after the opening tip down in Villanova. I wasn't there. And I was not there because it was out there. It was not a powerful game. But I wrote that night and I wrote, “Talk about hitting 10 on the volume. Her name was Nykesha Sales.” I mentioned Soupy Sales and like Scott and her thing. Because I hate staged stuff like that.
Jeff Jacobs (45:39):
But as I told him, he saw it as a bouquet of roses. I saw it as a chia pet. And the fans, a lot of them were older fans or are older fans, they went crazy. When I'm talking about crazy, I'm talking about crazy. It's the hottest thing I've ever gotten into. More people wrote letters to the editor off that than during the Watergate investigations in the '70s. They had a complete special section of the letters.
Todd Jones (46:45):
Really? Wait a minute. The Courant runs a special section basically trashing you?
Jeff Jacobs (46:51):
Yeah, but you know what, the managing editor ... oh, there were a lot of people at the paper that didn't like me. Because a lot of people saw them as they're girls. Not now so much, but back then. It was a real phenomena. But the managing editor cut me a $1,000 check on it just to make sure that I wasn't feeling too bad about it. So, appreciative of that.
Jeff Jacobs (47:11):
There were people in the paper that were sniping me and the letter, the editor, they were just so entertaining because they came from kids and older people. And so, it was like a special section. And an elder lady found my phone call and she called up and goes, "I'm going to kick your ass." She was like 82 years old. It was tremendous. Although I might have to say that if she found me.
Todd Jones (47:39):
So, my understanding is that after the season, this led to a four-hour debate between you and Geno, is that correct? Four hours?
Jeff Jacobs (47:48):
Yes. We met for four hours in his office. And the thing, he never came off his point. I found myself like giving the volume speech and eroding. And I didn't want to go too far because I really believed it.
Jeff Jacobs (48:02):
But I had to go to the bathroom twice while we were there. He never moved. I was always impressed. Guy was in for four hours, just never moved from his seat. But he was like just airtight on that. He was right on that one.
Jeff Jacobs (48:18):
And I'm not sure to this day that he's ever ... we get along fine, great. But I'm not sure he is ever forgiven me, that part of it. But really, in Connecticut, that's the thing I'm most famous for, the Nykesha Sales incident, letters to the editor.
Todd Jones (48:33):
Do you think about it differently now, when you look back on it?
Jeff Jacobs (48:37):
Might've turned the volume down from a 10 to a 7. I read it though. I go like, "Boy, was I a young columnist and pugnacious.
Todd Jones (48:49):
Well, you mentioned Geno was the right guy at the right time with that team. Obviously, they had so many great players over the years, they still do. 26 All-Americans, Breanna Stewart, Maya Moore, you can go on and on. Amazing talent.
Todd Jones (49:03):
But it really all gets back to Geno. Why was he the right guy then? You mentioned that you could sit in a bar and talk. He was selling the game, right?
Jeff Jacobs (49:13):
Yeah. His mom who recently passed, was a very powerful personality in his life of force. She was like from Italy. She hid out from the Nazis in Italy during World War II. I loved it. One time in 2000 at Philadelphia, she was throwing holy water at the girls when they came out. So, she was great.
Jeff Jacobs (49:38):
But so, he's really able to connect with women and men. He's a guy's guy, and yet he can connect so well with women. And his ability to motivate and to connect with people is as good as I've ever seen. And he's an offensive coach. I like about that about him. He loves to create, you know what I mean? And he loves to do things. So, I really like that about him.
Jeff Jacobs (50:10):
But yeah, as he gets older now, he's sort of like just an icon now. And the early Geno was really just a dude. Calhoun was way bigger than Geno when they came in through the '80s and stuff like that. And Calhoun wasn't that nice to him. And people always ask me, "Oh, whose side do you take?" I say, "Well, there's the famous Jim and the Jim that came in. And the famous Geno and the Geno that came in."
Jeff Jacobs (50:35):
The only one I feel sorry for was a Geno that came in because he had to fight through some stuff that Calhoun wasn't great to him. I mean, now, he's big as life Geno. So, he's a big boy, he can take care of himself.
But my favorite moment was him, he had three players, including Breanna Stewart that had just remember they won all those games in a row and they won four national championship.
Jeff Jacobs (51:16):
I think we were in Indianapolis, and he came in, he just hugged all three of them at one time. And I was sitting right there. I could have touched him. It was like, it was surreal. Stewart, she just ran the table. She came in, won them all, that's all. Four champions to win, she won them all. And then Geno was there hugging the three of them at one time. It was very powerful. Very powerful.
Todd Jones (51:38):
Well, I think about just the ability to keep something going. You build it. Building something is great, right? That's amazing. But then you got to chase perfection and keep it going. And the fact that the women at Connecticut, all those great players, all the coaches and Geno, they've kept that going. That's just an amazing thing to witness.
Jeff Jacobs (51:59):
It is. He's tough in practice. Chris Dailey, his associate is been there all the time.
Todd Jones (52:04):
Right. She's been there forever.
Jeff Jacobs (52:05):
She's a great recruiter. I like the kid her, she could have been a nun in a different lifetime. She's in charge of like the discipline and the ... because the woman that come in, they just don't have much problems there. Like I said, they win all the games, they make all the honor rolls and then they go on, do great things in life. They've had very few problems. And Chris is behind a lot of that.
Jeff Jacobs (52:28):
Geno's more of a big picture guy in terms of the media and stuff. But at practice you see them working together and they're very basketball oriented. And I was happy for him that he went to the Olympics and won and coached all the best players. He had the best players and all that, but just the way he just went out and proved. And I always thought he could have coached men if he wanted to.
Todd Jones (52:48):
You mentioned Calhoun, and Jim Calhoun built the men's program when there really wasn't much there. He comes in and he turns that into a national program. Now, you had a four-hour debate with Geno once. What was your relationship like with Calhoun?
Jeff Jacobs (53:16):
Tumultuous. I will say he ... Bobby Clarke, who was a God in Philadelphia Flyers for the tough days. He and Jim Calhoun are the worst losers I ever saw. Calhoun was a horrible loser. And my one rap on him always was he really just didn't treat the media well after he lost games and stuff. He just should have done a better job.
Todd Jones (53:44):
Give us an example.
Jeff Jacobs (53:45):
Well, there's two famous ones that everybody knows about, that not a dime back. A guy came in who was not a regular beat reporter and he was pressing buttons and he was asking about state money and stuff like that. And that's where Calhoun went off of him.
Jeff Jacobs (54:02):
And then Dave Solomon, who passed, who was a sports columnist, register and knew it was closer to Calhoun than I was asked him about Ryan Gomes. And that's where he let go about a zillion F bombs. "You want me to say I effed up? I effed up." He was yelling.
Jeff Jacobs (54:19):
Those two are on the internet for immortality. But he goes, “I got Emeka Okafor and I got Caron Butler. I didn't get Ryan Gomes.” Who was a kid from Waterbury. And really was little pudgy coming out of high school, wasn't great. He turned out to be a great player when he went to NBA. But he went off that day.
Jeff Jacobs (54:42):
But it was just a lot of the small stuff. Like you ask a question after a loss, I can't remember everything about it, but it was harsh snide remarks. And I always thought he was better than that.
Jeff Jacobs (54:53):
And I will say though, there was one Jim Calhoun from the opening buzzer to the completion of the press conference, away from it, he's an interesting dude. He's a smart guy, really engaging. Yeah, I had it out with ... but you know what's really weird is that people know that he came back after retirement coached Division 3 national for three years.
Todd Jones (55:21):
Saint Joseph's in West Hartford.
Jeff Jacobs (55:22):
Saint Joseph's, who was ranked number one in the country, with Glen Miller, who was a coach with them.
Todd Jones (55:26):
Yeah, five years. He retires from Connecticut in 2012. Five years later, he comes back to coach and start a program, Saint Joseph's D3.
Jeff Jacobs (55:35):
Yeah. And after all these things, I'd gone with him, the height of the problem with him with me was 2006. That was the year that they lost to George Mason. Remember they're upset. They thought they could win a national title there. 2006, they lost in the regional finals.
Jeff Jacobs (55:50):
But a guy, Marcus Williams, the star guard, he was involved in stealing laptops, and I thought he should have been gone for the year. And Jim let him back after the non-conference season. So, that was a source of a lot of consternation.
Jeff Jacobs (56:08):
But anyway, he retires. I wrote a story about how he'd thrown up all over the inside of the coach's office at Madison Square Garden after a big loss. He claims it was orange soda.
Jeff Jacobs (56:23):
But anyway, he retires, comes back. And this is crazy. My son, Liam, was second team, all-state basketball player, and he went and played D3 ball at Lasell, which is in the same league as Jim Calhoun's Saint Joseph's team. And so, my son played against Jim Calhoun.
Jeff Jacobs (56:46):
But it was by that, Jim and I became buddies over talking D3 basketball. And I remember looking at him, I go like, "Jim, who would've known would we'd just be arguing like crazy about Syracuse, but we became buddies over at Albertus Magnus." So, I haven't talked to him in like a year or so, but like he and I get along just grand. And I like to think that ...
Jeff Jacobs (57:16):
And one thing I will say about Jim, he won the 12 rounds. I mean, he went until he couldn't go any further. He never took the shortcuts. And he loved basketball so much, he was a Hall of Fame. He comes back as a D3 coach.
Todd Jones (57:31):
That shows you, right?
Jeff Jacobs (57:32):
Seeing that, that shows you like ... and then my kids playing, I mean, who played against Jim Calhoun or played for him? Ray Allen, blah, blah. And all of a sudden he's out there coaching his mind out. And my kid's on the other team. It was like I said, “This dude loves basketball.” So, I got a different view of Jim Calhoun now, than I did 15 years ago.
Todd Jones (57:50):
When he won those championships at Connecticut, (1999, 2004, 2011) how did you view him then, compared to how you view him now?
Jeff Jacobs (58:02):
Well, the 1999, I didn't have had much problems. So, the 1999 first championship, because he had made some runs at the Final Four and not made it. And he won out in Phoenix to get into the Final Four. It was the only time I ever saw him cry in a side room. I was in there. Bill Plake from the LA Times was in there. Called just a few people. It was the only time I ever saw him cry.
Jeff Jacobs (58:23):
And when he won in ‘99, it was bigger than life here in Connecticut. I think like 55% of the televisions sets were on the night that they beat Duke down there in St. Petersburg. It was huge. It was big, big. And I'm trying to think about that. I just think about Khalid El-Amin rushing right at ... I was sitting right behind the TV guys. He said, "We shocked the world. We shocked the world." And it was just such a breakthrough for him.
Jeff Jacobs (58:57):
And then when he won in ‘04, he had a great team with Okafor, Ben Gordon. They were the best team. '11, they kind of snuck in and they won over ... not getting their name. What's the school? Butler. And by that time, I did not have as good relationship. I remember going up to him and making a point of congratulating them right at the time and everything like that. So, it was off and on.
Jeff Jacobs (59:30):
And I viewed him at that point as just a guy, he was up there, when he won his third ... a lot of people won one or two. But to win his third and a fourth-
Todd Jones (59:38):
Well, then he's up there with Wooden, Rupp, Knight, Krzyzewski, right? Those are the names you're with now.
Jeff Jacobs (59:42):
Yeah. You can't deny it. And then the wins, the wins, the wins. So, he's up there as one of the greatest coaches ever. He might be as great a builder of a program as ever. I mean, same with Geno on the women's side, but he's a ...
Jeff Jacobs (59:59):
I mean, as I like to say about Calhoun, he's a 700-page Russian novel. There's a lot of woo woo, ups and downs. Slow going, fast going. And so, you kind of just got to stick in there, you know what I mean? And some days there's lots of roses and lot of days there's some punches.
Todd Jones (01:00:19):
It's interesting that you guys are now, at the point where you're older and the pressure's different. He just retired this year again for the final time from Saint Joseph's.
Jeff Jacobs (01:00:32):
Right. Just the D3 aspect of it. Just the basketball aspect of it. Good enough to be something but not so big that it was like it consumed everybody's mind. And he was still out there coaching, yelling at officials, you know what I'm saying?
Jeff Jacobs (01:00:47):
It's like I'm sitting at the stairs, he was yelling about some hack that my kid had that he got away with. I felt like yelling. He didn't touch him but like the thing was that-
Todd Jones (01:00:58):
It came full circle. He went from yelling at you to yelling about your kid.
Jeff Jacobs (01:01:02):
Right. Yeah.
Todd Jones (01:01:04):
Well, I think that shows the passion. I think you can relate to that, right? The passion.
Jeff Jacobs (01:01:08):
Oh, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I will say this, as I looked at this over the years, I realized that if I was a coach, I probably would've been a lot closer to the way he acted on the sidelines than the way John Wooden acted on the sidelines. So, I also thought about maybe firing those rocks from a glass house, an emotional glass house.
Todd Jones (01:01:32):
Oh yeah. I always think about how would I have reacted to some of my own questions or something that I wrote.
Jeff Jacobs (01:01:40):
Right.
Todd Jones (01:01:42):
Well, I think that passion is something that I've always admired in you, Jeff. And it's been a lot of fun to reconnect and share some of the great stories that you've encountered in your wonderful career. I really appreciate your time.
Jeff Jacobs (01:02:05):
Well, thanks so much for having me, Todd. I really do appreciate it.
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