Newell was a teacher and giant of the game

Breitbard Hall of Fame induction, March 4 2008

By Tom Shanahan, San Diego Hall of Champions

Seventy winters ago Pete Newell made his first trip to San Diego. He was a senior guard for the 1937-38 Loyola Marymount University basketball team that made the drive from Los Angeles to play San Diego State.

In many ways, the basketball heart of that young man that went on to become a giant in his sport – including gracing San Diego basketball as general manager of the expansion San Diego Rockets from 1967-68 to 1970-71 – has never left.

The Rockets may have departed for Houston, but the old coach, now 92-years-old, still has a home in Rancho Santa Fe.

“How can you beat San Diego?” Newell said. “That was my first whiff of it when we came down here in college. I loved the opportunity to come here as general manager.”

Ah, if only Newell had more time with the Rockets in San Diego. Newell blames the partners of club owner Bob Breitbard for orchestrating the sale of a franchise he believed was on the verge of playoff success.

Newell then went on to serve as general manager of the Los Angeles Lakers when they were Southern California’s team. He brokered the deal that brought Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to the Lakers from Milwaukee.

But before he was known as a general manager, he was a coach -- one of the most successful on the court and one of the most respected as teachers of the game.

Newell’s 1949 University of San Francisco team won the NIT, his 1959 Cal team won the NCAA and returned to the finals in 1960 before losing to Ohio State and he coached the 1960 U.S. Olympic basketball team to a gold medal in Rome.

He was the first coach to accomplish the triple and still one of only three. In 1949, the NIT tournament was as prestigious as the NCAA title.

And here’s a statistic to remember about Newell: the last eight times Newell’s Cal teams played John Wooden’s UCLA teams, Cal won all eight games.

In 1979, Newell was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.

But the sport’s ultimate shrine isn’t big enough for Newell, if you listen to one of his former players, Al Ferrari, a Michigan State All-American guard. Ferrari, who went on to play six NBA seasons, has campaigned for Newell to be inducted into the Michigan State University Hall of Fame.

“Pete Newell should be in every Hall of Fame,” Ferrari said. “Guys in basketball revere Pete.”

No such campaign is needed in San Diego now that Newell is being inducted into the Breitbard Hall of Fame as a member of the Class of 2008. Newell was voted in by the veterans’ committee.

As the Rockets general manager, Newell drafted future Hall-of-Famer Elvin Hayes as the first pick overall in 1968. Two of his Rockets, Hayes and Don Kojis, started in the 1969 NBA All-Star game in San Diego.

Rick Adelman, now the coach of the Houston Rockets, was a San Diego Rocket. In 1969, the Rockets (37-45) extended the Atlanta Hawks to six games in the Western Conference semifinals before falling. The Rockets were 40-42 their final year in San Diego.

In the fourth game of the series played before 12,237 at the Sports Arena, Hayes hit the game-winner on twisting shot at the buzzer with a pass from Adelman. Hayes finished with 30 points and 20 rebounds.

"There is no doubt in my mind we would have been a real contender for an NBA championship," Newell said. "We had a great young nucleus of players with Elvin, Don Kojis and Stu Lantz, and we had a great draft in 1970 with Rudy Tomjanovich, Calvin Murphy and Don Adams.”

After his general manager days, Newell became known for teaching big men how to improve their games. His Big Man’s Camp in Hawaii and Las Vegas are institutions in the sport.

The last two years, he’s run a Tall Women’s Camp in San Diego along with women’s basketball legend Ann Meyers Drysdale.

Five years ago he had a lung removed in a battle with cancer, but even that doesn’t prevent him from offering instruction when someone asks, including some today’s college and NBA big men.

“The reason he still does it is he’s teacher; he loves teaching the fundamentals of the game,” said Earl Shultz, a long-time San Diego doctor and thoroughbred race horse owner that played on Newell’s 1959 NCAA championship team. “He loves the game and always wants to give back to the game.”