Life was going pretty well for me. In fact it was probably better than ever.
In the fall of 2000 I got a voicemail (on my girlfriend's birthday no less) from the sports editor at the Courier-Journal in Louisville. He told me that there was an opening in the sports department that I might be interested in. That was the call that I had been waiting for since I got into the business. It was the phone call I had waited for for all of my professional career. After a couple interviews I got the job and happily returned home (literally, I moved all my belongings into my dad's house) and I couldn't have been happier. I grew up reading the C-J and working for that paper was my ultimate goal when I got into the newspaper business.
"I'll be here 20 years," I told a woman on the elevator one of my first nights in the building. I'll put in some time on the high school beat then slowly work my way up...I thought anyway.
My first nine months or so were pretty normal, covering mostly high school sports.
But on the last day of August in 2001 when I got a last-minute assignment. It was to cover a golf outing between Rick Pitino and Tubby Smith. It was going to be the first real public matchup/meeting between the two colleagues (Smith was a Pitino assistant and later succeeded him at Kentucky and won a national championship) since Pitino took the job at UofL. So I guess the editors figured someone had to at least show up to make an appearance and document the meeting.
I e-mailed the UK sports information department and let them now I would be attending. It was something new and different for me since I'd been at the paper and probably my biggest assignment to date. It was definitely bigger than covering a Friday night football game or doing the Scorecard on a Sunday or Monday night.
It was the type of thing I had dreamed of when I took the job. I'm not quite sure how I ended up with the assignment, but my guess is everyone else had other obligations and I was pretty much the last resort.
The next morning I woke up and drove to Lexington. I didn't know what to expect so I found someone, who was somewhat in charge, someone from the UK SID department I imagine. When the scramble began I grabbed a spare golf cart and tagged along behind the Pitino & Tubby foursome. Doing the same thing was Jerry Tipton, the long-time UK basketball beat writer for the Lexington Herald-Leader. He was the competition and he was following the group just like me.
After a few holes of me pretty much stalking the group I looked up at the tee box and Pitino was walking toward me.
"Hi, what's your name?" he asked extending his hand.
I told him my name and who I was working away and then I asked him if I could ask him a couple of questions. I did, mostly about what it was going to be like to go back to UK. He was very cordial and nice and answered my questions before he had to tee off. Maybe he came to me to get away from Tipton, who he had an icy relationship with during his time in Lexington. Or maybe he just wanted to find out who I was, either way I was happy that he approached me and broke the ice.
I continued to follow them for 18 holes. At one point former UK athletic director C.M. Newton made a surprise stop and visited with the coaches for a few minutes.
Here is my story:
By Josh Cook
Staff writer
LEXINGTON - They won't meet at midcourt in Rupp Arena for nearly four months, but Rick Pitino and Tubby Smith went head-to-head yesterday.
The basketball coaches were on opposing twosomes in the second annual University of Kentucky vs. University of Louisville Golf Challenge at the University Club of Kentucky. The event pits athletic departments from the schools, as well as 60 fans.
It wasn't the pair's first meeting since Pitino took over at UofL in March, but it could be their last until the showdown in Rupp on Dec. 29.
"It'll be just fine," Pitino said of his first visit to Rupp as an opposing coach. "The Kentucky people have been just great to me."
Yesterday's meeting had far less at stake. There was no foot-stomping by Pitino or icy stares from Smith. Just two friends getting together for golf and good-natured ribbing - from Smith asking Pitino where his red was (answer: a Louisville logo on his shorts) to Pitino moving the pin away as Smith prepared to putt.
"Tubby and I are good friends, and we haven't played together in eight years," Pitino said. "He was a bad golfer then, he's a good golfer now. I guess that shows you what Kentucky's done for him."
According to Pitino, his handicap has gone from 9 to 16 since he resigned from the Boston Celtics.
It didn't show on the first tee, where his drive landed in the middle of the fairway, while Smith's strayed to the second fairway. On the second hole, though, Pitino topped his tee shot into a hazard, then after a drop put his next shot into some thick brush.
"I think I'm going to watch this hole," he said. "Anybody want to talk basketball or horse racing for a hole?"
Conversation between the coaches drifted to basketball only occasionally. Once came after an impressive drive by Smith.
"If I had his players I'd swing like that too," Pitino said, referring to a team that has been pegged by some as the preseason No. 1.
The rest of the time the coaches focused on golf.
Smith teamed with UK golf coach Brian Craig to beat Pitino and UofL golf coach Mark Crabtree 4 and 3 in match play.
"We had a lot of fun," Smith said, "seeing Rick and being around him, and you really don't get a chance to socialize with a lot of Cardinal fans. Guess what, they all don't have horns. I'm just kidding. It's great people and a great time."
I didn't include everything that happened in the story, though. With a few holes to go, during a break in the again, Pitino strolled over again.
"Scoot over," he said, sliding into the driver's seat. Within seconds he was mashing on the gas pedal and the wheels were spinning. He zipped over toward the bathrooms for a pee break. At that point I'd already asked him the questions I wanted to, so I just tried to make some small talk and come up with a couple of more questions. It was an almost surreal experience. For years I had looked up to Pitino when I was a UK fan, now here I was sitting next to him, talking to him as he drove the golf cart to go take a leak. I couldn’t believe it.
I asked him if he was as competitive at golf as he was at coaching.
"Not anymore," he said. Then told me a little how it felt when he lost someone close to him recently in a car accident. It was a little peak into Rick Pitino the man, not the basketball coach. Of course 10 days later Pitino would lose someone close to him again when his brother-in-law and best friend, Billy Minardi, was killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Life would never be the same for any of us.
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