On April 11, 1964, 35-year-old Al McGuire was named the new head basketball coach at Marquette University. By the time his 13-year stint was over, he had transformed Marquette basketball forever.

McGuire had been at Belmont Abbey, a small Catholic college in North Carolina, for seven years. It was an NAIA school at the time and now is NCAA Division II. According to Joseph Moran's book, "You Can Call Me Al", McGuire's first salary at Belmont Abbey was under $7,500. His office had no heat. He taught a Health and Hygiene class. His last two teams at Belmont Abbey had records of 7-21 and 6-18.

In extensive interviews I did with Al for WTMJ-TV in 1991 and 1992, McGuire told me; "I pretty much had settled in, that coaching would be a side product of my life, (he had run lucrative basketball camps) and then Frank McGuire called and Father Orford (Rev. James Orford was the head of the Marquette Athletic Board at the time.)"

"I really thought Marquette was in Chicago (laughs). The seven years at Belmont was where I learned to coach. That's where I drove the bus and picked up the towels and wrapped the ankles. And watched the budget. We played it very close...I wasn't dealing in the sixth and seventh race with the thoroughbreds, I was dealing with the first two races of a horse race meet, but got good players."

It was at Belmont Abbey where McGuire started to recruit players from New York, where he had grown up and eventually played in the NBA for the Knicks. Those New York connections would weigh heavily in his eventual success at Marquette.

"Belmont Abbey was the launching pad that launched the rocket. Marquette University gave me the opportunity to be a marquee, and then NBC gave me a second safe deposit box (laughs)."

Marquette had let go Ed Hickey as coach and athletic director in 1964 after a 5-21 season and declining attendance. Stan Lowe replaced Hickey as athletic director. The university president at the time was Rev. William F. Kelley, who would be succeeded by Father John Raynor, who guided Marquette from 1965-1990.

Marquette's new men's basketball coach Al McGuire, right, holds a copy of the 26 game schedule for the benefit of athletic director Stan Lowe, seated at left; McGuire's predecessor, Ed Hickey (center); and Hickey's assistant, Henry Raymonds, standing, 1964. Courtesy: Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Raynor Memorial Libraries, Marquette University

According to The Milwaukee Journal story reporting the hiring, there were more than 50 applicants for the Marquette job. Besides McGuire, DePaul assistant Bob Luksta and Marquette assistant Hank Raymonds were the only candidates interviewed.

Orford had met with Frank McGuire (no relation), who had coached Al at St. John's and recommended Al for the Marquette job.

When Al interviewed for the position, he stayed at the Pfister Hotel. When he was offered the Marquette job, he insisted on returning to North Carolina to tell Belmont Abbey officials in person.

"Marquette came along and I always felt...they were holding the job for Don Kojis. (He) was still too young and playing pro ball."

Portrait photograph of men's basketball coach Al McGuire. Courtesy: Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Raynor Memorial Libraries, Marquette University

"They said fine, you can have the job. Two-year contract (reportedly worth between $12,000-$15,000 including a $1,000 raise for the second year). They didn't know that I knew my business and you can pretty much pencil something in when I say it. The only thing I wanted at that time was Assistant Athletic Director, to allow me to schedule. You must schedule. Coaches with stature, they dominate you. My biggest fear in going to Marquette...was Ray Meyer (at DePaul) and George Ireland (at Loyola.) Here's guys who were established. The subconscious of the official blows you out of there. That's the hard thing in getting a program going."

"When I went to Marquette, I had been there about six weeks. I went to see Stan Lowe, the Athletic Director. I said, 'Hey Stan, I must have my own thing here.' I went to see Coach Hickey and I said 'Coach, if I can ever help you, I will, but I must have my own room, turf, my own blacktop, my own playground patch.'"

Raymonds told Roger Jaynes for the forward of "Al McGuire: The Colorful Warrior" that right after McGuire beat him out for the job, he called Raymonds and asked him if he would stay on as an assistant. "Stay with me, and we'll knock 'em dead," Raymonds said McGuire told him.

Raymonds said McGuire gave him a blank check to buy a home in the Milwaukee area. McGuire would stay in that same Brookfield home (said to have cost $28,000) for his entire runs at Marquette and NBC.

The sports information director at Marquette when McGuire arrived was future Green Bay Packers President Bob Harlan.

It was not an immediate turnaround at

Marquette under McGuire. The Warriors--as they were known then---went 8-18 in 1964-'65 with Tom Flynn as team captain.
A demanding schedule included a loss in the Milwaukee Classic to John Wooden and defending NCAA champion UCLA.

"The first year I was here, I was just finding my way around," said McGuire. In fact, the Marquette freshmen beat the varsity that year, an indignity that was also a foreshadow of a program on the rise.

"Pat Smith...was the first guy I ever recruited for Marquette...I remember I watched him playing on a blacktop in Harlem. He had a good cut above the eye and he didn't leave the game. He was wearing a sailor's hat. I said 'I gotta start out at Marquette and we need tough guys.' That's how I got Pat Smith. That's how the merry-go-round started."

"I'm a chain recruiter. Pat Smith led to George Thompson. He led to Dean Meminger...It was a style."

"When I started at Marquette, I recruited. When I ended, I selected."

Marquette basketball coachAl McGuire speaks with player Tom Flynn on the gymnasium floor, 1964. Courtesy: Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Raynor Memorial Libraries, Marquette University

The commitment from George Thompson, considered the second-best player in New York after the player then known as Lew Alcindor, came in May of 1965.

Thompson's arrival would signal the successful days ahead for McGuire at Marquette, culminating with the 1977 NCAA Championship.

Some of the comments from my interviews with Al that have stayed with me:

• "We were so good, it was frightening."
• "We took on the world."
• "We were surly, obnoxious and arrogant. The team was an extension of me."
• "When you're getting the calls, getting the breaks in life, you don't realize you're getting them. You only realize when you're not getting them."
• "We were vagabonds, but we were tough."
• "We played a very dreary game...Our eraser was winning. We constantly won."
• "I'm not the easiest guy to get along with. I don't like meetings. I like to react off a reaction...I like things that quiver, things that are exciting."
• "Intentionally, I never hurt anyone in my life. I have hurt people, but it wasn't intentionally."
• "I am a loner...99 percent of the time, I'm alone. I prefer that."
• "What people don't understand is I'm a perfectionist in my own way."
• "There's no such thing as luck in my life and never has been. Luck goes out the window when the element of time comes in. You can't be lucky for 40-some odd years."
• "You don't give excuses in life. You don't accept them. You just do the best you can."
• "I like Al McGuire. I don't want to be anybody else."
• "All in all, it's been great. But you know what life is? It's always 'a little more.'"
• "One of the keys to my success at Marquette was Father Raynor. He really allowed you to do your thing. As long as you lived in the image of the moral and academic  excellence of the university...The thing that I liked about Father Raynor is he was always a priest. Which is nice."

Al McGuire passed away on January 26, 2001. He often said "dream big." Those big dreams came true at Marquette.