Final Four shatters stereotypes: Three Jewish coaches take center stage in San Antonio
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SAN ANTONIO — There’s a scene in the 1980 Hollywood cult classic “Airplane” in which a flight attendant is handing out reading materials to passengers on the plane.
When she gets to a woman who asks if she has “anything light,” the flight attendant hands her what appears to be a slip of paper and says, “How about this leaflet: Famous Jewish Sports Legends?”
It’s an effective laugh line that makes light of the notion that people of the Jewish faith are better equipped to be lawyers and bankers than athletes.
But in the case of this year’s Final Four, the stereotype doesn’t hold up.
That’s because three of the four coaches whose teams will be facing off in the national semifinals at the AlamoDome on Saturday – Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl, Florida head coach Todd Golden, and Duke head coach Jon Scheyer – are Members of the Tribe.
And the fourth, Houston’s Kelvin Sampson, is a member of an actual Tribe. In this case, the Lumbee Nation of Eastern North Carolina.
It’s a confluence every bit as rare as the four No. 1 seeds that have survived and advanced their way through the NCAA Tournament to earn their spots in college basketball’s signature event.
But as far as Pearl is concerned, it’s hardly a surprise.
“There is great history and tradition in the game of basketball in the Jewish community because all it took was just one ball and maybe a basket in the inner cities, in the ghettos, and neighborhoods with most of American Jewry lived in this century,” said the veteran coach, who grew up in Boston. “We played basketball and were pretty good at it.
“Specifically, I’m really proud of Todd and really proud of Jon for being young Jewish coaches, wearing their faith on their sleeves. They both played professionally in Israel and they’re both young mensches. It’s easier to be an old mensch than it is to be a young mensch these days.”
Mensch is a Yiddish word that roughly translates to “stand up guy.”
Pearl has been just that through his support for Israel in its ongoing war with Hamas and his efforts in calling attention to the rise of anti-Semitism the conflict has brought about as a result of protests on college campuses around the country.
He mentioned the subject again at a media availability in San Antonio on Friday when asked about the significance of having 3 Jewish coaches at the Final Four.
“I always tell my players that there are going to be obstacles to success, but not roadblocks,” he said. “I don’t want to hear that just because of anti-Semitism, racism and profiling, you can’t be anything you want to be.
“For three Jewish coaches and Kelvin Sampson, all of us, to be able to get here, if you work hard, do the right things and surround yourself with great people, anybody can be anything in this country because we live in, It’s the greatest country in the world.”
As the old mensch of the group, the 65-year-old Pearl is something of a role model to his two younger counterparts in San Antonio. And not just because of their shared heritage or that he’s the founder and first president of the Jewish College Coaches Association.
He has a personal connection to both Golden and Scheyer.
They were players on the U.S. team, coached by Pearl, that won the gold medal at 2009 Maccabi Games, a multi-sport event for Jewish athletes held every 4 years in Israel. A few years later, Pearl helped kickstart Golden’s coaching career by hiring the former St. Mary’s point guard as an assistant at Auburn.
“I’ve had close relationships with those guys for some time,” Scheyer said. “I’m really happy for them, to see what they’re doing.”
Scheyer, a former Duke All-American who helped the Blue Devils win the national championship in 2010, said that he’s proud of his Jewish heritage.
But while he downplayed that aspect of his team’s accomplishment by adding that he’s just as proud to represent his alma mater at the Final Four, he acknowledged that “it’s a pretty rare thing to have three of us in the Final Four.”
At least one of them might not have gotten this far had it not been for his religion.
Florida’s success this season won’t help add another page or two to that leaflet of Jewish Sports Legends. But without Golden’s heritage, the Gators’ top mensch Walter Clayton Jr. might have ended up at St. John’s – where his former coach at Iona, Rick Pitino ended up – rather than in Gainesville.
“I remember Easter Sunday, getting a call from his mom,” Golden recalled. “She was a little concerned that maybe he had started swinging in the other direction, following Pitino. I guess one of the benefits of being Jewish is that we don’t celebrate Easter.”
Award-winning columnist Brett Friedlander has covered the ACC and college basketball since the 1980s.
