Women's Hoops Guru

The following is the complete text of the Guru's official Women's Basketball Hall of Fame induction speech after being handed the 30-pound Eastman Award and introduced by Knoxville Sports Corp head Gloria Ray, jokingly, "Now a man of a few words, Mel Greenberg will tell us his story."

Greetings everyone.

Let me start, first, with a simple request. If you happen to find anything inspiring or funny from what I’m about to say, can you please hold your applause or laughter, because I’ve been told your reaction will count against my allotted time.

Tonight, we continue to make more history, as some of you have noticed, because my team-guru contingent has been sending all these events over the internet in a multi-media package at our Philly.com web site.

My mother back in Philadelphia is so excited, she’s on her third day of computer logon training.

As you know, I have covered all eight previous induction ceremonies from your side of the stage, some as deep as the Green Room under this old, historic building a year ago.

And each time at the end of the night, several people would usually approach me with the sentence, ``It’s not a question of `If.’ It’s just a question of `When.’”

So tonight I am happy to say, there are no longer any questions.

And as a result, I heartedly and humbly accept your vote of approval.

I came to Knoxville prepared to give you my overall history. But based on a certain four-page publication that has been circling around town the last several days, the folks at my place of employment decided they could do a better job.

They’re a dangerous bunch. Several years ago I won the sports information directors’ major media award and the next day found myself misquoted in my own newspaper.

Seriously, this is a class I feel honored to be among and feel especially bonded in that at one time or another everyone of them have appeared in a story once written by yours truly.

By the way, let me tell you a story on how I got word a year ago of this honor.

After the ceremonies last year, the board was gathered at a particular libation place over there in the Marriott.

Beth Bass of the WBCA grabbed me, when I entered and began by saying, ``We have something to tell you, but we’re not really having this conversation. You know, it only took a few minutes to come up with one of the inductees, but we had a three-hour fight over who was going to be the official person to give THAT inductee the official word.

``But if we’re all here, it’s like a 30-way tie for first. But since you and Jody go way back and she’s the president of the board, she has something to say.”
Finally, Jody smiled and simply said, (imitating her) “Mel, when you come to Knoxville next year, make sure you bring a tux.”

So, Jody, what do you think? (Mel opens jacket to reveal suspenders).

One of the hardest things to do after getting the word was to pick the individuals from my various associations who could be most representative to be involved as part of my induction.

(baby cries out in background and Guru interrupts himself).

Yo Andy, I thought you told me Geno wasn’t coming. (lots of crowd laughter).

(Returning to text) My longtime friend Chris Plonsky, who heads the women’s athletic program at Texas, has dealt with me over the years through various windows between her duties with Texas, the Big East, USA Basketball and the NCAA.

She told you stories about me. Here’s one about her and how times have changed.

Back in the day in Austin, she was absolutely delighted to reach in her pocket and pull out $2.50 to buy me a margarita at Jorges on Sixth Street.

Two months ago, she was even more delighted to pull out a million bucks and procure a successful Duke coach to succeed Jody to run the Longhorns.

Atlantic Ten commissioner Linda Bruno, who is headquartered in Philadelphia in a conference that also involves Temple, my alma mater, took me down the grand staircase here. Her group includes three Big Five schools, when you add St. Joseph’s and LaSalle to the mix along with Penn and Villanova, and I am a child of the Big Five.

More important, in 1995 as chair of the NCAA women’s basketball committee, she helped land the 2000 Women’s Final Four in Philadelphia. Our paper made a major commitment to cover the event when they learned that travel expenses only involved a subway token.

My two nieces – Neena and Allison – brought me to this podium to represent the family. It’s easy to tell who’s who. They’re the blonds. They’re also the daughters of my younger sister Annette, who is here, and my brother-in-law Perry.

Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer was going to be involved here until this weekend’s airline problems stranded her up North. She was so thrilled when she voted me in last year, she couldn’t stop talking about it. Finally, two months into this past season, I said to her one day, Viv, enough about me, already. You need to start coaching your team. And when she did, you saw the result.

.As for the music, Temple and coach Dawn Staley was made to understand I’m not here tonight getting this award because I happened to go to the school.

My ambience committee had a simple choice based on culture. Down here, you might have Rocky Top. In Philadelphia, we simply have “Rocky.”

And it’s appropriate in that the sports department is not known for its fight song, but we are known for our fights.

And while we’re at it, there’s a gentleman among you who had the actual idea of the poll. He’s retired down here now, which means I get to go on his boat out in Fort Loudon whenever I visit: Our former sports editor Jay Searcy and his wife, Jackie.

To be honest, I did not aspire to be any kind of hero when I undertook Jay’s mission. I just wanted to do the best journalistic job I could to make things better for future writers and broadcasters who would come along after me.

I’ve been around so long I was told former Pitsburgh Seelers coach Bill Cowher that I’m the only one who could say to him he just met the only writer to have covered his wife and daughters playing basketball.

What I didn’t realize in the early days that I would eventually get into situations when a newsroom colleague or two, who had been through the wars with me, would on day approach me in later years and say, `Hey, Mel. I need your autograph. My kid reads you.’”

But in terms of staying power, I could not have endured writing about this sport without the great coaches and players over the years whose performances made it all worthwhile.

(interrupts self and talks out loud to himself) Hey, this stuff sounds pretty good and I didn’t write it until 4 o’clock.

(Return to text). I know this honor tonight is the sport’s special thank you, but you are the ones to thank for excelling at what you do, especially my inductee classmates here.

If you take the years of their accomplishments and stretched them end to end, you’d find that as group, they have been at this almost as long as I have.

I honored the past by mentioning Jay. I celebrate the present by saluting the colleagues from The Inquirer who made the trip here from the home office, representing a place where journalism has been as much a passion as we all have for this sport.

Claire Smith is here covering tonight, so I need to help here make her deadline. And our sports editor Jim Jenks claims he has an open budget involving me, so see him at the bar at the Marriott after we get done.

As for promoting the future, I mentioned my team guru bloggers and they are the future – Acacia O’Connor, who plays Division III at Vassar; Erin Semagin Damio, who rows at Northeastern, and Jonathan Tannenwald, a graduate one year out of Penn, who is a producer at our Philly.com web site.

I think one of the most amazing things this whole weekend happened this afternoon at the autograph session when so many people stopped by to say thanks. I mean, I’m not the one with the gold medals, NCAA titles, and all-American status.

But if they feel I have been a contributor, it’s because of the teamwork over the years from everyone needed to get things done – the editors who made my writing better, the reporters who networked from other papers, the sports information directors who supplied the information, the players who understood, and, yes, the coaches who endured those pre-internet phone calls.

I’d like to salute everyone at the Associated Press through the years who helped make me known outside my own newsroom before I became known inside it.

Before I came down here to Knoxville, our newsroom editor Bill Marimow, who’s had an outstanding career himself, implored me a week ago, ‘Just savor the moment. Savor the week. Please savor everything.’

Most importantly, the component I savor the most is the friendships developed over the years. And tonight, I savor all of you in this room. And I thank you.