FROM THE EDITOR, Rick Leddy
Some Thoughts on My Road to the Final Four It really doesn’t seem that long to me, but the reality is that this year in Atlanta, I will be working at the annual NABC Convention and NCAA Final Four for the 35th-consecutive year. As you might expect, during that time there has been considerable change with the convention, the Final Four and the NABC. I’m hopeful that my recollections bring back memories for our older members and provide some historical perspective for others.
Taking minutes of the long meetings held over three to four days by hand on a yellow legal pad, which later had to be typed for publication in the NABC magazine (no laptops or tablets then), seems archaic in this day and age. For me it was the beginning of a journey that not only opened another career opportunity for me but one that enabled most of my family, extended family and friends to experience the very best in college basketball at the Final Four.
My journey with the NABC began following the 1985 NABC Convention. Joe Vancisin was the executive director of the NABC following a long and distinguished career as Yale’s head basketball coach. I was the sports information director at Southern Connecticut State University, about 14 years into my 36-year tenure there.
The summer meetings with the NCAA and CBS in the early days of my tenure were special, traveling to magnificent venues including the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, the Homestead in Hot Springs, Va., The Sheraton in Eagle Creek, Colo., and several trips to the Monterey Peninsula. The best part of these gatherings was that it was a time when we got to know not only the coaches but their families as well.
The local sports editor called to tell me that Joe was looking for some assistance with the NABC and that he had recommended me. I knew nothing about the NABC at the time, but it was a local opportunity with the NABC office located in Branford, Conn. Not long after meeting, Joe offered me a part-time position to assist with media at the convention and be the secretary for the board of directors. My first assignment was to attend the board’s summer meeting, accompanied by my wife, in July with the NCAA and CBS in Monterey, Calif. I felt like I won the lottery! Arriving home that afternoon, I told my wife Nancy that I had accepted the offer and that we would be going to the meeting. “Are they going to pay you too?” she said. I assured her there was some compensation involved.
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CONVENTION 2020
My first two NABC conventions were very impactful. At the 1986 NABC Convention in Dallas, my second meeting with the board of directors, Georgetown coach John Thompson, Jr., was the president and the room was full of legendary coaches including Jud Heathcote, Eddie Sutton, Clarence “Big House” Gaines and Johnny Orr. This Hall of Fame group could not have been more welcoming to the newcomer in the room. A year later, the storyline was much more personal. Our third child and second daughter, Caitlin, was born on March 11 and two weeks later I was in New Orleans, leaving Nancy behind with our three children under age seven. It was a big sacrifice in many ways, especially for Nancy, but the benefits received over the next 30 years helped to mitigate the situation.
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TIME-OUT
