Results 1 to 28 of 28

Thread: Rick Majerus memorial thread

Hybrid View

  1. #1
    Handsome Boy Graduate mpfunk's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    Salt Lake City, Utah
    Posts
    1,505

    Rick Majerus memorial thread

    I did a half assed search and didn't find a Rick Majerus thread. I probably just missed and am going to be lazy and start a new one.

    A fantastic tribute to Rick Majerus here from a reporter that knew him.

    http://www.stltoday.com/sports/colum...806960f67.html
    RICK MAJERUS: I just wish I would have spent more time with the late St. Louis U. basketball coach. We had a lot in common: mood swings, prone to too many emotional highs and lows, the curse of a lifelong battle with obesity, and an ironic personality trait of being harder on ourselves than any strangers could be. We shared a love of politics, film, books, newspapers, world events. During our enjoyable dinners the one thing we never talked about much was basketball. But make no mistake, Majerus was a basketball genius. I thought I knew the game until hearing Rick deliver a lecture on every aspect of the "Triangle and Two" defense. Maybe that's why we had so many deep discussions about the meaning of life; if we talked hoops I couldn't hang with him. Rick was an enigma, and I didn't understand why he did certain things — like going out of his way to alienate someone in the media for no good reason, or banning the team's broadcasters from flying on the SLU chartered flight. But I'm also an enigma, and that's why I connected with Majerus so well. If he was your friend, he would do anything for you, 24 hours a day. Just amazingly kind and generous in ways that wasn't always visible to the public. There was also a sadness about Rick. When he moved to St. Louis, I was driving him around one night, showing him various city neighborhoods. And he asked to see my house, so we drove there and parked in front. He didn't want to go inside; he just wanted to stare at it, and he began talking about the choices he made in his life. He had one brief marriage, and no children, and lived in a hotel. But part of Rick longed for that family life, and the old house on a tree-lined street. So he sat in my SUV, and stared at my home, then turned and told me that I was very blessed, and that I should always be devoted to my wife, and I should never put my job before family. As we drove away from my house, Majerus said, "I think I'll buy a house like that, this is really a nice neighborhood." And we both knew it would never happen. Rick was a tormented man, but this internal conflict also produced a sensitive soul that wanted to do whatever he could to ease another person's pain. The term "one of a kind" is overused, but Rick Majerus was definitely one of a kind, and I'll never know anyone like him again. What I learned: everything, really. More than I can adequately explain.
    So I said to David Eckstein, "You promised me, Eckstein, that if I followed you, you would walk with me always. But I noticed that during the most trying periods of my life, there have only been one set of prints in the sand. Why, when I have needed you most, have you not been there for me?" David Eckstein replied, "Because my little legs had gotten tired, and you were carrying me." And I looked down and saw that I was still carrying David Eckstein.
    --fjm.com

  2. #2
    Sam the Sheepdog LA Ute's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    Los Angeles, California
    Posts
    17,726
    Thanks for that, MP. I love it.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

    "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
    --Antoine de Saint-Exupery

    "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
    --Yeats

    “True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”

    --John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell

  3. #3
    He who dares, wins. Damage U's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    Boise, aka Paradise...I wish that was true.
    Posts
    173
    Keith Van Horn was tweeting out Majerus quotes last night. Very funny stuff.

    Check out @Coach_Keith44's Tweet: https://twitter.com/Coach_Keith44/st...843580417?s=09
    F-ing Doleac thinks a pick and roll is still done with his thumb and forefinger. -Rick Majerus
    "We're pretty damn good," -- Coach John Pease

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Damage U View Post
    Keith Van Horn was tweeting out Majerus quotes last night. Very funny stuff.

    Check out @Coach_Keith44's Tweet: https://twitter.com/Coach_Keith44/st...843580417?s=09
    F-ing Doleac thinks a pick and roll is still done with his thumb and forefinger. -Rick Majerus
    Yeah. These were comedy gold over the weekend.

    "Carroll, why don't you transfer to Cal and let the good times f-ing roll. And while your at it take Van Horn with you." -Rick Majerus

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Dwight Schr-Ute View Post
    Yeah. These were comedy gold over the weekend.
    Wow. Sorry to rain on people's parades about Big Rick, but it's not acceptable to treat kids as subhuman like Rick did.

    He won games. A lot of them.

    Nevertheless, I will not pay tribute to a man who treated other human beings the way he did.
    Last edited by Two Utes; 10-05-2015 at 02:40 PM.

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Two Utes View Post
    Wow. Sorry to rain on people's parades about Big Rick, but it's not acceptable to treat kids as subhuman like Rick did.

    He won games. A lot of them.

    Nevertheless, I will not pay tribute to a man who treated other human beings the way he did.
    What a wuss.
    One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike -- and yet it is the most precious thing we have.

    --Albert Einstein

    The fact that life evolved out of nearly nothing, some 10 billion years after the universe evolved out of literally nothing, is a fact so staggering that I would be mad to attempt words to do it justice.

    --Richard Dawkins

    Be kind to all, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.

    --Philo

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Two Utes View Post
    Wow. Sorry to rain on people's parades about Big Rick, but it's not acceptable to treat kids as subhuman like Rick did.

    He won games. A lot of them.

    Nevertheless, I will not pay tribute to a man who treated other human beings the way he did.
    I see what you are saying, and I don't think anyone is thinking of awarding Rick any posthumous humanitarian awards.

    But if the kids he treated as sub-human joke about it, I see no problem laughing along with it.
    Last edited by chrisrenrut; 10-05-2015 at 05:10 PM.
    “To me there is no dishonor in being wrong and learning. There is dishonor in willful ignorance and there is dishonor in disrespect.” James Hatch, former Navy Seal and current Yale student.

  8. #8
    Not a Majerus, but KVH is plenty quotable himself.

    I know all you Mormons would rather be reading Majerus quotes than listening to my man Monson talk at the Lds conf.

  9. #9
    Rick Majerus was a highly complicated person , and nothing about him was black and white. We can allow him his complexity, while simultaneously celebrating him.

    You are fully welcome to start a Criticism of Rick Majerus thread, as most of us will have something to add to that thread as well.

  10. #10
    Sam the Sheepdog LA Ute's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    Los Angeles, California
    Posts
    17,726
    Complex man. His complexity caught up with him at Utah, and later in his life.

    He demanded excellence, his generosity was legendary, and those who worked most closely with him loved him and were devoted to him. That's not a bad epitaph right there.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    Last edited by LA Ute; 10-06-2015 at 10:55 AM.

    "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
    --Antoine de Saint-Exupery

    "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
    --Yeats

    “True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”

    --John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell

  11. #11
    This is the Rick Majerus Memorial thread! If you want to spit on the best coach in Utah history, do it in your own thread!

  12. #12
    Ill never forget Rick Majerus basketball camp 2000. He showed up for about a half hour late in the week, sat on an 8 year old for having a poor defensive stance, and then went on his way. Alex Austin (brother of former Jazz player Ike Austin) threw a folding chair at me because I wasn't playing the way he wanted me to. I was always terrible at basketball, but it was then that I realized that that was a blessing because to succeed at this game meant having to deal with buffoons like Majerus and Austin.

    Still, Majerus did so much for the program. If I have to pick, Ill take Jack Gardner, but man, big Rick could get every last ounce of production out of people.

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by UtahsMrSports View Post

    Still, Majerus did so much for the program. If I have to pick, Ill take Jack Gardner, but man, big Rick could get every last ounce of production out of people.
    I know it's still early, but I can see Krystkowiak becoming a Runnin' Ute coach that we talk about with the same awe and respect as Gardner and Majerus. To me, the only factor in this equation is how long he decides to stay here. If he plants his roots until the end of his career, he'll be a legend here. I have no idea how that vision lines up with his own goals in life. There are blue-er blood collegiate programs he would thrive annually in (imagine what he'd do taking over for the real Coach K when he retires soon), and succeeding as an NBA coach is still the pinnacle of success in the basketball coaching field. I could see him taking one more whack at that.

    Anyway, back to Majerus. Rick (and to a lesser extent, Coach Mac) were where my real Ute fanhood began. I was a fan before they arrived, but they both opened my eyes to what Ute athletics could be.

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by FountainOfUte View Post
    I know it's still early, but I can see Krystkowiak becoming a Runnin' Ute coach that we talk about with the same awe and respect as Gardner and Majerus. To me, the only factor in this equation is how long he decides to stay here. If he plants his roots until the end of his career, he'll be a legend here. I have no idea how that vision lines up with his own goals in life. There are blue-er blood collegiate programs he would thrive annually in (imagine what he'd do taking over for the real Coach K when he retires soon), and succeeding as an NBA coach is still the pinnacle of success in the basketball coaching field. I could see him taking one more whack at that.

    Anyway, back to Majerus. Rick (and to a lesser extent, Coach Mac) were where my real Ute fanhood began. I was a fan before they arrived, but they both opened my eyes to what Ute athletics could be.
    This post is pure Ute homerism, I'll just say that out of the gate about what I'm about to say. I fully acknowledge the same sort of things were said about Urban Meyer and anyone else we desperately wished was a long-term part of the program. That being said...

    One of the things that has impressed me the most about Kodiak and his crew is their commitment to culture and only recruiting kids who not only have talent, but fit the model and are good people. They seem to really care and enjoy developing kids into great basketball players and working with the people they want to work with. The professional basketball setting doesn't allow for any of that. You are managing high talented egos and trying to coerce them into playing like a team. I tend to believe that he is happy here, his family seems to like it and I think they also like the thought of some stability in life. I don't think that Kodiak is your average college coach in a deep desire to move on up, particularly if he believes he can reach the pinnacle at the U.

    One telling story is when he was hired here, Chris Hill offered him a salary mentioning it was about average for PAC12 coaches. Krystkowiak came back the next day asking for nominally more saying, "My wife thinks I'm slightly above average..." That tells me a lot about him and who he is.

    Finally, we have all of the elements in place to create a team that could go all the way now. We have superior facilities, he is rebuilding the tradition and we have the right conference affiliation. Yes you have the challenges that will likely be there for a while longer about perceptions of life in Utah, but that can be overcome. If you can succeed in basketball in Indiana, Kansas or Kentucky you can succeed in Utah.

    I tend to think that he'll be here for a while and won't be entertaining all offers that come along like Majerus did. I think he'll be up there with Jack Gardner when it is all said and done.

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by UtahsMrSports View Post
    Ill never forget Rick Majerus basketball camp 2000. He showed up for about a half hour late in the week, sat on an 8 year old for having a poor defensive stance, and then went on his way. Alex Austin (brother of former Jazz player Ike Austin) threw a folding chair at me because I wasn't playing the way he wanted me to. I was always terrible at basketball, but it was then that I realized that that was a blessing because to succeed at this game meant having to deal with buffoons like Majerus and Austin.


    Still, Majerus did so much for the program. If I have to pick, Ill take Jack Gardner, but man, big Rick could get every last ounce of production out of people.

    Alex Austin is still coaching youth teams and yelling at kids with no point behind the yelling. There's no instruction in the yelling, no encouragement, no nothing. There is no point to it whatsoever. I can't believe parents watch and do nothing.

    Majerus was an abusive genius. Most of the time there was a point to his abuse. Other times, he was just a scared, insecure dickhead who lashed out at those under his control.

    I had a kid who went through this process. he never faced anybody close to as bad as Majerus and he would have never played for anybody like Austin, but he had his share of complete nutballs, throwing things in the locker room, calling him up at midnight and yelling at him etc etc. It certainly was a journey and for whatever reason basketball attracts those types of individuals.

    And, it's a memorial thread. You take the good with the bad. If this were a Bobby Knight or Adolph Rupp memorial thread, you would have to take the good with the bad.

    Van Horn was clearly scarred by Majerus. His tweets are solid evidence of that.
    Last edited by Two Utes; 08-01-2017 at 02:26 PM.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •