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.