Coaching icon Bob Hurley on "60 Minutes" should be worth a watch

FROM KEITH GROLLER

The previous post on Groller's Corner was about Ron Hassler and when I think about Hassler I also think about St. Anthony's coaching legend Bob Hurley, Sr.

That's because while some people around here have knocked Hassler's style over the years, I will always remember the compliment Hurley gave Hassler about eight or nine years ago when I went down to Jersey City for a St. Anthony's-Central Catholic game while Hassler was coaching the Vikings.

Hurley didn't allow you on his schedule unless he respected you and he respected Hassler.

He said the sets, screens and halfcourt scheme that Hassler had offensively was as complex and challenging as any his team would see all year and was a great challenge for his St. Anthony's kids to defense. He really considered going against Hassler's CCHS team a valuable learning experience for his kids.

St. Anthony's won the game that night and has won more than any other high school team in the nation and Hurley is considered the John Wooden of high school basketball.

He won't come back to the Lehigh Valley because he had a bad experience with some fans during one of the first Hoop Group events.

But no matter what you think of him as a person, you have to think the world of him as a coach and teacher of the game of basketball.

I mention all of this because Hurley, as you may have seen during NCAA tournament commercials, will be featured in a segment on Sunday night's "60 Minutes program on CBS. It should be an interesting, enlightening look at one of the great minds in basketball.

Here's more from a CBS News/Interactive story previewing Hurley's appearance

The St. Anthony Friars are undefeated this year and were named the number-one high school basketball team in the nation - and they don't even have their own gym. The tiny Catholic school in Jersey City, N.J., does have Coach Bob Hurley though, whose 24 state championships and 1,000-plus wins speak to his elite, rigorous program that he says just "isn't meant for everybody."

Steve Kroft talks to the legendary high school coach who many call America's best for a "60 Minutes" story to be broadcast this Sunday, March 27 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

More than 150 of his players have gone through his strict program to win scholarships to Division One colleges, making it past 10:00 p.m. curfews and periodic drug testing, not to mention his drill-sergeant style of coaching. Some have rebelled against his old-school style. "Oh, yeah," acknowledges Hurley, "That's why I think there are hinges on doors...this is not meant for everybody," he tells Kroft. "And every time somebody goes out the door...because they didn't have it, the rest of them feel a little bit better about themselves and I think the group gets a little tighter."

Hurley makes it clear to his players what is expected of them by having them sign a contract, the breeching of which leads to discipline, suspension or worse. There are 19 rules. "[No] alcohol, cigarettes, narcotics...Some of them are...short haircuts, no tattoos...jewelry has to be basic," says Hurley. "I've had people in communities say to me they think a kid may be 'hard partying'...so because of the contract, I'll take an entire team to a drug treatment program [and] we'll test them."

In 39 years of coaching the Friars varsity, only two of his players did not go on to college, and that was because they chose not to.

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