Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1368856
64 JUNE/JULY 2021 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED WHERE HAVE YOU GONE? The legendary Irish men's basketball head coach was hired 50 years ago this month BY TODD D. BURLAGE F rom numerous visits to Madison Square Garden in New York City and Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles as a coach, to working in the White House and in Cambodia as a civilian, Richard "Digger" Phelps spent his lifetime doing and seeing everything there is to do and see, until he had finally done and seen enough. After 40 years of running through crowded airports trying to get to his next destination for a game or a presidential assignment, Phelps more peacefully now begins each new day with a serene and private 40-min- ute walk around the beautiful Notre Dame campus, where he can stretch his legs, collect his thoughts and rec- ollect on a fascinating life. "I said, 'Enough is enough,' and I gave it all up," Phelps said of first leaving the coaching ranks in 1991 and then trading in his ESPN micro- phone seven years ago for a paint- brush and walking shoes. "And with that, I put myself in a position to do what I want, when I want to do it. That's how I live now." Phelps will turn 80 on July 4. And in typical boastful fashion, the man who took the Notre Dame coaching job 50 years ago this month joked, "and the entire nation will celebrate my birthday." THE EARLY YEARS Even after living in South Bend for the last 50 years, Phelps' tough New York accent is still evident. Phelps grew up the son of a funeral director with his two younger sisters a few miles north of New York City along the Hudson River in scenic Beacon, N.Y. New York tough and ornery, Phelps earned his lasting "Digger" nickname through his mischievous deeds. While working as an eighth-grade batboy for the Beacon High School baseball team, Phelps would sneak back to the bus during batting prac- tice on road games and raid the play- ers' lunch bags. Once his cover was blown, the play- ers pulled Phelps to the back of the bus for a "teaching moment." Summoning his coach for some help, Phelps struck out. "Phelps, if you don't stop eating their cupcakes and cookies, we're going to put you in one of your old man's boxes," the coach warned his batboy. "Do you understand that Dig- ger O'Dell?" The name "Digger O'Dell" was a reference to a friendly undertaker character on an old 1940s radio show called "The Life of Riley." The nickname stuck. "The next day at practice, I wasn't any longer Richie, it was Dig- ger O'Dell," Phelps recalled with a chuckle. "The O'Dell eventually dropped and Digger stayed." Always planning to follow his fa- ther's career path, Phelps finished high school and earned a business degree from Rider College in New Jersey (now Rider University) with the in- tention of completing his coursework at the Simmons Institute of Funeral Service in Syracuse, N.Y., before join- ing his father. Instead, a chance opportunity after college graduation during the summer of 1963 to work under Beacon basket- ball coach Tom Winterbottom, who had just led Beacon to a 20-0 record against rugged New York competition, brought a change in his career plans. Phelps decided to at least delay em- balming school, return to Rider in 1964 to pursue a master's degree and serve as a graduate assistant for the univer- sity's basketball team. Phelps played for the Broncs as an undergraduate. A quick study, Phelps was assigned to put together a scouting report for an upcoming road game between little Rider College and mighty New York University, a team that hadn't lost at home in 20 years. "I found some vulnerabilities," Phelps recalled, "so I told our coaches if we did A, B and C on offense, and A, B and C on defense, we could beat them." Phelps was ordered to build the game plan, Rider pulled the impos- sible upset, and Digger was hooked. "You know what," he said, "I can do this stuff." Phelps said he wrote about a dozen letters to top colleges and college coaches to offer his services, but he received little response. Notre Dame football coach Ara Par- seghian received one of those letters. "I love the essence of Notre Dame and what you're doing in football," Phelps wrote. "Someday, I want to do that in basketball there." Six years after Phelps sent that let- ter — and one year after as the head coach at Fordham in 1970-71 he led the Rams to a 24-2 record, a win over Notre Dame that season and a No. 9 Digger Phelps, 1971-91 Among other highlights, Phelps led the Irish to their only Final Four in 1978, but remains most proud of his players' 100-percent graduation rate. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME MEDIA RELATIONS BEATING THE BEST Former Notre Dame men's basketball coach Digger Phelps is tied with former Maryland coach Gary Williams for the most all-time wins over top-ranked teams with seven. Here are Phelps' conquests of the nation's best: Date Opponent Score Jan. 19, 1974 UCLA 71-70 March 5, 1977 San Francisco 93-82 Feb. 26, 1978 Marquette 65-59 Feb. 27, 1980 DePaul 76-74 (2OT) Dec. 27, 1980 Kentucky 67-61 Feb. 22, 1981 Virginia 57-56 Feb. 1, 1987 North Carolina 60-58