If there was one thing Chuck Daly always had time for it was the
people of Kane.
That’s the message Kane native and local sports historian Ed
Rose of Beaumont, Texas, emphasized Monday night, two days after
the veteran NBA Hall of Fame coach died of pancreatic cancer at age
78.
“Whether you went to visit him or to a ballgame, Chuck always
had time for people from Kane,” Rose said. “I’d call him right out
of the blue and he’d take time to talk to me about what happened in
a high school basketball game 60 years ago.”
Rose talked to Daly by phone about six months ago – before he
was diagnosed with cancer.
“Kane has lost a legend in the sport of basketball,” Rose
declared. “Chuck was a great guy. It’s a big loss.”
Daly was born July 20, 1930, in St. Marys. He grew up in Kane
and graduated from Kane High School in 1948. Daly played on the
1947-48 Kane High basketball team which lost in the western finals
of the state playoffs. The team was coached by Stu Edwards.
“Through determination and hustle, the 1947-48 edition of the
Wolves made it all the way to western finals of the Pennsylvania
Class B playoffs, with Chuck Daly being the only player standing
over 6-feet,” Rose writes in his soon-to-be-published book “Hilltop
Heroes.”
“Senior Chuck Daly gave the Wolves a strong inside presence and
junior Jim Bovard was a consistent threat from the outside. Junior
Jimmie Thompson and sophomore Bud Daly (Chuck’s brother) also
emerged as clutch performers on the team.”
“All this has been accomplished,” wrote Johnny Nelson in ‘Sports
Corner’ in the March 22nd 1948 edition of The Bradford Era, “with a
team that looks more like a junior varsity squad when it steps on
the floor. From (Chuck) Daly, the Kane size drops down to little
Jimmie Thompson at a mere 5 feet-4 inches – a youngster who would
not even be considered big in a junior league game.”
“It was Bud Daly who stole the show when Kane gained a berth in
the Western finals in 1948. The five foot-nine inch sophomore, who
sometimes played pivot, rallied the Wolves to a story-book victory
over a larger and more physical Mercer team, scoring three baskets
from the outside in the final few minutes.
“I guess I just threw in a couple of shots from somewhere around
half court,” Bud Daly remembers fondly. According to a Bradford Era
game report in the March 22nd, 1948 edition, “The Wolves waged a
game-long uphill fight Saturday night and finally clinched with a
Frank Merriwell 8-point sprint in the last 2 minutes and 30 seconds
of the ball game. Bud Daly, the younger of the two Daly boys in the
Kane lineup, was the hero of the night.”
“Next up for the Kane Wolves in the western final was Irwin High
School, defending Class B champions of Pennsylvania. According to a
March 31 report in The Bradford Era, ‘The Title defenders shattered
all hopes the McKean countians had for the B honors in the early
period of the game, breezing to a 16-5 lead and then holding the
11-point advantage at half time, 27-16. Kane fought back
desperately and twice in the last half pulled within eight points,
but could get no closer.'”
Chuck Daly’s role model was coach Edwards, according to
Rose.
“Edwards was a sharp dresser,” Rose said. “Chuck Daly was part
of who he (Edwards) was. Chuck always looked like a million
bucks.”
“He (Edwards) helped me get my first coaching job and was one of
the major influences in my professional life,” Rose quotes Chuck as
saying. Chuck “learned first hand in Punxsutawney that making ends
meet as high school teacher and basketball coach was a difficult
proposition. Daly sometimes resorted to refereeing high school
football games during his days in Punxsy to earn a few extra
bucks,” according to Rose’s excerpts.
“There was a lot of substance to Chuck. Chuck only wanted to do
one thing – and that was be a professional coach,” Rose pointed
out.
“Coach Edwards’ teams always made a good showing,” Rose said.
“They would play a team out of Pittsburgh and that would be the end
of the line.”
However, in 1949, Edwards led Kane to the state title. Don Frase
had the game-winning tip-in to give the Wolves the triumph over
Ashley High School.
“I think about what he did – to go from coaching Punxsutawney
High School to the Hall of Fame,” said Frase, who lives in Macedon,
N.Y. “The guy was totally into basketball. I’ve never seen anything
like it.
“Chuck used to go to Buffalo (N.Y.) for college basketball
doubleheaders on Saturdays. He used to go from Punxsy to Buffalo.
He said he learned a lot about basketball from these top college
teams.
“It was a real privilege to know the guy. He was a super
guy.”
“Referring to the epochal 1948-49 Kane Wolves basketball team,
Johnny Nelson, Jr., of The Bradford Era in his Sports Corner column
dated November 22, 1951, wrote “As long as there is a Kane, they’ll
always talk about this basketball gang and its exploits,” according
to an excerpt from Rose’s book.
“Nearly 60 years later, Nelson’s words ring true as Coach Stuart
Edwards and his Golden Boys remain part of the firmament of Kane
High School athletics. This team for the ages, an extraordinary
collection of headstrong boys, earned their lofty mantle under
Coach Stu with a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck. Today
the accomplishments of Coach Edwards’ 1948-49 Wolves remain the
standard by which all other Kane teams are measured.”
Chuck Daly and the late Guy B. Mayo, who lived in Smethport,
were first cousins.
In Chuck’s 1990 book, “Daly Life,” the NBA coach referenced Guy
Mayo.
“When I was 12 years old, our two cousins – Guy and Kenny Mayo –
came to our house for Christmas,” Chuck wrote. “They knew Bud and I
were crazy about sports especially basketball so they gave us a
pure white leather basketball.
“When you don’t have much materially in life and suddenly you
own such a treasure you think you have died and gone to heaven. Bud
and I couldn’t believe it. Nobody in the world had a white
basketball except for the Daly brothers.”
Andy De Lancey, grandson of Guy Mayo, said Daly sent him a
1983-84 autographed team photo of the Detroit Pistons.
“I wrote him a letter when I was 13- or 14-years-old and told
him who I was,” said De Lancey, a former Smethport resident who now
lives in Pittsburgh. “I told him about my interest in basketball
and sports.
“I asked him if he could send me an autographed picture. He said
he did remember my grandfather and that maybe some day we would be
able to meet. A few years later I met him in Kane during Chuck Daly
Day.”
