Sold-out arena. Frenzied college basketball fans awaiting a big-game tip-off. Pregame ballhandling display and layup line set to music and a light show. Colorful uniforms and basketball shoes.

Countless venues in recent years fit that description, but that type of atmosphere was almost unheard of 40 years ago.

That is, unless fans were lucky enough to watch one of Bill Musselman’s Ashland College basketball teams.

The late Musselman, a 1958 Wooster High graduate, completed his last of six memorable seasons leading the Ashland Eagles four decades ago.

Possibly the greatest Wayne County sportsman that many in the current generation have never heard of, Musselman had a coaching career of great highs and lows. He actually won the Big Ten title as a head coach before area rival Bobby Knight of Orrville, leaving Ashland to lead the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the 1971-72 season that ended with a league championship. Knight began his legendary run at Indiana that same season.

The highly intense Musselman, who was once quoted as saying, “Defeat is worse than death, because you have to live with defeat,” coached in just about every pro league there was after leaving Minnesota. He held 13 head coaching jobs in a 35-year career, including leading the Cleveland Cavaliers during the dismal early 1980s era when Ted Stepien owned the team.

A lifetime spent on the road coaching basketball, which is still probably unfairly marred by a fight his 1971-72 Minnesota team had against Ohio State, ended all too suddenly.

Musselman died at age 59 on May 5, 2000, due to complications from primary systemic amyloidosis, a disease that produces an abnormal protein that collects in tissues and interferes with the function of organs.

For many longtime area basketball fans, their favorite recollections of Musselman were watching him coach at Ashland. The innovations he developed for marketing the game can still be felt throughout the basketball ranks.

“I have pretty fond memories of watching those Ashland teams,” said Musselman’s half-brother, 1976 Wooster High graduate John Miller, who went on to a successful basketball playing career at Xavier and then Bowling Green. “I was in junior high then and (Musselman) would have ‘Sweet Georgia Brown’ playing over the loudspeakers and the team would be doing all kind of special ballhandling drills during warm-ups.

“They had one guy on the team, George Schauer (later known as ‘Crazy George’ after following Musselman to the NBA as a sideshow act), basically just to do ballhandling tricks. He couldn’t really play a lick, but he could spin that ball like no one else I’ve seen since, flip it up under his arm, and all kinds of stuff. They’d have the crowd in a frenzy before the game even started.”

For all the pizzazz that the Ashland, and later Minnesota, teams would display in warm-ups, Musselman’s game plan that followed was in stark contrast. He was much more concerned with defense than offense.

“It would seem like showtime in warm-ups, and all the fans would be standing, but then the game would start and (Musselman) would be all about slowing the game down,” Miller said. “One of his fantasies was having one of his teams get a shutout, but of course he knew in basketball that could never happen.

“That style was OK with the (Ashland) fans, though,” Miller added. “They were more excited about the other team not scoring than seeing a bunch of points.”

Eric Musselman followed in his father’s footsteps and coached the Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings in the 2000s. He also recalled the showman side of his dad that helped change the game.

“The main thing I remember was the warm-up routine,” Eric told NBA.com’s Sam Amico. “It was a lot of music and dance teams like we see now. The whole thing was choreographed.

“They must have worked on their warm-up routine for about an hour-and-a-half (at practice),” added Eric, who now coaches the D-League’s Reno Bighorns. “He was ahead of his time in that regard. The bench was painted gold and the players wore the old Chuck Taylor basketball shoes that matched the school colors. It was a big deal. He was a great Xs-and-Os coach, but people forget how much he knew about the marketing aspect.”

Golden era

In the mid to late 1950s, rural Wayne County had a future winningest Div. I men’s college basketball coach, Cy Young winner, NFL All-Pro and NBA coach all competing against each other at nearby high schools.

Knight was at Orrville, Dean Chance at Northwestern, and Dick Schafrath and Bill Musselman were at Wooster.

Musselman was as good an all-around athlete as any of them and some longtime Wooster residents contend he’s still the school’s best ever.

“Once I got out of high school, I got to be close friends with a lot of guys from Wooster that I’d played against, probably Bill Musselman as much as anybody,” Knight told The Daily Record in a 2006 interview. “He was a great athlete and we played against each other in all three sports.”

Musselman never lost to Knight’s Orrville teams — and actually beat “The General” to coaching a Big Ten title winner.

The second of five children, Musselman graduated as Wooster’s career basketball scoring leader. He was recruited to Wittenberg College (now Wittenberg University) and played for Ray Mears, who later coached Tennessee.

Musselman’s work ethic and dedication was legendary, including a story of him reportedly dribbling the 10 miles along Back Orrville Road from Wooster to Orrville right-handed and dribbling back left-handed.

After graduating from Wittenberg, Musselman coached the now defunct Kent State University High School to a 14-5 record in 1963 at age 23.

The next year, Musselman was hired as an assistant for football and basketball at Ashland College, now known as Ashland University. He was in the right place at the right time because the Eagles’ basketball coach resigned to take another coaching position just a few months before the start of the 1965-66 season. At age 25, Musselman was elevated to head coach.

Showtime at Ashland

Combining the circus-like pregame atmosphere and defensive approach, Musselman compiled an incredible .845 winning percentage (109-20) at Ashland. His teams reached the NCAA Tournament four times, highlighted by a 1968-69 squad that allowed an NCAA record-low 33.9 points a game.

Musselman actually wrote a book using that as the title, “33.9 Defense,” in which he outlined his coaching principles.

“He always had winning teams that played great defense,” Miller said. “It was a matchup zone defense, which was also pretty unusual for that era.

“He always recruited big teams and from all over. He’d have guards who were 6-foot-3, 6-5, 6-6. I remember The College of Wooster being one of the big rivals, those were some pretty phenomenal games.”

Tom Dinger, who is still the Wooster Fighting Scots’ all-time leading scorer, can attest to just how tough the Ashland defense was.

The Fighting Scots split four games with the Eagles during Dinger’s playing days from 1967-71, including a 25-24 Wooster win in the 1967 Mose Hole Classic championship.

“And that was in overtime,” said Dinger, laughing about the low score. “I can remember vividly playing Ashland in those days.

“They had a slow-down offense and the games were usually very low-scoring. They would lead the nation in defense.

“We had some very colorful, intense games. My senior year we beat them in double-overtime, but somehow that game was in the 70s (73-70).”

That showdown when Dinger was a senior illustrated just how zany things could get with Musselman on the sidelines. Wooster, which had a fabulous team itself that finished up 23-3 under coach Al Van Wie, was ready for the Eagles’ pregame antics in the Christmas tournament game played in Marion.

“Before the games, in addition to all the ballhandling and music, Musselman would always have his guys who weren’t going to play much stand at halfcourt and stare at the other team,” Dinger recalled. “It could be intimidating because they had some pretty big guys.

“Well, coach Van Wie had seen that and we sent about eight or 10 of our guys to stand at halfcourt, too, looking face to face right at their guys. Of course, it was pretty hilarious. You’re trying to get ready to play, but have to chuckle when you look over.”

Derailed on fast track to success

Everyone knew it would only be a matter of time before a bigger college came calling for Musselman and that wound up being Minnesota.

Known as one of the most competitive and intense coaches of his era, Musselman led the Golden Gophers to their first Big Ten title in 53 years in his first season. He had a team that included future NBA player Jim Brewer, along with Dave Winfield, who would go on to a hall-of-fame baseball career.

The Gophers went 18-7 in that 1971-72 season, but they lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

That season, as well as Musselman’s career, was tarnished by a brutal fight that took place between the Gophers and Ohio State Buckeyes.

Minnesota players Corky Taylor and Ron Behagen attacked OSU center Luke Witte near the end of an Ohio State win in Minneapolis on Jan. 25, 1972, resulting in Witte being carted off on a stretcher with serious injuries that hampered the rest of his career. Two other Buckeyes were also hospitalized.

Art Holden, who’s in his 35th year as a Daily Record sports reporter, covered Musselman when he was the Cavaliers’ coach. Holden believes Musselman never got to really tell his side of the story.

“(Musselman) told me years later that the Minnesota athletic director put him under a gag order when it came to talking about the fight,” Holden said. “That really backfired on him because he was cast in a bad light.”

Miller called the Minnesota-OSU fight a lasting stain on his brother’s career.

“The sad thing is that if people do remember Bill, even around here, the Minnesota incident and his stint with the Cavs are what they probably think of first,” Miller said. “They probably don’t even know about his time at Ashland, or a lot of the other successful coaching jobs he had.

“If you ‘You Tube’ that Minnesota fight it was pretty nasty. We were watching it on TV and the media got after him pretty bad afterward. It really hurt our mom to hear some of the things that were said.”

Many in the media charged that Musselman had his team too keyed up to play the Buckeyes and actually instigated the brawl.

Miller thinks the character of some of the players involved, who came from rough, inner-city backgrounds, were to blame.

“There were some thugs on that team, there’s really no other way to say it,” Miller said.

Despite the fight, Minnesota upped its attendance from 4,000 per game to 18,000, according to the New York Times. Musselman brought “Crazy George” and his ballhandling antics to Minnesota, as well as his defensive approach.

After four seasons and a 61-32 record leading the Gophers, Musselman opted to join the pro ranks as the head coach of the San Diego Sails of the American Basketball Association in July of 1975.

For a career that started out with so much promise, he would spend the final 25 years of his life on a coaching odyssey that never included more than three years in the same job.

Have clipboard, will travel

It’s easy to see why Musselman decided to leave Minnesota — the allure of the pro game and a considerable salary increase. Bill Heller, author of a book called “Obsession” written about Musselman, reported the coach left a $23,000 annual salary at Minnesota to take a three-year pro deal worth more than $135,000. Unfortunately, the Sails were ship-wrecked just 11 games into the 1975-76 season, folding with a 3-8 record.

One final slap on Musselman’s college record came at about that time when the NCAA placed Minnesota on probation after discovering more than 100 rules violations.

Musselman didn’t stay unemployed long, though, taking over the ABA’s Virginia Squires, during which time he led them to just a 4-22 mark before being fired.

A trip to the Western Basketball Association followed, with Musselman directing the Reno Bighorns to a 28-20 record and the only WBA title game in 1978-79. The league went bankrupt soon after.

The rollercoaster would really pick up speed when infamous Cleveland Cavaliers owner Ted Stepien gave Musselman his first NBA head coaching job in 1980.

It was a franchise that was in such disarray the NBA would eventually forbid Stepien from trading away any more future first-round picks.

Musselman compiled a 25-46 record and was replaced by general manager Don Delaney, who won just three of the final 11 games to finish the 1980-81 season.

Chuck Daly, who later become a legend in Detroit and USA Olympic gold-medal winning coach, actually fared worse with Cleveland during a dismal 1981-82 season that saw four different men lead the team. Daly took over after Delaney (4-13) and Bob Kloppenburg (0-1) started the season, compiling a 9-32 record as the Cavs’ coach.

Musselman, who had been the director of player personnel, probably wished Stepien hadn’t put him back in the musical coaching chair after going just 2-21 to close out his second and final stint leading the Cavs.

Coaching gigs in the Continental Basketball Association (Sarasota, Tampa Bay, Albany) followed before the NBA’s expansion Minnesota Timberwolves hired Musselman as their first coach in 1988. He led the T’Wolves to records of 22-60 and 29-53, which were actually the best marks for an expansion team at the time, but wound up being fired again.

It was back to the CBA for a stint with Rochester (Minn.) before Musselman returned to the college ranks after a 25-year absence to coach South Alabama. He led the Jaguars to the NCAA Tournament and a 23-7 record in 1996-97.

However, Musselman made one final career move — going back to the NBA where he served as an assistant coach for the first time. Musselman worked under the Portland Trail Blazers Mike Dunleavy Sr. for three seasons before passing away in 2000.

Lasting legacy

An older brother, Bob, died of ALS, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, about a year before Bill passed away.

“It really took a toll on my mother,” said Miller, of Bertha Musselman, who lived in Wooster until dying just a few years ago. “Bill had seemed really down about our older brother dying.

“They both had pretty rare diseases. Not much is known about what Bill had.”

Miller, who was an assistant basketball coach at Wooster High until recently, is a teacher at the Wayne County Schools Career Center. While Knight, Schafrath and Chance are local legends whose names pop up frequently, he doesn’t hear Bill Musselman mentioned too often.

That’s OK with Miller because reminders of his brother are constant for him. All he has to do is watch the choreographed extra entertainment at a basketball game, or hear a coach praised for his intensity by the media.

And Musselman could coach, too, winding up with a 233-84 record at the college level. He was just 78-180 in the NBA, but never got the chance to coach a competitive team at that level.

“My brother really did a lot for the game,” Miller said. “I’ve never met a more competitive person. He was a very good coach.”

Musselman may be gone, but when his entire career is considered, he left, more than anything, a lasting, positive imprint on the game he loved.

Aaron Dorksen can be reached at 330-287-1621 or adorksen@the-daily-record.com

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