By Mark Wilson 12/31/13

Johnny Orr died on New Year’s Eve.

It’s very sad but there’s something richly apropos about that. A more fun-loving, party kind of guy you will never meet. Everything he did seemed to be a good time.

Even losing.

Orr lost 346 times in his 29 seasons as a head college basketball coach at U-Mass, Michigan and Iowa State. I’d be willing to bet that, as angry as he might have been about each loss, he found a way to turn them into a positive. The old “Dry Idea” antiperspirant TV commercial MUST have come from an “Orr-ism.”

“Never let ‘em see ya sweat!”

Orr’s legacy as a profound and master motivator was solidified the day he arrived on campus in Ames, Iowa. The music chosen for his entrance into the Hilton Coliseum on game nights was the Johnny Carson “Tonight Show” theme song.

Not just because they were both named “Johnny,” but because when Orr paraded in you knew there was a SHOW about to begin.

Born in 1927, Orr became an Illinois high school hoop star. He is one of the “100 legends” of the IHSA boy’s basketball tournament leading Taylorville to the first perfect championship season (45-0) in the state’s history.

He went on from there to compete in three sports at the University of Illinois; being the youngest to do it in the process.

Following a stint in the U.S. Navy to end World War II, Orr settled in at Beloit College in Illinois joining his former high school mentor Dolph Stanley who coached hoops for 60 years.

Orr even played 34 games of pro basketball in the league that eventually melded into the NBA.

Stanley gave Johnny the coaching bug.

He wound up in Iowa as the head man at Dubuque High School; spent most of the 1950’s in that gig. His first college job was as an assistant at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

The first head coaching position came at Massachusetts Amherst, now U-Mass. His first game was right around the assassination of President Kennedy.

After three years and 39 victories out east, Orr headed back to his Midwestern roots as an assistant to Dave Strack at Michigan.
“Strack was one helluva coach,” Orr told me.

I’m not sure I remember a single sentence from “Coach” that didn’t include some type of swear word or saucy language. It wasn’t the hard swearing… just a lot of “hell,” “damn,” and “ass.”

And that’s another thing. My FAVORITE thing about Johnny Orr. He called everyone “Coach.”

“Hey, Coach!” “Hiya, Coach!” “Hello, Coach!”

When you talked to Orr he had to say “hi” to everyone even during interviews. And EVERY ONE was “Coach.”

Even his wife Romie he called Coach.

I never asked why he did that and I didn’t care.

I was—- COACH.

Orr obviously found that to be a very respected term of endearment. Plus, he couldn’t have possibly remembered the names of all those people. He knew just about every person on the planet and didn’t want to embarrass anyone by forgetting their names.

So, “Coach” it was.

My second favorite thing about Orr was the story behind his leaving Ann Arbor.
Orr had coached Michigan to the national championship game in 1976 against Bobby Knight and his unbeaten Indiana powerhouse. The Hoosiers gave it to the Wolverines that night at the Spectrum in Philadelphia, 86-68. Michigan had dominated Rutgers to get to the title tilt.

He actually had a BETTER season in 1976-77, going 26-4 and winning the Big 10 conference outright, but lost to UNC Charlotte in the Mideast Region Finals. UNCC had “Cornbread” Maxwell on that team.

It was the game prior to the loss that Orr referred too in a famous ESPN interview years later with Dick Vitale on the set.

Michigan defeated the University of Detroit, coached by Vitale, 86-81. It turned out to be the last game Dickie V. coached at McNichols and Livernois. Vitale would go on to take the Detroit Pistons job.

During the interview, Vitale reminded Orr that his last college game was a loss to Johnny’s Michigan bunch at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky.

“Yeah and we kicked your ass!” Orr screamed with his Iowa State players howling with laughter behind him.

Well, it was by FIVE points but who’s counting?

The next three seasons were not great ones for Orr at Michigan.
Overall they went 48-and-36 and didn’t finish higher than 4th in the conference. There were no more NCAA Tournament appearances; just one lonely trip to the NIT.

After the 1980 campaign, Orr got a phone call from the athletic director at Iowa State. He was inquiring about the availability of John’s assistant, Bill Frieder.

The previous SIX coaches in Ames had failed to finish with a record even approaching .500. Lynn Nance, who as recently as last season was still an assistant coach at LSU, had resigned during the year with a record of 40-and-59 in his four mundane seasons.

Iowa State hadn’t made the tournament since 1944.

They were targeting Frieder.

In the conversation, Orr casually asked what the Cyclones’ athletic department was willing to pay a young guy like “Freeds.” After all, he was ONLY an assistant but did win back to back state prep championships at Flint Northern before joining Orr’s Michigan staff.

When Orr heard… his eyes bugged out.

I know this because he told me that… “His eyes bugged out.”

More laughter.

By the time Orr got off the phone, HE was the new head coach at Iowa State University.

Johnny had convinced the ISU A.D. that it wasn’t Freeds he wanted. It was “Coach” that he wanted.

Basically, Orr STOLE the gig from Frieder.

He “kicked his ass!”

To be fair, John had played and coached in Iowa and Freeds would not have been overly excited to high tail it to corn country. Orr figured the administration would award HIS job to Frieder which Orr knew all along was Freed’s dream coaching fantasy.

A press conference was held in late April 1980. Orr was bouncing to Ames and Bill Frieder was the new head man in Ann Arbor.

It all worked out fine.

His first three seasons at ISU quite frankly, sucked.

Those Cyclone squads went 32-and-50 but they did improve each season. By year four, Orr had Iowa State over .500 at 16-13 and a bid to the NIT.

Orr’s 1984-85 unit finally broke through. They won 21 games. It was the first time in the school’s history, which dates back to 1908 in basketball, that the 20-win plateau had been achieved. It also ended the 44 year drought from the NCAA tourney.

Big John, and his Carson entrance, was dancing again.

He would rack up 20 or more victories four more times in his career at Iowa State never getting further than the Sweet 16 in the tournament. But, he resurrected ISU hoops and made it viable for recruits. His three biggest were current Phoenix Suns head coach Jeff Hornacek, Flint native Jeff Grayer and “The Mayor,” Fred Hoiberg.

Hoiberg is now the head coach at his alma mater.

After going just 14-and-13 in 1993-94, Orr retired from coaching. He was 67 years old and thought it was time.

There was a quick rumor in 1996 about John coming back to the state as a replacement for Ben Braun at Eastern Michigan but he quashed that quickly.

As it stands, Orr is one of the few people to be the winningest basketball coach at TWO major institutions. His 209 victories is still the gold standard at Michigan and his 218 ranks number one in Iowa State annals.

Orr seemed to return to Michigan quite a bit even as head coach in Ames. He’d make the rubber chicken dinner circuit in the summer, see old friends and do some recruiting. Even to his final season at ISU, Johnny recruited the state of Michigan hard.
In confidence he would tell other “coaches” that stealing Grayer in 1984 out of Flint Northwestern where he played for Grover Kirkland remained a crowing achievement on the recruiting trail. It was assumed that Grayer would no doubt pick either Frieder at Michigan or Jud Heathcote at MSU.

To this day, Grayer is the all-time leading scorer in Iowa State’s record books with 2,502 points.

After his retirement, Orr continued to come to Michigan for speaking engagements. He would be a frequent interview of mine at FOX 2 Detroit; always providing levity, humor and insight.

Every time he was on, he called me, “Coach.”

That was repeated in 2000 when Tom Izzo had the best team in the nation and on its way to the national title when the Spartans ran into Iowa State during the tournament. The game was played at the Palace; like “Breslin Center East” for Michigan State.

“This ain’t no fair that Izzo gets a damn home game!” screamed Orr in jest. “Hell with it, we’ll just beat him here then!”

John was REALLY pumped when the regional final came to fruition.

Iowa State, then coached by Larry Eustachy, rolled UCLA 80-56 to set up the matchup with MSU who blew out Syracuse.

“I friggin told ya it would come down to those two,” Orr said.

It was like he was coaching again.

He predicted a one point ISU victory but instead, he got a 75-64 loss to put Izzo and the Spartans in Indianapolis for the Final Four. Iowa State had not been to a Final Four since 1944 and Orr REALLY wanted to go.

They probably would have dusted off the old Carson theme for John. He would have made a grand entrance at the RCA Dome; waving to the Cyclone fans in the stands… drinking it all in.

Orr got to see Michigan do it four times since his departure.

It never seemed like he was much into the “Fab Five” era under Steve Fisher. Previously, he was openly upset that Frieder left A-squared for Arizona State. He thought Bo Schembechler was right for not allowing Freeds to coach that 1989 team in the tournament and was happy for Fisher to win it all that season.

I never knew what he thought about John Beilein taking Michigan to the championship game this past season.

If Iowa State does ever get back to the Final Four, they’ll have to do it without “Coach.”

Maybe they can play that theme song and show a tape of Orr making that entrance at the Hilton. He can rally the troops. He can bust out the smile that made everyone feel important and relevant in his world.

At age 86, he was still laughing and joking and playing golf. The clubhouse dudes and his caddies were all his “coaches.” They were the benefit of one of the great guys to pace a college basketball sideline. Hard to believe Johnny Orr is gone but somewhere up there I know what he’s thinking.

He kicked your ass.