Character study

Thirty years ago, one of the most unlikely champions in college basketball history was crowned in Atlanta, and its unforgettable coach wept on the bench. Marquette legend Al McGuire, who had announced three months earlier that he would retire at the end of the season, won the last game he ever coached, and the indelible image of him in newspapers and on NBC with tearns in his eyes is one of the Final Four's cherished memories.

For fans looking to relive some of that magic, or to revisit one of the sport's most colorful personalities, broadcasting icon Dick Enberg is giving people that opportunity. His one-man play, McGuire, will have three showings during Final Four weekend at Atlanta's Alliance Theatre, giving the college basketball world another chance to hear from the wise-cracking New Yorker.

"This is the most unforgettable character that I've ever met and there is no one even in second place," said Enberg, who worked with McGuire for 14 years at NBC and helped usher in college basketball's dramatic rise in popularity.

When McGuire died of leukemia at 72 in 2001, McGuire's son Allie asked Enberg to write the notes for the memorial program. Enberg said it was a daunting task to write for the man he says was the most influential in his life outside of his father.

"I resolved by having Al write it himself, with all his McGuire-isms," Enberg said. "As I wrote that, I realized there was so much he had given me. As I started writing the program, I thought I should just write down all the information -- the wisdom, the humor, the craziness that was Al McGuire."

The idea for a one-man play was born, and Enberg says he felt McGuire's presence during his writing.

"It was almost like he came into the room with me. It was eerie at times," Enberg says. "I'd be pounding away at the typewriter and I would get stuck. And it was as if Al was over my right shoulder and said, 'Hey Dick-sie, it's not that way, it's this way.' And I would get back on track."

The play, performed by Cotter Smith, opened in the summer of 2005 with 11 showings on the Marquette campus. After 11 standing ovations and 11 sellouts, McGuire returned in the summer of 2006 with the same results.

"It was overwhelming. I've done a lot of theatre in my life and I have never experienced the personal, emotional connection that people felt," said Smith, who grew up in D.C. and now lives in Milwaukee. "We're talking about Milwaukee, people that really knew him. The lobby was packed after shows with people that wanted to tell stories about him. The hunger for people who miss him, you could feel they were so happy to just listen to Al again. He just tickled people."

McGuire coached at Marquette for 13 years, winning over 20 games 11 times and building a reputation as a freelance coach who let players be themselves. His final Marquette team was not his best, but the Warriors (as Marquette was then called) made a run through the NCAA tournament for their beloved, outgoing coach and ended up beating North Carolina in the championship game, 67-59.