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Jack Mccloskey

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wfu22fan

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Was featured on the "Bad Boys" documentary on ESPN 30 for 30. Looks good to be 89. I recall that he was the WFU coach during the Charlie Davis years. Does anyone remember much about him? I attended his basketball camp and Charlie was there, teaching shooting technique . The next year Tacy was hired .
 
Jack coached Penn before Wake. Among his assistants were Dick Harter and Digger Phelps. My friend's father was also an assistant at Penn. Sometimes when we played pick-up games Jack was there.

After Wake he went on to a failed effort as a HC with the Blazers. Then he moved upstairs. I think he was called Trader Jack. His moves built the historically awful Pistons into a powerhouse. I think he was also the power behind hiring Chuck Daly as their coach.
 
Never got it done as Wake head coach, generally considered a failure here but nowhere close to the failure of Staak and (name redacted)
 
Interesting... I remember he was coach at Wake before Tacy and I remember Trader Jack. However, never once did I connect the dots that they were one in the same. Thanks for that tidbit...
 
Smart guy. Personable too. Guess he didn't have the players other than Charlie and Gil.
 
The 30 for 30 portrayed him as the genius who built the Pistons into champions. Great drafts and trades.
 
Remember article as young boy in dad's Wake magazine with pic of him on quad talking to captains Davis and Dickie Walker (I think that was his name....dark haired with letterman jacket IIRC)
 
wfu22fan said:
Smart guy. Personable too. Guess he didn't have the players other than Charlie and Gil.
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He had excellent players, and not just Gil and CD. Dickie Walker, John Lekowic [sp?] and Norwood Toddman were all pretty good. He missed out on Artis Gilmore, but that's another story. Billy Packer was an excellent recruiter - but left due to frustration with Wake administration - and Neil Johnson was a big guy who had played in the NBA. We should have been better with our talent. McCloskey just couldn't recruit once Packer left, nor could he out coach Dean Smith, Vic Bubas or Frank McGuire, and so he headed for the NBA at first opportunity.
 
I had forgotten how much I disliked the "bad boys". It is hard to argue that they were good for the NBA.
 
Anyone remember Nick Orenzek (sp?), Sam Jackson. or Willie Griffin? Didn't they play for both McCloskey and Tacy?
 
bcobbdeacs said:
Never got it done as Wake head coach, generally considered a failure here but nowhere close to the failure of Staak and (name redacted)
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Would have been one of the great ones "IF"....we had not been the deciding vote on letting incoming jucos in with the same 800 SAT requirements as an incoming freshman into the ACC. It only stayed the rule I think for a year or so, but it cost of Artis Gilmore coming from Gardner Webb. He would have been our center, moved Gil McGregor to his natural power forward position and had CD at the guard. The rest could have changed our history. Instead he led Jacksonville to the Final Four. Typical LOWF move
 
80deac said:
Anyone remember Nick Orenzek (sp?), Sam Jackson. or Willie Griffin? Didn't they play for both McCloskey and Tacy?
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Willie is a retired teacher and firefighter. He is still in the area calling youth league games.
 
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