The Passing of a Legend: Pete Newell

I don't know if there's a man that has meant more to California athletics than Pete Newell, who passed away today at the age of 93.

It's too bad that we only have his legacy now--and that the Berkeley campus is about 40 years removed from it.

Newell's name is the one that adorns the hardwood at Haas Pavilion (Harmon Gym). He's the one with a statue in the club room, tucked away in a corner (and after reading countless of stories about who Newell was, I think if there was any place for a statue honoring him to be placed anywhere at Cal, it'd be in the corner somewhere. He'd rather have no statue actually, and I'm sure of it, but if the university wanted to give him a statue, it was going to be in a corner).

Newell's the one who brought that 1959 NCAA championship banner to Cal. He's the one who led a team of no-names to that national title, beating Oscar Robertson's Cincinnati team in the Final Four and then the Jerry West-led West Virginia in the final. No one for the Bears in 1958-59 was named to the all-conference team, let alone garnered national attention individually.

But if there was anyone who stood for what Cal was during its glory days, it was two men--football coach Pappy Waldorf and Newell.

The thing is, Newell is probably not as revered as he should be. He left coaching after the 1960 season and then went on to run the athletic department during Cal's most turbulent time, all the way until 1968.

Maybe it's the times, especially with football and the angst over getting back to the Rose Bowl dominating the consciousness of the campus, but you hardly ever hear Newell's name mentioned amongst the students these days.

To many students who walk through the student gate and onto The Bench, Newell probably isn't even a second or third thought. He's just the guy whose name is on the floor in front of them.

Waldorf's greatness is reminded to Cal students almost every fall, with so much attention put on how Jeff Tedford is close to achieving Waldorf's stature.

But for Cal students, whenever they want to remember basketball greatness, they look back only about 15 years to Jason Kidd and his measly Sweet Sixteen apperance. There's no mention of 1959. No mention of the national title that watches over them in Haas Pavilion. Kidd was more recent and is a bigger name. Kidd's teams should attract that kind of misty-eyed romance of what Cal basketball was, should be and could be.

But Newell's teams should trump Kidd's bravato.

Newell won four consecutive conference titles before he retired. He beat UCLA's almost-holy coach, John Wooden, eight straight times before Newell was asked to step down by doctors for health reasons.

Newell dumbfounded the Wizard of Westwood. God do we wish we still had someone today that could do that.

But while the Bruins faithful look up to Wooden as they should, with a god-like awe, the students at Cal don't or didn't with Newell.

Maybe it's because Newell wasn't around as much as Wooden is. Maybe it's because Wooden's success came after Newell was done beating him. Maybe it's because Newell's team achieve things so great that it's hard to believe that a basketball team with the word "Bears" or "California" could have done what they did in 1959.

That stuff is all hearsay. It's meant for the history books and romantic illusions of a time that has since come and gone.

And though Newell's contributions to Cal and its students may have gone lost amongst this current crop of students, it should no longer be forgotten.

Cal will remember Newell tomorrow night at Haas Pavilion and finally, the current Cal community will know who he was. Who he is.

It's too bad that it's taken this long. But let's never forget his legacy and cheer his name once more, the way it was when he was the one on the sidelines.

The way it should be, whether he liked it or not.

Stories about Pete Newell:

• Daily Cal: Former Cal Basketball Coaching Great Pete Newell Dies at 93
  
• Associated Press: Former Cal coach Newell dies at 93
• San Francisco Chronicle: Pete Newell: Basketball coach and teacher dies
• Contra Costa Times: Coaching legend Pete Newell dead at 93
• Bruce Jenkins, Chronicle Sports Columnist: Great coach, Great man