Running off at the typewriter. …
There are coaches who build programs by winning championships, signing blue-chip recruits and cutting down nets.
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And then there are coaches like Joe Dean Jr., who helped build a program simply by showing up when almost nothing was there.
Dean, the former UCF basketball coach who died at age 71 a few days ago after a long battle with dementia, will never have his name hanging from the rafters at UCF. His record during four seasons from 1989-93 was 37-73. He never had a winning season. He stepped down after four difficult years.
But judging Dean’s UCF career by wins and losses isn’t fair. Dean wasn’t hired to drive a Cadillac. He was handed a clunker and asked to help build the road.
UCF athletics in those days wasn’t the big-time Big 12 operation we know today. It was an athletic department trying desperately to grow up, with limited resources and much of the money, energy and fundraising attention being poured into a fledgling football program with big-time aspirations. When Dean arrived, there wasn’t even a telephone in the basketball office.
UCF basketball needed somebody willing to take the job.
Dean did.
And he brought something UCF desperately needed: credibility.
He had played at Mississippi State. He had been an assistant at Kentucky on the Wildcats’ 1978 national championship team. And, perhaps most importantly from a name-recognition standpoint, he was the son of the legendary Joe Dean Sr. — the longtime SEC television analyst and Converse executive who knew seemingly everybody in college basketball and famously turned a swished jump shot into two unforgettable words:
“String music!”
The elder Dean was one of college basketball’s great ambassadors, working for Converse from 1959-87 while becoming the SEC’s signature television voice. His son brought some of that basketball cachet to a UCF program still searching for an identity.
Think about what Dean had to endure. In his four years, UCF played in three different conferences. He was trying to build the house, but UCF’s program kept switching addresses.
Perhaps his greatest legacy at UCF is Dean was coaching in 1991 when UCF finally moved out of its tiny dank gymnasium and into its first legitimate basketball arena — a sparkling, by UCF standards, 5,100-seat facility. Dean coached the Knights to an 82-74 victory over Campbell in the inaugural game.
It seems quaint now, particularly when you look at the facilities, money and conference affiliation UCF enjoys today.
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But somebody had to coach in the little gym before there was a big one.
Somebody had to recruit before UCF was a recognizable national brand.
Somebody had to lose the games before somebody else could win them.
“He was a cornerstone of the foundation of UCF’s present success,” says Paul Kennedy, the legendary state broadcaster who was Dean’s former television partner at Jefferson Pilot. “He had the three C’s – class, character and connections – that helped bring UCF to the attention of the major college basketball world.”
Dean understood better than most that basketball is bigger than a record. He loved the game enough to devote his life to it – even after it nearly took his life. During a recruiting trip while he was an assistant coach, Dean and his wife survived a plane crash that killed the pilot.
He kept coaching.
And after coaching, he kept talking basketball, following his father’s path into broadcasting and spending nearly two decades as an SEC television analyst while also serving as athletic director at Birmingham Southern.
Joe Dean Jr. didn’t leave UCF with championships, banners or a sterling record.
He left something less visible.
He left a few bricks in the foundation.
And when you look at what UCF athletics has become, it’s worth remembering the people who were here when there wasn’t much money, wasn’t much glamour and wasn’t much reason to believe any of this was possible.
Joe Dean Jr. was one of those people.
Rest in peace, Joe. …
SHORT STUFF: The NFL has finally decided to eliminate the Pro Bowl and the Pro Bowl Games – a merciful end for an event that had been in hospice care for about 20 years. Sadly, doctors could find no sign of competitive life. … Honestly, though, Orlando owes the Pro Bowl a debt of gratitude. By hosting the event for several years, it gave us credibility with the NFL and is one of the main reasons the Jaguars are coming to play the entire season here in 2027. … Did you see where multi-billionaire San Francisco 49ers owner Jed York was arrested for trying to solicit a prostitute in a trailer park for $160? Depending on what the alleged hooker’s name was, maybe York was just trying to stay under the Valerie cap? … Former NBA star Blake Griffin is getting his own late-night talk show. Apparently, nobody gave him the game film of “The Magic Hour.” …
An Orange County judge has denied former Kansas defensive end Dean Miller’s request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against the NCAA. Miller, who sought an additional year of eligibility, had hoped to play for UCF this season. Yet another sign UCF hasn’t completely arrived: After all, every big-time program needs at least one hometown judge with a law degree in one hand and a pom-pom in the other. … LIV Golf just cancelled its final tournament of the season and now is laying off all of its employees. Translation: LIV is now DED. … The Cleveland Browns choosing Deshaun Watson as the starting quarterback over Shedeur Sanders is the NFL equivalent of looking in the refrigerator, seeing nothing but expired milk and deciding, “Eh, what the hell, it’s only five days past due.” …
The Indiana Fever-Chicago Sky game Sunday averaged 3.31 million viewers on NBC – making it the most-watched regular-season WNBA game since the league’s inaugural season in 1997. It was the third-most-watched regular-season game behind two games that were televised during the WNBA’s rollout on NBC in 1997. Caitlin Clark and the Fever also have set all-time viewing records this season for games on CBS, ESPN and Amazon Prime Video. Question: Then why do so many WNBA players treat Caitlin Clark like a dog when they should be treating her like a cow – a cash cow. …
LAST WORD: A moment of silence, please. Dolly Parton has just gone to That Big Grand Ole Opry in the Sky. And so we say goodbye to Dolly with the words she once so beautifully gave us: “I will always love you.”
Email me at [email protected]. Hit me up on social media @BianchiWrites and listen to my radio show “Game On” every weekday from 3 to 6 p.m. on FM 96.9, AM 740 and 969TheGame.com/listen.
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