Original coverage: http://umasshoops.com/history/alumni/leaman_jack/passes_away20040306.htm

Community remembers Leaman
By Andrew Merritt, The Massachusetts Daily Collegian Staff, April 20, 2004

If there was ever a human face of UMass, that face was Jack Leaman.

The former Massachusetts basketball coach and broadcaster, who also coached both the UMass and Stockbridge golf teams, was honored by over 1,000 people at a memorial service on Sunday, held inside the Curry Hicks Cage, where he coached the Minuteman basketball team to national prominence.

The influence of Mr. Leaman, who died on March 6, could be seen in the broad range of people who attended the service. Perhaps Mr. Leaman’s most famous protégé, hall of famer Julius Erving, was among the speakers at the service, and along with current Boston College coach Al Skinner, represented a multitude of former players who were in attendance.

Both Erving and Skinner gave emotional speeches about their experiences under Mr. Leaman. Erving, who played just two seasons at UMass before moving on to professional stardom, summed up his remarks by simply saying, “Goodbye coach, I love you.”

Former UMass coach John Calipari also spoke at the service, reflecting on Mr. Leaman’s constant involvement with the basketball program. Mr. Leaman would often come to Calipari during his tenure in Amherst, asking him to “get a cup of coffee,” which was Mr. Leaman’s code for talking about basketball strategy and coaching.

Mr. Leaman, who was 71 when he died after suffering a heart attack following the Minutemen’s game against Richmond on March 6, was a presence in UMass athletics for more than 40 years.

Though he resigned as the coach of the Minutemen over 20 years ago, Mr. Leaman remained an active member of UMass sports, taking on the helm of the women’s basketball team for the 1986-87 season, as well as the Stockbridge School of Agriculture’s golf team.

In 1994, Mr. Leaman became the color analyst for UMass men’s basketball, teaming with play-by-play announcers George Miller, Marc Vandermeer and Bob Behler. He remained the color broadcaster until the day he died, and his coaching interests and candor on the air were a hallmark of UMass radio broadcasts.

Mr. Leaman was very much a renaissance man, attending every UMass sporting event he could manage, and often appearing for a quick dinner and chat before UMass hockey games, basketball games and football games.

His advice stretched beyond the boundaries of UMass, as well. Calipari mentioned during his speech that he spoke with Mr. Leaman before the 2003-04 season. It turned out that Calipari wanted to get the cup of coffee, and talk about Mr. Leaman’s 1960s-era offense. Calipari said his Memphis Tigers ran that offensive set this season, leading them to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

UMass Chancellor John V. Lombardi was the emcee of the event. Although he has only been on the Amherst campus for over a year, Lombardi also had glowing words to say about Mr. Leaman.

“A university is not built by buildings, it is not built by its curriculum,” Lombardi said. “It is built by its people.”

Behler, who has been the Minuteman basketball broadcaster for five years, told a story about Mr. Leaman at the Maui Invitational in 2002, when the Minutemen were participants in the elite preseason tourney. After a long day of basketball, Mr. Leaman and a number of other members of the UMass media drove to the coast of Maui to watch the sunset. A man came up to the group, and offered Mr. Leaman a marijuana cigarette. He declined.

“The rest of the night,” Behler said, “Jack kept saying, ‘that dude thought I was cool!’”

Former UMass Sports Information Director Dick Bresciani, now an official with the Boston Red Sox, was also among the speakers.