R.I.P. Dick Harter, a good coach and a good man, who died at age 81 on Monday of cancer. The first head coach of the expansion NBA Charlotte Hornets, Harter was also an assistant with the Detroit Pistons, Indiana Pacers, New York Knicks, Portland Trail Blazers, Boston Celtics, and Philadelphia 76ers.
But it was in college where Harter first made his mark. His teams at Rider, Penn (his alma mater), Oregon, and Penn State were known for their tenacious man-to-man defense. His final two teams at Penn, in 1969-70 and 1970-71, went undefeated in the Ivy League and the Big Five and lost just once in 52 regular-season games. The latter team advanced to the NCAA tournament regional final, losing to a Villanova team that later had its victories forfeited by the NCAA. In 1977, his Oregon team ended UCLA’s 98-game home winning streak.
Harter once told me, “My idea of heaven would be coaching in a league where every team must play zone against you and you’re allowed to play man-to-man.”
I asked him what hell was.
“Hell would be where they play that man-to-man, get in your face, play you like crazed rats, and jump all over you, and you’ve got to work like crazy just to get the ball from one place to another.”
Don Casey, Harter’s Philadelphia counterpart whose Temple teams were known for his impenetrable zone defenses, told me in the same conversation that his own idea of heaven were “the discussions Dick and I had when we were both coaching in the Philadelphia area. The minds were stimulated. And I would still play Mr. Harter’s team up in heaven.”
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