March 6, 2024 • 33 mins
In remembrance of Hall of Fame Basketball Coach Lefty Driesell, the producers have aggregated clips from the series that tell the story of Lefty Driesell, his relationship with Len Bias, and his up and down history with The University of Maryland, where many argue, including Lefty himself, that he put the program on the map in the college basketball universe.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Legendary Maryland basketball coach Lefty Drizzel died recently at the
age of ninety two, and this week on March four,
a memorial service was held for Drizzel. Drizzel leaves behind
a complex and complicated legacy as a basketball coach. He
was a head coach at four Division one colleges, most
(00:24):
notably at the University of Maryland. He started there in
nineteen sixty nine and through nineteen eighty six. Drezell built
the team into a prominent national program. When he began
as Maryland's coach, Drizzel famously stated that he would make
the Terps the UCLA of the East, a reference to
(00:44):
what was then the most dominant college men's program. Drizzel
departed Maryland more dramatically than when he started. He was
removed as coach as a result of his actions following
the drug related death of Maryland Starleine Bias. Still, Drizzel
was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
(01:07):
in twenty eighteen. This is Dave Ungrady, author of the
book Born Ready The Mixed Legacy of len Bias. From
the book, we have produced a sixteen episode podcast series
titled Len Bias a Mixed Legacy. Coach Drizzel played a
major role in Len's legacy and is featured prominently throughout
(01:29):
the series. True recognized Rorizzel's legacy related to Bias. We
present here a compilation of content about the coach as
it is presented in the series.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
In April nineteen eighty six, the life of Len Bias
was in transition. He expected to be a top pick
in the NBA draft. Two months later, Lenz said he
wanted to complete his degree, that he wanted people to
know that he had graduated from the University of Maryland.
He would consider it and accomplish, he said. But an
academic advisor told his coach, Lefty Drizzl that Lenn was
(02:05):
struggling that semester. Drizzell said Bias should consider dropping some
courses to avoid failing grades.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Listen, if he had passed, He's fifteen and I might
have been taking eighteen the last semester, right, he would
have been six credits short. Told him, I said, Linda,
you ought to drop drop all the courses or take incomplete,
but don't fail.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Bias said no, he wanted to pass them.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
He said, well, I'll fast coach. I know all these professors,
they'll pass me. I know I've been missing a lot
of plans. And he flunked the ball. Do you know
that he was paying his way to go to summer
school because I had a rule a couple of years
before because a lot of my players were flunking a
course or one, you know, one course or something, so
they would have to go to summer school to get
(02:54):
their degree. And I said, look, if you flunk a
course because you uh and went to class and took
a jam and everything and you still flow, I'll pay
your way to summer school. But if I called to
the professor and he said the guy didn't come to
Clay and take the exam, I'm not paying your way
and go to summer school. He just didn't go to class.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
Football was fun for Maryland fans in the early nineteen eighties.
That's when Bobby Ross led the Turps to three straight
ACC titles and the women's basketball team went to its
first Final Four in nineteen eighty two. With all that,
in the context of Maryland athletics, basketball was king. It
started when Laftigerzell became head coach in nineteen sixty nine.
(03:37):
He led the Terps the ACC Tournament championship game five
times before finally winning it in nineteen eighty four. The
MVP of that tournament team was a rising sophomore star
named Lun Bias. Molly Glassman covered Bias his entire college
career for the Baltimore Evening Sun.
Speaker 5 (03:54):
SER's and he carried them to the ACC Championship. And
of course it was Lefty's huge accomplishment after all those
years of not winning the ACC. And you know Lefty
bragging after the game that he was going to take
(04:15):
the trophy and stick it on the hood of his
car and drive through North Carolina, drive across Tobacco Road
one end to the other, thinking at the time, well,
what he really should do is put Leonard out in
front of his car and drive Leonard from one end
of the of the Tobacco Road to the other. Because
(04:36):
Leonard Bias earned Lefty that trophy that year.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
Two years later, Driselle was no longer Maryland's head coach.
Ross was gone too, so was the school's athletic director,
Dave Dole, and one Bias was dead. The next decade
or so was the darkest in the history of Maryland athletics.
Bob Nelligan was the women's gymnastics coach at Maryland from
nineteen seventy nine to two thousand and nine.
Speaker 6 (05:01):
We were all.
Speaker 7 (05:04):
Just numb from the fact that how could somebody who
was an absolute specimen, incredible athlete with God given abilities?
Speaker 8 (05:20):
And I think it really took everybody, but like, how
could this happen? So the initial phase was this isn't happening,
And then as the reality started to set in, he
had all.
Speaker 7 (05:38):
The finger pointing where did this go wrong?
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Well, Lefty, should you have known this?
Speaker 7 (05:46):
You know those are your boys?
Speaker 9 (05:49):
Uh It.
Speaker 7 (05:53):
It was like a house of cards that were crumbling
and there was no way to stop it.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
Molly Glassman covered the death of Bias for the Baltimore Sun.
She recalled suspicions about the cause of Bias's death changed
during a press conference by Maryland coach Lefty Grisell.
Speaker 10 (06:11):
No, I don't think there was any suspicion at that point,
but that day we were talking to a reporter from
Boston who had gone to Lefty's press conference, and Lefty
and Lefty sort of danced around a lot of things
in the press conference. Yes, and that's where he became suspicious.
(06:34):
Is that when you started to think, Okay.
Speaker 5 (06:38):
They're finding something. I didn't know what it was, but
that's when the first thought of drugs comes to your mind.
They're not saying you know, well, the doctor say you
know that. You know he was he had these issues,
(06:58):
not being specific about anything. You're right, he danced around
a lot of things.
Speaker 11 (07:05):
There was just an edge to everything.
Speaker 5 (07:07):
You know. They weren't, especially the seniors. It was like,
what are they avoiding talking about that day? I recall
that evening especially we went to bias house and kind
of staked it out, and it was just incredibly guarded.
Speaker 11 (07:29):
Thing. It wasn't as if somebody Lenny had had passed
from natural causes.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
Marilynd Coach left to Gerselle held a press conference shortly
after the death of Bias.
Speaker 9 (07:43):
I really don't know if I'm up to this, but
I guess leona of a woman to say something. You know,
he's a I've known Lena since you was in about
the sixth grade, and he's like a son to me.
So I think you can the difficulty the way I
feel right now.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Here's Lefty Drizzelle speaking a day after Bias died about
his drug use.
Speaker 12 (08:09):
Well, I would be very, very surprised because Leonard just
had an examination by the Boston Celtics and the Golden
State Warriors and the New York Nicks, and you know,
I'm positive there were no drugs in those examinations, and
he's completely out of character for him to do anything
like that. That's one thing that I told Rid and
all the teams that were interested in him, they didn't
(08:29):
have to worry about him with drugs or alcohol. He
was born again Christian and a great person.
Speaker 13 (08:36):
In the immediate months after the death of his oldest son, Lynn,
James Bias acted like any father would, with a mix
of grief, anger, confusion, and resolve. During a memorial service
for Len a few days after he died, James spotted
Len's two most prominent coaches, while Wagner from high school
and left you yourself from college. Here's Wagner recalling the.
Speaker 14 (08:57):
Incident at the wake. I was deeply hurt by this.
At the wake, I rode down with Lefty because we
didn't know where we were going. We come into the
church and I know mister Bias was still hurt and upset,
but Lefty walks over to give his condolences, and mister
(09:17):
Bias says something like to Lefty like, you stay away
from me.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
You killed mich saw this.
Speaker 14 (09:22):
Oh I'm staying right and you too, and pointed to me.
I just took that very personally. I never said anything
to him. I thought there were times when I thought
about just driving through Columbia Park and maybe talking to
mister Bias and seeing you know, like you know, I'm
sorry about what happened.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
Throughout the Bias fallout, coach Lefty Griselle maintained that he
had done nothing wrong. He claimed his athletes were good students.
He claimed he was not aware of drug use on
the team. He spoke publicly again and again after Bias died,
defending his in the team's honor that ultimately led to
the end of his Maryland career. Slaughter wanted to resid
(10:00):
out as coach because he felt Drizzel did not provide
the leadership needed by the team.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
At the time, John Slaughter told me, my conclusion was
we were not going to turn that around unless a
change was made. I thought we needed to change coaches
for a variety of reasons. I could come up with
a whole lot of reasons but I consider that a
closed chapter. I don't want to open it anymore. I
(10:24):
like Lefty a great deal. I'm not sure it's reciprocated
at the moment. When asked about his feelings towards Slaughter,
Drizzell told me no comment. I have a lot of
feelings about Slaughter, but I'd rather not say.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Tom McMillan was an All American at Maryland and was
coached by Drizzel in the early nineteen seventies. He has
been heavily involved with the university ever since, serving for
a term on the Board of Regents. He feels Slaughter
made Lefty the fall guy for Bias' death.
Speaker 12 (10:55):
It was.
Speaker 15 (10:57):
Horrific. It was probably the worst brand destroyer ever.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
Others also believed Drizzell was made a scapegoat for the
death of Bias. Here's Derek Lewis, a Marilyn sophomore when
Bias died.
Speaker 16 (11:10):
And they see him walk out of Colchree House that
day after announcing he was giving a retired stepping down.
Speaker 17 (11:17):
That was good.
Speaker 16 (11:17):
That was that was past. That that that more than anything,
pissed you off. You know, you you're mad about the
about many and what happened, But that that was Nothing's
supposed to do?
Speaker 18 (11:30):
What was it was?
Speaker 16 (11:30):
Nothing supposed to be there and did do him at
two in the morning. Was supposed to be watching me
see what I was doing across the hall. Was supposed
to be in a jets room. I mean, you can't
you can't be heavy with it. So I had a
big I had a big pob with that.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
Here's JJ Bush, an athletic trainer with Drizzel in the
nineteen seventies.
Speaker 19 (11:47):
Left he didn't put the cocaine in Lenny's nose. He
didn't buy the cocaine for Lenny or any of that stuff. Lenny,
you know, was over the age of consent. He was
an adult, and he did that on his own accord.
But Lefty caught the fall out.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Payne gave Greg a ride to the house of coach
Lefty Brizel.
Speaker 20 (12:10):
You know, Lefty let me in just like I was
a part of the team, and so we were we
were just sitting there and you know, Lefty came in
and he started talking. He started talking to the team
and telling them about you know how you know tragic
this is, but you know Lynn was ready. You know,
(12:31):
Lynn was a good, good guy. He's a Christian, He's
he's okay, and you know, we know that this is
going This is is very shocking and hard to deal with.
You know, we're going to have people for you guys
to talk to if you need it. Just going kind
of back and forth because you know, at this point
Lefty doesn't know the story. He doesn't really know what's
happened himself.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
After Bias died, Lewis struggled largely with the blame given
US coach Lefty Brazil for the death of Bias with.
Speaker 16 (13:00):
Because they were they were blaming with eVisa.
Speaker 18 (13:02):
It was his fault in that control one left.
Speaker 16 (13:04):
It can't be with us twenty hours a day, sure,
and as twelve was, and it's ridiculous and.
Speaker 7 (13:11):
They made a mistake.
Speaker 15 (13:12):
Goes you know, thiss day.
Speaker 10 (13:14):
I'll understand when he did that.
Speaker 15 (13:16):
And that's what gives me all the motion.
Speaker 10 (13:19):
It would take decades for Maryland Athletics collectively to finally
accept the legacy of Bias. He was not inducted into
Maryland's Athletics Hall of Fame until twenty fourteen. Left to Grizzel,
Maryland's coach when Bias died, finally earned his Maryland Athletics
Hall of Fame honor in two thousand and two. That
was sixteen years after he left the program.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Lefty Drizzel came to Maryland in nineteen sixty nine. He
turned a team that had a pension for losing and
made them a national power where they were always winning.
Speaker 9 (13:50):
Maryland he had nothing for why I got you. I'm
called right, absolutely nothing.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
That's a clip from a video about former Maryland head
coach left to Drizzl, produced by a Washington, DC area
television news station in nineteen eighty six. Perhaps it's a
bit of hyperbole to say Maryland basketball had nothing before
Drizzel became the school's basketball coach, but there was not
a whole lot to Bragabelle. Maryland had only four winning
(14:18):
seasons in the nineteen sixties, along with no national rankings.
By the early nineteen eighties, Trizzel had built a well
deserved reputation as a pioneer and a pretty good self
promoter among college basketball coaches.
Speaker 21 (14:34):
One of the winningest coaches in ACC and NCAA history
is our next legend from Maryland, with seven hundred and
eighty six career wins, Arriving in College Park in nineteen seventy.
He built the Terrafins into a national power and twice
was named ACC Coach of the Year. His nineteen seventy
four Terrafins played NC State in the ACC Championship Game,
(14:55):
which even today many consider the greatest game in conference.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
His that clip came from an Atlantic Coast Conference Legends
brunch in two thousand and eight. In another video released
shortly after he resigned as Maryland's coach, in nineteen eighty six,
a local television network aired a tribute to Drizzl. It
featured a typical confident comment from the coach.
Speaker 9 (15:19):
I'll like to brag. See that's why y'all don't think
I can coach. But I'm bragging today, Okay, because I
don't like to talk about what I do and what
I don't do. But don't ever say that I can't coach.
I may not be a good speaker, I may not
be intelligent as some of these other coaches. I may
not throw you a whole lot of x's and oh crap,
But I can coach.
Speaker 15 (15:38):
We were in the top ten my whole career. How
many Maryland teams are in the final top ten?
Speaker 1 (15:44):
That was Tom McMillan, a three time All American at
Maryland in the early nineteen seventies, and the answer only
five teams that did not include McMillan have finished in
the top ten in the final Associated Press National poll.
Over the court of Some seventy years after Lembias died,
(16:04):
the perception of Drizzel had changed dramatically. In the mind
of his critics, Drizzel had morphed into a coach who
was at worst indifferent to the academic needs of his
players and at best blind to their off court mishaps.
This all made Drizzel a prime target of blame for
the death of Bias. Russ Potts is a Maryland graduate
(16:28):
from the nineteen sixties. He was also the first marketing
director for Maryland's athletic department. Potts took that position one
year after Drizzel started at Maryland.
Speaker 6 (16:39):
Whenever you have a tragedy, whether it's Pearl Harbor or
nine to eleven or whatever, you're going to always have
a fall gap. And so they tried to make the
lefty the fall guy. Well, poor Lefty had no more
to do with that than you r idea unfortunately, and
it was he was in the row long place at
(17:00):
the wrong time, and it was a tragic happening that
still to this day affects the University of Maryland.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Here's McMillan.
Speaker 15 (17:10):
It really bothers Lefty that his tenure at Maryland ended
this way. It was really it was very tragic for
him because he did so much for Maryland and then
they have this one incident, which was a terrible mistake.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
That mistake Lent Bias abusing cocaine and then dying transformed
Drizzel from a Maryland basketball icon to a maligned and
minimized figure by those who struggled to understand the death
of Bias. It was a situation few could foresee at
the start of Drizzel's Maryland career. By the early nineteen seventies,
(17:53):
sellout crowds with a norm at Maryland's home arena, cole Fieldhouse,
some fourteen thousand fans to watch a trio of eventual
All Americans, as well as impact players in the NBA McMillan,
Len Elmore, and John Lucas. Early in his career, Drizzell
boldly promised to turn Maryland into the UCLA of the East.
(18:17):
If not for two teams, he just might have done so.
One was the real UCLA, which continued to dominate college basketball.
The other was North Carolina State, which interrupted UCLA's championship
run in nineteen seventy four, but the Terps were still
among the best teams in the country. In four different
(18:39):
regular seasons between nineteen seventy and nineteen eighty, Drizzell's team
reached number two in the rankings. Four times they finished
in the top ten. In his seventeen years as Maryland's
head coach, Drizzell won only one acc Tournament title, and
it was with Bias in nineteen eighty five. Four Bias,
(19:02):
then a sophomore, won the tournament's MVP Award. Bias praised
Brizel's influence on him in a nineteen eighty six Maryland
basketball recruiting video.
Speaker 22 (19:12):
He told me the things that I could do, and
he put a lot of faith in me and told
me that I will be able to score and I
will be able to rebound. Now I can do it.
And when you got a coach that puts confidence and
faith in you like that, you can't go out but play.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Here's Drizzl in that same recruiting video, of.
Speaker 9 (19:28):
Course, having len Ad Biased being the player of the
Year in the ACC and make first Team All ACC
and First Team of AP and first Team up is
all American. You know, you know, in my opinion, he
was probably player of the year in the country.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Criticism toward Drizzel replaced praise for him after the death
of Bias. Some of it came from the Bias family.
Bob Wagner, Len's high school coach and a friend of Drizel,
remembers a moment of hostility from Len's father. It was
at Bias's wake. Once there, Drizzl and Wagner walked over
over to James Bias to offer condolences.
Speaker 14 (20:04):
At the wake, I rode down with Lefty because we
didn't know where we were going. We come into the
church and I know mister Bias was still hurt and upset.
But Lefty walks over to give his condolences and mister
Bias has something like the Lefty like, you stay away
from me. You killed myself.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Media reports claimed Drizzel instructed a coach to clean the
room in which Bias died before police arrived. Dursel admitted
that he instructed the coach to clean the room, but
the coach, Oliver Parnell, did not do so in part
due to a police presence. Assistant coach Jeff Atkins went
to the room with Parnell. Atkins told me that when
(20:46):
they reached the Washington Hall dorm, where Bias's suite was located,
police would not let them pass a secured area. Trezell
is not charged with a crime. During this time, Drizell
indicated he would not back down from the challenges facing him.
Speaker 9 (21:04):
If you know me, I do the best when my
back's up against the wall, right. I like for people
get me in a corner and get me around the neck.
Then I like to get out of there, you know.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
But the forces against Drizel grew too strong. Chancellor John
Slaughter felt that Drizzel had not provided the leadership needed
At the time he removed Brizzel's coach. Slaughter told me
my conclusion was we were not going to turn that
around unless the change was made. I could come up
with a whole lot of reasons, but I consider that
(21:36):
a closed chapter. I don't want to open it anymore.
I like Lefty a great deal. I'm not sure it's reciprocated.
When asked about his feelings towards Slaughter, Drizzell told me
no comment. I have a lot of feelings about slaughter,
but I'd rather not say. Mally Glassman was a reporter
(21:57):
for the Baltimore Sun, covering Mayor on basketball. At the time.
Speaker 11 (22:02):
He was a chancellor who was very concerned about the reputation.
Speaker 5 (22:07):
Of himself and the school, and the reputation was in tatters,
as you say, academically when the revelations came out that
these kids weren't going to class. And this wasn't the
first year that this had happened, that there was a
history of lefties players not staying in school, not graduating.
Speaker 11 (22:29):
But lefty he wouldn't have gone.
Speaker 5 (22:32):
He wouldn't have left of his own accord, and he
fought it till the end.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Triseau claims he was asked to remain as coach for
one more year and then resigned with nine years left
on his contract. Drissel told me, my lawyer said, we
can fight this thing and you can keep your job,
but I'd be working for free because his fees would
be so big. I said, let's settle. It was a
(23:00):
great seventeen years at Maryland except for my last year.
To Risel's lawyer was famed Washington Defense attorney Edward Bennett
Williams russ Potts, Maryland's first marketing manager, was a good
friend of Durzel. He reached out to Williams after it
became a parent that Brazil's future employment at Maryland was
in jeopardy.
Speaker 6 (23:21):
I called Ed Williams and I asked Ed Williams if
he would represent Lefty in this terrible mess at Maryland.
And I played it with him and I said, please
please represent him because he has no idea in what's
going to happen. Get Lefty to call me tonight. And
(23:45):
so I said, you need to call Ed Williams at
home tonight, and he did, but he said, Lefty affective.
Immediately this very second, if you say one word about
this case, if you so much just say a comma
or a sema, coleman, I will not represent you effective
(24:06):
Immediately you shut up. I do all the talking. And
that was a hell of a challenge for Lefty go
Getting Lefty to shut up was not easy, and they
had a meeting with Williams and the president and the
university attorney.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Drizzel resigned on October twenty nine, nineteen eighty six, and
received a comfortable settlement He was paid one hundred and
twenty thousand dollars a year for nine years, the remainder
of his tenure coaching contract, and he could continue his
basketball camps at the school for the same length of time.
(24:47):
Drizzell collected the full salary even after he left. As
Pots recalls, Williams took a hard stance with Maryland while
representing Brazell. He recounts the following story from a conversation
he had with Williams shortly after the meeting.
Speaker 6 (25:03):
And the Maryland attorney arrogantly walked into the room and
he laid a contract on the desk. Left he had
eight and a half years left on his contract, and
Maryland offered him a year and a half. They laid
that on the table and ed Williams looked at it.
He jumped up, He grabbed the contract. He tore it
(25:27):
to shreds in front of me said I'll see you
in hell. Before we'd ever signed this. You want to
go to war, We'll go to war the next day.
The next day they called Williams and gave Lefty all
eight and a half years.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Brazila added more context to the negotiation on a phone
call in the summer of twenty twenty.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
So Slaughter called back tomorrow. He said, your contract is good.
We've got your pay left before it nine years and
he can stay here as an athletic director for two
years and he will get the same salary he will
be making as the head coach. He can also have
(26:11):
his basketball camp and use the dorms free and a
gym free. And that was the deal. Ed Williams said, Look,
you can take at it if you want to. You
ain't got to work for seven more years, and or
you can go ahead and coach. Take the deal he's
(26:33):
offering it, and forget it. Forget coaching. That's what I did.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
As part of the deal, Drazell transition to an assistant
athletic director who oversaw the department, sports information and marketing departments.
He also helped manage the Maryland Educational Foundation, which raised
money for scholarships and other department needs. When asked in
twenty ten what the Athletic Department wanted him to do
(26:59):
in his new role, Dazelle paused for a couple moments, laughed,
and then said, quote hide end quote. Part of Drizzel's
job was to convince the elderly to place their life
insurance policy in their will and make the athletic department
the beneficiary when they died. Trizelle told me, I was
(27:19):
getting ready to do that, but never got that much involved.
When I took the job, then athletic director Luke Perkins said,
just come on over when you want and do what
you want. Trazelle left Maryland in nineteen eighty eight to
become head coach at James Madison University. In nineteen ninety four,
he became the head coach at Georgia State, where he
(27:40):
stayed through two thousand and three. Drizelle retired with the
fourth most wins in Division one history, with seven hundred
and eighty six. In the summer of two thousand and two,
Drizzell returned to Maryland's campus for the first time since
taking the job at James Madison. He attended his induction
ceremony into Maryland's Athletics Hall of Fame.
Speaker 23 (28:04):
For his accomplishments during his coaching career. At his successful
tenure at the University of Maryland, coach Charles Lefty Drizzl
is tonight being inducted into the University of Maryland Athletic
Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Drizell returned the next winter when the Terrapins honored his
retirement from coaching during halftime of a game against Enci
State at the Comcast Center, Maryland's new basketball arena. Drizzel
stopped by Maryland's arena again in twenty seventeen for another
(28:42):
special ceremony, brizl The crowd was loud as Drizzel flashed
the familiar victory sign with his right hand pointing to
the rafters. It must have felt as if he were
back in Colefield House, in the building where he helped
(29:04):
develop Maryland basketball into a nationally respected program, ready to
lead his Maryland team to another of its many victories.
John Lucas played for Drizzel from nineteen seventy two to
nineteen seventy six. He departed Maryland as a three time
All America and was the top pick in the nineteen
seventy six NBA draft. He offered perhaps the most balanced
(29:29):
assessment of Drizzel's personality, which endeared many and irritated others
at Maryland. Lucas told me, coach was genuine to a fault.
What you saw was what you got. He doesn't have
any gray areas presenting Lefty for enshrinement are Mike Ruschevskiy,
George Raveling, John Thompson, Ladies and Gentlemen.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Charles Lefty Drizzl.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
In twenty eighteen, at the age of eighty six, receive
the highest honor for a basketball coach, induction into the
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Speaker 17 (30:07):
I'm so happy to be here. This is probably one
of the happiest days in my wife, my life and
my wife whatever. And look, is anybody in here eighty
six years old? Raise your hand, will you? So? So
if I screw up, So look if I if I
(30:30):
screw up, wait till you get eighty six. And I
made the statement, then we're gonna be the UCLA at
the East again. I was kind of drunk or someone
I said that. And so I've been lucky to be
able to coach, and to be able to coach and
(30:54):
recruit at four great at two great high schools, and
for division win universities.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
I had a conversation with Drizl in the summer of
twenty twenty. He was typical Lefty, engaging, curious, and combative,
and he expressed some frustration when the topic of bias
came up.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
Do you say that anything you do? What there about
his death? If you look back at direct and what
was Marylin in basketball before I got damned?
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Drizzel finds comfort in his story he has told about Bias.
During the early summer of twenty ten, the man approached
him as they walked out of church near Drizzel's home
in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The man explained that shortly before
Bias's death, he had reached a personal love, losing his
job and his family due to a cocaine addiction. When
(31:49):
friends told the man that Bias had died, he immediately
stopped abusing cocaine. The man told Grisel that Bias was
one of his favorite players and that Bias saved his life.
Speaker 3 (32:03):
I bet eeveral people tell me that they've never used drugs,
they've died.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
At a press conference shortly after Bias died, Drizel expressed
a connection between the two of them, a connection that
he feels is eternal.
Speaker 9 (32:18):
As my wife said, He's in a better position right
now than we are. He's he's at home with the Lord,
and I really sincerely believe that. I mean, I'm sad,
but I'm not even worried because I know where Leonard is.
I know he's in heaven and I'm going to miss him,
and I know everybody else here will pise me. I
really can't say a whole lot more such I love you,
(32:39):
Leonard and our mission. I've seen Evan one.
Speaker 18 (32:43):
Day, Len Bias. A Mixed Legacy. The interviews was produced
by Davon Grady and Don Marcus. He had it all strong, quick,
(33:06):
and he was so lain biased. A mixed legacy is
distributed by the Eighth Side never before, just for greatness
and loss.
Speaker 22 (33:13):
Let you known them all other memories, remember me.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
I hope they do the same
Legendary Maryland basketball coach Lefty Drizzel died recently at the
age of ninety two, and this week on March four,
a memorial service was held for Drizzel. Drizzel leaves behind
a complex and complicated legacy as a basketball coach. He
was a head coach at four Division one colleges, most
(00:24):
notably at the University of Maryland. He started there in
nineteen sixty nine and through nineteen eighty six. Drezell built
the team into a prominent national program. When he began
as Maryland's coach, Drizzel famously stated that he would make
the Terps the UCLA of the East, a reference to
(00:44):
what was then the most dominant college men's program. Drizzel
departed Maryland more dramatically than when he started. He was
removed as coach as a result of his actions following
the drug related death of Maryland Starleine Bias. Still, Drizzel
was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
(01:07):
in twenty eighteen. This is Dave Ungrady, author of the
book Born Ready The Mixed Legacy of len Bias. From
the book, we have produced a sixteen episode podcast series
titled Len Bias a Mixed Legacy. Coach Drizzel played a
major role in Len's legacy and is featured prominently throughout
(01:29):
the series. True recognized Rorizzel's legacy related to Bias. We
present here a compilation of content about the coach as
it is presented in the series.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
In April nineteen eighty six, the life of Len Bias
was in transition. He expected to be a top pick
in the NBA draft. Two months later, Lenz said he
wanted to complete his degree, that he wanted people to
know that he had graduated from the University of Maryland.
He would consider it and accomplish, he said. But an
academic advisor told his coach, Lefty Drizzl that Lenn was
(02:05):
struggling that semester. Drizzell said Bias should consider dropping some
courses to avoid failing grades.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Listen, if he had passed, He's fifteen and I might
have been taking eighteen the last semester, right, he would
have been six credits short. Told him, I said, Linda,
you ought to drop drop all the courses or take incomplete,
but don't fail.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Bias said no, he wanted to pass them.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
He said, well, I'll fast coach. I know all these professors,
they'll pass me. I know I've been missing a lot
of plans. And he flunked the ball. Do you know
that he was paying his way to go to summer
school because I had a rule a couple of years
before because a lot of my players were flunking a
course or one, you know, one course or something, so
they would have to go to summer school to get
(02:54):
their degree. And I said, look, if you flunk a
course because you uh and went to class and took
a jam and everything and you still flow, I'll pay
your way to summer school. But if I called to
the professor and he said the guy didn't come to
Clay and take the exam, I'm not paying your way
and go to summer school. He just didn't go to class.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
Football was fun for Maryland fans in the early nineteen eighties.
That's when Bobby Ross led the Turps to three straight
ACC titles and the women's basketball team went to its
first Final Four in nineteen eighty two. With all that,
in the context of Maryland athletics, basketball was king. It
started when Laftigerzell became head coach in nineteen sixty nine.
(03:37):
He led the Terps the ACC Tournament championship game five
times before finally winning it in nineteen eighty four. The
MVP of that tournament team was a rising sophomore star
named Lun Bias. Molly Glassman covered Bias his entire college
career for the Baltimore Evening Sun.
Speaker 5 (03:54):
SER's and he carried them to the ACC Championship. And
of course it was Lefty's huge accomplishment after all those
years of not winning the ACC. And you know Lefty
bragging after the game that he was going to take
(04:15):
the trophy and stick it on the hood of his
car and drive through North Carolina, drive across Tobacco Road
one end to the other, thinking at the time, well,
what he really should do is put Leonard out in
front of his car and drive Leonard from one end
of the of the Tobacco Road to the other. Because
(04:36):
Leonard Bias earned Lefty that trophy that year.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
Two years later, Driselle was no longer Maryland's head coach.
Ross was gone too, so was the school's athletic director,
Dave Dole, and one Bias was dead. The next decade
or so was the darkest in the history of Maryland athletics.
Bob Nelligan was the women's gymnastics coach at Maryland from
nineteen seventy nine to two thousand and nine.
Speaker 6 (05:01):
We were all.
Speaker 7 (05:04):
Just numb from the fact that how could somebody who
was an absolute specimen, incredible athlete with God given abilities?
Speaker 8 (05:20):
And I think it really took everybody, but like, how
could this happen? So the initial phase was this isn't happening,
And then as the reality started to set in, he
had all.
Speaker 7 (05:38):
The finger pointing where did this go wrong?
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Well, Lefty, should you have known this?
Speaker 7 (05:46):
You know those are your boys?
Speaker 9 (05:49):
Uh It.
Speaker 7 (05:53):
It was like a house of cards that were crumbling
and there was no way to stop it.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
Molly Glassman covered the death of Bias for the Baltimore Sun.
She recalled suspicions about the cause of Bias's death changed
during a press conference by Maryland coach Lefty Grisell.
Speaker 10 (06:11):
No, I don't think there was any suspicion at that point,
but that day we were talking to a reporter from
Boston who had gone to Lefty's press conference, and Lefty
and Lefty sort of danced around a lot of things
in the press conference. Yes, and that's where he became suspicious.
(06:34):
Is that when you started to think, Okay.
Speaker 5 (06:38):
They're finding something. I didn't know what it was, but
that's when the first thought of drugs comes to your mind.
They're not saying you know, well, the doctor say you
know that. You know he was he had these issues,
(06:58):
not being specific about anything. You're right, he danced around
a lot of things.
Speaker 11 (07:05):
There was just an edge to everything.
Speaker 5 (07:07):
You know. They weren't, especially the seniors. It was like,
what are they avoiding talking about that day? I recall
that evening especially we went to bias house and kind
of staked it out, and it was just incredibly guarded.
Speaker 11 (07:29):
Thing. It wasn't as if somebody Lenny had had passed
from natural causes.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
Marilynd Coach left to Gerselle held a press conference shortly
after the death of Bias.
Speaker 9 (07:43):
I really don't know if I'm up to this, but
I guess leona of a woman to say something. You know,
he's a I've known Lena since you was in about
the sixth grade, and he's like a son to me.
So I think you can the difficulty the way I
feel right now.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Here's Lefty Drizzelle speaking a day after Bias died about
his drug use.
Speaker 12 (08:09):
Well, I would be very, very surprised because Leonard just
had an examination by the Boston Celtics and the Golden
State Warriors and the New York Nicks, and you know,
I'm positive there were no drugs in those examinations, and
he's completely out of character for him to do anything
like that. That's one thing that I told Rid and
all the teams that were interested in him, they didn't
(08:29):
have to worry about him with drugs or alcohol. He
was born again Christian and a great person.
Speaker 13 (08:36):
In the immediate months after the death of his oldest son, Lynn,
James Bias acted like any father would, with a mix
of grief, anger, confusion, and resolve. During a memorial service
for Len a few days after he died, James spotted
Len's two most prominent coaches, while Wagner from high school
and left you yourself from college. Here's Wagner recalling the.
Speaker 14 (08:57):
Incident at the wake. I was deeply hurt by this.
At the wake, I rode down with Lefty because we
didn't know where we were going. We come into the
church and I know mister Bias was still hurt and upset,
but Lefty walks over to give his condolences, and mister
(09:17):
Bias says something like to Lefty like, you stay away
from me.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
You killed mich saw this.
Speaker 14 (09:22):
Oh I'm staying right and you too, and pointed to me.
I just took that very personally. I never said anything
to him. I thought there were times when I thought
about just driving through Columbia Park and maybe talking to
mister Bias and seeing you know, like you know, I'm
sorry about what happened.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
Throughout the Bias fallout, coach Lefty Griselle maintained that he
had done nothing wrong. He claimed his athletes were good students.
He claimed he was not aware of drug use on
the team. He spoke publicly again and again after Bias died,
defending his in the team's honor that ultimately led to
the end of his Maryland career. Slaughter wanted to resid
(10:00):
out as coach because he felt Drizzel did not provide
the leadership needed by the team.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
At the time, John Slaughter told me, my conclusion was
we were not going to turn that around unless a
change was made. I thought we needed to change coaches
for a variety of reasons. I could come up with
a whole lot of reasons but I consider that a
closed chapter. I don't want to open it anymore. I
(10:24):
like Lefty a great deal. I'm not sure it's reciprocated
at the moment. When asked about his feelings towards Slaughter,
Drizzell told me no comment. I have a lot of
feelings about Slaughter, but I'd rather not say.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Tom McMillan was an All American at Maryland and was
coached by Drizzel in the early nineteen seventies. He has
been heavily involved with the university ever since, serving for
a term on the Board of Regents. He feels Slaughter
made Lefty the fall guy for Bias' death.
Speaker 12 (10:55):
It was.
Speaker 15 (10:57):
Horrific. It was probably the worst brand destroyer ever.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
Others also believed Drizzell was made a scapegoat for the
death of Bias. Here's Derek Lewis, a Marilyn sophomore when
Bias died.
Speaker 16 (11:10):
And they see him walk out of Colchree House that
day after announcing he was giving a retired stepping down.
Speaker 17 (11:17):
That was good.
Speaker 16 (11:17):
That was that was past. That that that more than anything,
pissed you off. You know, you you're mad about the
about many and what happened, But that that was Nothing's
supposed to do?
Speaker 18 (11:30):
What was it was?
Speaker 16 (11:30):
Nothing supposed to be there and did do him at
two in the morning. Was supposed to be watching me
see what I was doing across the hall. Was supposed
to be in a jets room. I mean, you can't
you can't be heavy with it. So I had a
big I had a big pob with that.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
Here's JJ Bush, an athletic trainer with Drizzel in the
nineteen seventies.
Speaker 19 (11:47):
Left he didn't put the cocaine in Lenny's nose. He
didn't buy the cocaine for Lenny or any of that stuff. Lenny,
you know, was over the age of consent. He was
an adult, and he did that on his own accord.
But Lefty caught the fall out.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Payne gave Greg a ride to the house of coach
Lefty Brizel.
Speaker 20 (12:10):
You know, Lefty let me in just like I was
a part of the team, and so we were we
were just sitting there and you know, Lefty came in
and he started talking. He started talking to the team
and telling them about you know how you know tragic
this is, but you know Lynn was ready. You know,
(12:31):
Lynn was a good, good guy. He's a Christian, He's
he's okay, and you know, we know that this is
going This is is very shocking and hard to deal with.
You know, we're going to have people for you guys
to talk to if you need it. Just going kind
of back and forth because you know, at this point
Lefty doesn't know the story. He doesn't really know what's
happened himself.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
After Bias died, Lewis struggled largely with the blame given
US coach Lefty Brazil for the death of Bias with.
Speaker 16 (13:00):
Because they were they were blaming with eVisa.
Speaker 18 (13:02):
It was his fault in that control one left.
Speaker 16 (13:04):
It can't be with us twenty hours a day, sure,
and as twelve was, and it's ridiculous and.
Speaker 7 (13:11):
They made a mistake.
Speaker 15 (13:12):
Goes you know, thiss day.
Speaker 10 (13:14):
I'll understand when he did that.
Speaker 15 (13:16):
And that's what gives me all the motion.
Speaker 10 (13:19):
It would take decades for Maryland Athletics collectively to finally
accept the legacy of Bias. He was not inducted into
Maryland's Athletics Hall of Fame until twenty fourteen. Left to Grizzel,
Maryland's coach when Bias died, finally earned his Maryland Athletics
Hall of Fame honor in two thousand and two. That
was sixteen years after he left the program.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Lefty Drizzel came to Maryland in nineteen sixty nine. He
turned a team that had a pension for losing and
made them a national power where they were always winning.
Speaker 9 (13:50):
Maryland he had nothing for why I got you. I'm
called right, absolutely nothing.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
That's a clip from a video about former Maryland head
coach left to Drizzl, produced by a Washington, DC area
television news station in nineteen eighty six. Perhaps it's a
bit of hyperbole to say Maryland basketball had nothing before
Drizzel became the school's basketball coach, but there was not
a whole lot to Bragabelle. Maryland had only four winning
(14:18):
seasons in the nineteen sixties, along with no national rankings.
By the early nineteen eighties, Trizzel had built a well
deserved reputation as a pioneer and a pretty good self
promoter among college basketball coaches.
Speaker 21 (14:34):
One of the winningest coaches in ACC and NCAA history
is our next legend from Maryland, with seven hundred and
eighty six career wins, Arriving in College Park in nineteen seventy.
He built the Terrafins into a national power and twice
was named ACC Coach of the Year. His nineteen seventy
four Terrafins played NC State in the ACC Championship Game,
(14:55):
which even today many consider the greatest game in conference.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
His that clip came from an Atlantic Coast Conference Legends
brunch in two thousand and eight. In another video released
shortly after he resigned as Maryland's coach, in nineteen eighty six,
a local television network aired a tribute to Drizzl. It
featured a typical confident comment from the coach.
Speaker 9 (15:19):
I'll like to brag. See that's why y'all don't think
I can coach. But I'm bragging today, Okay, because I
don't like to talk about what I do and what
I don't do. But don't ever say that I can't coach.
I may not be a good speaker, I may not
be intelligent as some of these other coaches. I may
not throw you a whole lot of x's and oh crap,
But I can coach.
Speaker 15 (15:38):
We were in the top ten my whole career. How
many Maryland teams are in the final top ten?
Speaker 1 (15:44):
That was Tom McMillan, a three time All American at
Maryland in the early nineteen seventies, and the answer only
five teams that did not include McMillan have finished in
the top ten in the final Associated Press National poll.
Over the court of Some seventy years after Lembias died,
(16:04):
the perception of Drizzel had changed dramatically. In the mind
of his critics, Drizzel had morphed into a coach who
was at worst indifferent to the academic needs of his
players and at best blind to their off court mishaps.
This all made Drizzel a prime target of blame for
the death of Bias. Russ Potts is a Maryland graduate
(16:28):
from the nineteen sixties. He was also the first marketing
director for Maryland's athletic department. Potts took that position one
year after Drizzel started at Maryland.
Speaker 6 (16:39):
Whenever you have a tragedy, whether it's Pearl Harbor or
nine to eleven or whatever, you're going to always have
a fall gap. And so they tried to make the
lefty the fall guy. Well, poor Lefty had no more
to do with that than you r idea unfortunately, and
it was he was in the row long place at
(17:00):
the wrong time, and it was a tragic happening that
still to this day affects the University of Maryland.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Here's McMillan.
Speaker 15 (17:10):
It really bothers Lefty that his tenure at Maryland ended
this way. It was really it was very tragic for
him because he did so much for Maryland and then
they have this one incident, which was a terrible mistake.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
That mistake Lent Bias abusing cocaine and then dying transformed
Drizzel from a Maryland basketball icon to a maligned and
minimized figure by those who struggled to understand the death
of Bias. It was a situation few could foresee at
the start of Drizzel's Maryland career. By the early nineteen seventies,
(17:53):
sellout crowds with a norm at Maryland's home arena, cole Fieldhouse,
some fourteen thousand fans to watch a trio of eventual
All Americans, as well as impact players in the NBA McMillan,
Len Elmore, and John Lucas. Early in his career, Drizzell
boldly promised to turn Maryland into the UCLA of the East.
(18:17):
If not for two teams, he just might have done so.
One was the real UCLA, which continued to dominate college basketball.
The other was North Carolina State, which interrupted UCLA's championship
run in nineteen seventy four, but the Terps were still
among the best teams in the country. In four different
(18:39):
regular seasons between nineteen seventy and nineteen eighty, Drizzell's team
reached number two in the rankings. Four times they finished
in the top ten. In his seventeen years as Maryland's
head coach, Drizzell won only one acc Tournament title, and
it was with Bias in nineteen eighty five. Four Bias,
(19:02):
then a sophomore, won the tournament's MVP Award. Bias praised
Brizel's influence on him in a nineteen eighty six Maryland
basketball recruiting video.
Speaker 22 (19:12):
He told me the things that I could do, and
he put a lot of faith in me and told
me that I will be able to score and I
will be able to rebound. Now I can do it.
And when you got a coach that puts confidence and
faith in you like that, you can't go out but play.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Here's Drizzl in that same recruiting video, of.
Speaker 9 (19:28):
Course, having len Ad Biased being the player of the
Year in the ACC and make first Team All ACC
and First Team of AP and first Team up is
all American. You know, you know, in my opinion, he
was probably player of the year in the country.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Criticism toward Drizzel replaced praise for him after the death
of Bias. Some of it came from the Bias family.
Bob Wagner, Len's high school coach and a friend of Drizel,
remembers a moment of hostility from Len's father. It was
at Bias's wake. Once there, Drizzl and Wagner walked over
over to James Bias to offer condolences.
Speaker 14 (20:04):
At the wake, I rode down with Lefty because we
didn't know where we were going. We come into the
church and I know mister Bias was still hurt and upset.
But Lefty walks over to give his condolences and mister
Bias has something like the Lefty like, you stay away
from me. You killed myself.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Media reports claimed Drizzel instructed a coach to clean the
room in which Bias died before police arrived. Dursel admitted
that he instructed the coach to clean the room, but
the coach, Oliver Parnell, did not do so in part
due to a police presence. Assistant coach Jeff Atkins went
to the room with Parnell. Atkins told me that when
(20:46):
they reached the Washington Hall dorm, where Bias's suite was located,
police would not let them pass a secured area. Trezell
is not charged with a crime. During this time, Drizell
indicated he would not back down from the challenges facing him.
Speaker 9 (21:04):
If you know me, I do the best when my
back's up against the wall, right. I like for people
get me in a corner and get me around the neck.
Then I like to get out of there, you know.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
But the forces against Drizel grew too strong. Chancellor John
Slaughter felt that Drizzel had not provided the leadership needed
At the time he removed Brizzel's coach. Slaughter told me
my conclusion was we were not going to turn that
around unless the change was made. I could come up
with a whole lot of reasons, but I consider that
(21:36):
a closed chapter. I don't want to open it anymore.
I like Lefty a great deal. I'm not sure it's reciprocated.
When asked about his feelings towards Slaughter, Drizzell told me
no comment. I have a lot of feelings about slaughter,
but I'd rather not say. Mally Glassman was a reporter
(21:57):
for the Baltimore Sun, covering Mayor on basketball. At the time.
Speaker 11 (22:02):
He was a chancellor who was very concerned about the reputation.
Speaker 5 (22:07):
Of himself and the school, and the reputation was in tatters,
as you say, academically when the revelations came out that
these kids weren't going to class. And this wasn't the
first year that this had happened, that there was a
history of lefties players not staying in school, not graduating.
Speaker 11 (22:29):
But lefty he wouldn't have gone.
Speaker 5 (22:32):
He wouldn't have left of his own accord, and he
fought it till the end.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Triseau claims he was asked to remain as coach for
one more year and then resigned with nine years left
on his contract. Drissel told me, my lawyer said, we
can fight this thing and you can keep your job,
but I'd be working for free because his fees would
be so big. I said, let's settle. It was a
(23:00):
great seventeen years at Maryland except for my last year.
To Risel's lawyer was famed Washington Defense attorney Edward Bennett
Williams russ Potts, Maryland's first marketing manager, was a good
friend of Durzel. He reached out to Williams after it
became a parent that Brazil's future employment at Maryland was
in jeopardy.
Speaker 6 (23:21):
I called Ed Williams and I asked Ed Williams if
he would represent Lefty in this terrible mess at Maryland.
And I played it with him and I said, please
please represent him because he has no idea in what's
going to happen. Get Lefty to call me tonight. And
(23:45):
so I said, you need to call Ed Williams at
home tonight, and he did, but he said, Lefty affective.
Immediately this very second, if you say one word about
this case, if you so much just say a comma
or a sema, coleman, I will not represent you effective
(24:06):
Immediately you shut up. I do all the talking. And
that was a hell of a challenge for Lefty go
Getting Lefty to shut up was not easy, and they
had a meeting with Williams and the president and the
university attorney.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Drizzel resigned on October twenty nine, nineteen eighty six, and
received a comfortable settlement He was paid one hundred and
twenty thousand dollars a year for nine years, the remainder
of his tenure coaching contract, and he could continue his
basketball camps at the school for the same length of time.
(24:47):
Drizzell collected the full salary even after he left. As
Pots recalls, Williams took a hard stance with Maryland while
representing Brazell. He recounts the following story from a conversation
he had with Williams shortly after the meeting.
Speaker 6 (25:03):
And the Maryland attorney arrogantly walked into the room and
he laid a contract on the desk. Left he had
eight and a half years left on his contract, and
Maryland offered him a year and a half. They laid
that on the table and ed Williams looked at it.
He jumped up, He grabbed the contract. He tore it
(25:27):
to shreds in front of me said I'll see you
in hell. Before we'd ever signed this. You want to
go to war, We'll go to war the next day.
The next day they called Williams and gave Lefty all
eight and a half years.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Brazila added more context to the negotiation on a phone
call in the summer of twenty twenty.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
So Slaughter called back tomorrow. He said, your contract is good.
We've got your pay left before it nine years and
he can stay here as an athletic director for two
years and he will get the same salary he will
be making as the head coach. He can also have
(26:11):
his basketball camp and use the dorms free and a
gym free. And that was the deal. Ed Williams said, Look,
you can take at it if you want to. You
ain't got to work for seven more years, and or
you can go ahead and coach. Take the deal he's
(26:33):
offering it, and forget it. Forget coaching. That's what I did.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
As part of the deal, Drazell transition to an assistant
athletic director who oversaw the department, sports information and marketing departments.
He also helped manage the Maryland Educational Foundation, which raised
money for scholarships and other department needs. When asked in
twenty ten what the Athletic Department wanted him to do
(26:59):
in his new role, Dazelle paused for a couple moments, laughed,
and then said, quote hide end quote. Part of Drizzel's
job was to convince the elderly to place their life
insurance policy in their will and make the athletic department
the beneficiary when they died. Trizelle told me, I was
(27:19):
getting ready to do that, but never got that much involved.
When I took the job, then athletic director Luke Perkins said,
just come on over when you want and do what
you want. Trazelle left Maryland in nineteen eighty eight to
become head coach at James Madison University. In nineteen ninety four,
he became the head coach at Georgia State, where he
(27:40):
stayed through two thousand and three. Drizelle retired with the
fourth most wins in Division one history, with seven hundred
and eighty six. In the summer of two thousand and two,
Drizzell returned to Maryland's campus for the first time since
taking the job at James Madison. He attended his induction
ceremony into Maryland's Athletics Hall of Fame.
Speaker 23 (28:04):
For his accomplishments during his coaching career. At his successful
tenure at the University of Maryland, coach Charles Lefty Drizzl
is tonight being inducted into the University of Maryland Athletic
Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Drizell returned the next winter when the Terrapins honored his
retirement from coaching during halftime of a game against Enci
State at the Comcast Center, Maryland's new basketball arena. Drizzel
stopped by Maryland's arena again in twenty seventeen for another
(28:42):
special ceremony, brizl The crowd was loud as Drizzel flashed
the familiar victory sign with his right hand pointing to
the rafters. It must have felt as if he were
back in Colefield House, in the building where he helped
(29:04):
develop Maryland basketball into a nationally respected program, ready to
lead his Maryland team to another of its many victories.
John Lucas played for Drizzel from nineteen seventy two to
nineteen seventy six. He departed Maryland as a three time
All America and was the top pick in the nineteen
seventy six NBA draft. He offered perhaps the most balanced
(29:29):
assessment of Drizzel's personality, which endeared many and irritated others
at Maryland. Lucas told me, coach was genuine to a fault.
What you saw was what you got. He doesn't have
any gray areas presenting Lefty for enshrinement are Mike Ruschevskiy,
George Raveling, John Thompson, Ladies and Gentlemen.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Charles Lefty Drizzl.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
In twenty eighteen, at the age of eighty six, receive
the highest honor for a basketball coach, induction into the
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Speaker 17 (30:07):
I'm so happy to be here. This is probably one
of the happiest days in my wife, my life and
my wife whatever. And look, is anybody in here eighty
six years old? Raise your hand, will you? So? So
if I screw up, So look if I if I
(30:30):
screw up, wait till you get eighty six. And I
made the statement, then we're gonna be the UCLA at
the East again. I was kind of drunk or someone
I said that. And so I've been lucky to be
able to coach, and to be able to coach and
(30:54):
recruit at four great at two great high schools, and
for division win universities.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
I had a conversation with Drizl in the summer of
twenty twenty. He was typical Lefty, engaging, curious, and combative,
and he expressed some frustration when the topic of bias
came up.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
Do you say that anything you do? What there about
his death? If you look back at direct and what
was Marylin in basketball before I got damned?
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Drizzel finds comfort in his story he has told about Bias.
During the early summer of twenty ten, the man approached
him as they walked out of church near Drizzel's home
in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The man explained that shortly before
Bias's death, he had reached a personal love, losing his
job and his family due to a cocaine addiction. When
(31:49):
friends told the man that Bias had died, he immediately
stopped abusing cocaine. The man told Grisel that Bias was
one of his favorite players and that Bias saved his life.
Speaker 3 (32:03):
I bet eeveral people tell me that they've never used drugs,
they've died.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
At a press conference shortly after Bias died, Drizel expressed
a connection between the two of them, a connection that
he feels is eternal.
Speaker 9 (32:18):
As my wife said, He's in a better position right
now than we are. He's he's at home with the Lord,
and I really sincerely believe that. I mean, I'm sad,
but I'm not even worried because I know where Leonard is.
I know he's in heaven and I'm going to miss him,
and I know everybody else here will pise me. I
really can't say a whole lot more such I love you,
(32:39):
Leonard and our mission. I've seen Evan one.
Speaker 18 (32:43):
Day, Len Bias. A Mixed Legacy. The interviews was produced
by Davon Grady and Don Marcus. He had it all strong, quick,
(33:06):
and he was so lain biased. A mixed legacy is
distributed by the Eighth Side never before, just for greatness
and loss.
Speaker 22 (33:13):
Let you known them all other memories, remember me.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
I hope they do the same
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