April 18, 2023 • 27 mins
Tom Copa joins Bill Schoening on the Sound of Spurs podcast and takes us through his journey to the NBA. Tom shares what it was like growing up in Minnesota and then he explains why he chose Marquette over other marquee schools. Later, Tom shares an incredible story which details his path to the NBA, which includes being a shuttle-bus driver in Colorado. Tom also talks about how he landed with the Spurs, and then finishes up discussing the legacy of the Spurs.
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome to another edition of Sound of Spurs podcast on
the longtime radio voice the Spurs, Bill Shooning. This episode
number twenty one presented by SWBC, and our guest today
might not be a household name, but he's got a
great journey and a great story, and we're very pleased
to be joined by former Spur Tom Kopa, the pride
of Coon Rapids High School and a native of Robbinsdale, Minnesota,
(00:31):
wherever that is. Tom, Welcome, and we're so happy that
you took the time to join us.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
And this is fun.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
We've had a great time this year in the fiftieth
anniversary of the Spurs, bringing back a lot of players,
some of whom have had great accolades. You have not,
but as I just alluded to, your basketball journey is
so cool. So let's just start at the beginning. What
was it like to grow up in Robbinsdale, Minnesota in
the sixties.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Well, I was born in Robinsdale, but that's that's actually
just where the h I grew up in a town
called Coon Rapids, and Coon Rapids is a northern suburb
of Minneapoa Saint Paul, and back in the day, it
was it was an idyllic life. I lived in a
neighborhood that was overrun with children and families and we
(01:17):
just we All we did was play sports. We played hockey,
we played street hockey, we played baseball, we played football,
we played basketball, softball. That's all we did and as
children in the street and so it was a great
place to grow up.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
There was no NBA back then because the Lakers had
left about five years before you were born to go
to Los Angeles, and the Temper Wolves hadn't come in yet.
So was as far as basketball following. Basketball was more
about the Minnesota Golden Gophers.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Yeah. At the time, the Gophers were strong. Michael Thompson
was there, Flip Saunders was there, and so we followed
the Gophers and listened to them pretty religiously on the radio.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Yeah, you were mister basketball in the state of Minnesota
in nineteen eighty three, I believe, is that correct?
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Right?
Speaker 1 (02:03):
You know, the Spurs current point guard Trey Jones was
mister basketball in the state of Minnesota in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
So you have gotom with one of the current Spurs.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Oh, that's fantastic. I wasn't aware of that.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Yeah, and he's a great guy, of course, and I
think his brother Tias may have actually been mister Basketball
in Minnesota. Well, you had a good career though Coon
Rapids High School. How heavily were you recruited after your
senior year?
Speaker 3 (02:27):
I was pretty heavily recruited. I was an All American
in both football and basketball, and I was recruited by
some of the biggest names in football, the University of Nebraska,
University of Minnesota UCLA. Back then, BYU was big. I
guess they're still pretty big. And then in basketball, I
was fortunate enough to attend the Five Star Camp in
(02:49):
Pittsburgh between my junior and senior year and made the
All Star team on the two weeks that I was there,
And so recruiting really amped up nationally after that. There
was recruited by Syracuse and Virginia and Duke and University
of Minnesota, of course, Marquette, Missouri, a lot of places,
and ended up, of course, choosing Marquette University out of Milwaukee.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Marquette of course a very good academic school as well
as being a good basketball school, which attracted you to
Marquette Milwaukee.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
There are quite a few things, so I number one
I had a really good relationship with coach Rick Majeris,
and he had a track record of developing big guys
and so tall guys as well as big guys, and
so I thought that would be a good fit. On
my trip, I met all of the players and it
felt like home when I walked into the locker room.
(03:44):
And then I also, I'm Catholic. In Marquette's Jesuit school
Catholic school, and so it felt culturally, it felt very
familiar to me, and so and I wanted to be
in a smaller school, wanted an opportunity. I knew college
was going to be a challenge academically, especially with the
commitments of athletics, and so a small student teacher ratio
(04:04):
where I could get individualized support was also important. And
so for those reasons, I chose Milwaukee and Marquette.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
I got to know Rick macgeris a lot better later
when he was at Utah and I was at the
University of Texas, and we'll probably talk a little bit
about Austin and Texas here in a moment, but he
had a very sarcastic sense of humor, and I don't
think I ever did a pregame interview Tom with Rick
majeris when I didn't have to edit something out, what
(04:32):
was your experience with, Like, give me a good Rick
Majeri's story that you could tell that maybe you could share,
because I'm sure there are a.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Few that you might not be able to. But he
was a funny guy, wasn't he.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Rick was great? Rick was great. So I got a couple.
So that one is Rick used to be very active
in practice, and he was really into the into the practice.
And he would he would lean down and he would
lean forward and he'd grab his head and and he
had this habit of sticking his hands in the back
of his coaching shorts and sitting there like this with
(05:07):
this with it. And you know, back then, you know,
he wore a jockstrap and so no underwear, and his
hands are all over his sweaty rear end and and
he's you know, he sweated profusely. And so at the
end of practice, he'd say, all right, guys, bring it in,
and then he'd stick his hand out and everybody's supposed
to put their hands on his hand, and you know,
(05:28):
and all the guys that are like, I'm not touching
that hand, and so we'd all like put our hands
in and play cat and mouse, and he'd be reaching
up trying to grab a hand, and he'd get one,
and then everybody would shove their hands in because he
would take his second hand and put it on top.
And so you wanted to be somewhere in the middle
between that bottom one and that top one and stick
your hand in there. And then then he'd go all
(05:50):
right on team together on three, and we'd go one, two, three,
team together, and then the two guys that are on
the bottom and the top would sprint to the locker
room to go wash her hands. And that happened every
single day, and Rick never knew why two guys sprinted
out of the gym, because nobody ever heard the audacity
to tell him. So that was one thing. Another really
(06:14):
good one is you know, you may remember the commercial
and I can't remember if I think it was either
insurance or a cell phone company, but they would they
would have this guy and a series of unfortunate events
would befall this person, like he would ride his bike
into the ditch and then a back end loader would
load some dirt on him, and then something else would
(06:35):
happen and this guy just went through this series of
horrible events. And then the the person the company advertising
would say, you need to have good coverage because if
you don't, you're going to ride your bike into a ditch.
A backend loader is going to fall on all this stuff.
And Rick used to say that same stuff in practice,
like if you if you had the audacity to miss
a layup in warm ups, he'd blow the mile hold on,
(06:59):
hold on, you missed a layup. You missed a layup
because you're not focused.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
If you don't focus in basketball, you're not gonna focus
in class. If you don't focus in class, you're not
gonna get good grades. If you don't get good grades,
you're not gonna get a degree. If you don't get
a degree, you're not gonna have a good job. If
you don't have a good job, your wife's not gonna
be happy. If your wife's not gonna be happy, she's
gonna leave you. If she leaves you and you have
a bad job, you're gonna be homeless.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
You're gonna be.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Slaying in a ditch. Make your goddamn lives. Like everybody's
looking around, like, whoa coach, I missed a layup next thing.
You know, I'm divorced and homeless. I had no idea
this was so important, but it was hilarious. And but
that guy was serious man. He took everything serious.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Well.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
You know, it's amazing the programs that he built in
different places. You know, of course Marketna had that reputation.
He went out to Utah and really build a national
power and recruited guys from LA and all over the
place to come to Salt Lake City.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Yeah, you know, he he went. He went from US
to the Bucks for a year, and then he went
to Ball State and I don't know if you remember
at Ball STATEI I think he took him to the
tournament and that's where he got his opportunity to go
to Utah. And then he just settled in at Utah.
And you know, he had a great career at Utah.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Let's get back to you for a moment, Tom, because
we talked about your career at Marquette. You even said
in a recent article that you were a marginal player,
a mediocre player. But the average day points in five rebounds.
But certainly that doesn't jump off the page to say
draft me in the first round.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
So you didn't get drafted.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
But you did get drafted by the CBA, the four
to fourth pick. So did you have thoughts at least
at that time of playing in the CBA.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Not at all, Not at all. I was done with
basketball when I left Marquette. I was fed up with it.
I just I was very disappointed in how my college
career went, and and and just didn't didn't enjoy the
game at the end. You know, Rick left my senior
(08:58):
year before my senior year, and we got an a coach.
You know, I didn't really get along with that guy,
and I was done. As matter of fact, I got
invited to Portsmouth. There there's a there used to be
a senior thing out in Portsmouth. I forget what they
called it.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
There still is, there still is, Yeah, And I didn't.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Want to go. And I got called it and I
was like, now I'm not going to go. And my
one of my teammates got invited and he says, Tom,
why aren't you going to go? And I said I
don't want to play. He's like, man, you're stupid. You
got to go. You should at least go. So I went.
Of course, I didn't want to be there. Didn't go well,
and I was. I just didn't want to play anymore,
and so so I didn't. And that's when I moved
(09:39):
out to Vail. After I took one extra semester to graduate,
and then I then I moved to Vale with a
buddy of mine and and tried to figure things out
when I was out in Veil.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
So about a year, maybe not quite a year, but
a hiatus, uh uh, trying to find yourself kind of thing.
When you were basically running shuttles from the Stapleton Airport
and Denver up to Vale, is that what you were doing.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Yeah? Yeah, I went out there and I needed to
get a job, and so I looked in the newspaper
like you used to back then, and this guy was
hiring for shovel drivers. So I'm like, I can drive.
So I did that and I got up every morning
at four thirty, left my apartment, had to go get
my van, get it warmed up, and then made the
rounds to the hotels are on Vail and picked people up,
(10:20):
brought them down to Stapleton, went and washed my van,
went back, picked up the folks that had landed at Stapleton,
drove them up to Vale, dropped them off their hotels,
washed my van, picked up the new group of people
at the hotels, drove them back down to Stapleton, dropped
them off, and then washed my van, and then went
back to Stapleton and picked up the next group and
(10:41):
drove them back to Vail. And I'd usually get home
around I'd get back to Vale around eight or nine
thirty at night, I'd have to go wash my van,
turn it back into the depot, and get home sometime
around ten thirty or eleven. And I did that pretty
much every day.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
That does not sound like a fun job. That sounds
like a long day, especially if you have to drive
in conditions up there at elevations.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Yeah, there were some conditions. But you know, when I
was young, I was twenty three years old, and I
I guess I was angry. I was I was not
a settled person at that time, and I was still
processing everything. You know. I had a degree from Marquette,
you know, good school, and here I was just out
(11:23):
I thought trying to escape. At the time. I was like,
you know what, I'm just going to go out there
and become a ski bump and just get out of
here and just end up skanning four or five days
and driving almost every single day, and I think, I
think the monotony of it was my own way. I
didn't do it consciously. I think it was a subconscious
(11:44):
thing that my brain told me to do, just to process,
you know, what I was going to do with my
life and what what happened at Marquette, because it was
not at all what I wanted to happen.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
But Tom, there was part of you somewhere deep inside
that said, I'm I'm not through with basketball yet. I
didn't really fulfill my complete potential with the game. And
I was writting this article that Jeff MacDonald wrote about
you in the San Antoni Express News, which by the way,
is a great little piece on you, I thought, and
he said that you had kind of a moment, a
(12:18):
revelation moment, if you will, during the nineteen eighty eight
Final four when Kansas got to Oklahoma.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
You're listening to game on the radio, Is that right?
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Yeah? Yeah. I was driving back one night from Stapleton
and I didn't have any passengers, and so I turned
on the radio, and as fate would have it, the
National Championship game was on, and I started listening, and
you know, I heard all the same old, familiar names
and guys that I had played with, played against at camps,
and had been following for you know, my entire career.
(12:48):
And I started to get angry. And I was like, well,
listen to all these guys. You can hear the crowd
going crazy, names being announced all across the world the radio.
And I thought that used to be me. I I
used to be on the floor and and I could play.
And here I am driving a shuttle bus. I've got
a beard and jeans, I haven't washed in three weeks,
(13:10):
and and uh, and.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
You were successful.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
I became a bomb and and I didn't like it.
I didn't like what I saw in the mirror. And
I didn't like where my my my mind was going.
And I said, you know what I've got to I've
got to I got to get back into the real world.
And so I again, just through a series of very
fortunate events, I I turned in my notice, said goodbye
(13:36):
to my my my roommates, and drove back to Milwaukee.
My arrival in Milwaukee coincided with the arrival of one
of my former teammates at Marquette, who had played a
year in Europe, and we went out for a bearing
and I asked him how things were going. He's like, man,
this is great. I'm over in Europe. I'm making a
bunch of money, you know, paying for all my expenses.
(13:56):
H and I just love it. It's the best thing ever.
You should do it. And I was like, huh, that's interesting,
and I said, I don't but I'm done with basketball.
He said, Tom, it's not the same when you're a pro.
There's nobody yelling at you. They just put the ball
out and you practice and they work on your skills
and you just go play, and it's it's a completely
(14:17):
different environment. You would love it. And then he showed
me the stack of money that he had, of course,
which I had done, and so I said, you know what,
I'm going to try. I'm gonna, I'm gonna. I'm going
to give it a go. So I dedicated myself that
summer to getting in shape, worked out with the Marquette guys,
went to the weight room, did all the things that
were supposed to do. And there was a camp in
(14:37):
Chicago at the end of the summer run by a
guy named Scott Woltzon, where he brought in one hundred
and fifty players put him on teams, and then scouts
from all over the world came and watched the guys play.
And again, as fate would have it, a coach from
Belgium was there and he saw me play and he
asked me if i'd join his team, and so I said.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Yes, And you ended up staying there three years? Is
that right?
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Yeah? Yeah, I stayed in Belgium in a town called Bruges.
I was there. I played there for three years.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Yeah, here's another connection for you with the Spurs. Bruges
is where Tony Parker was born.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
You know what, I think I knew that. I think
people told me that.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
I think Tony was born and I know he was
born in Belgium and raised in France. But I'm trying
to give you the connection with the with the younger generation.
But you average twenty one points and fourteen rebounds one year.
So were there some scouts from the NBA or from
some other leagues like the CBA looking at any of
these games.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
No, I don't. Well, back then, I don't, I don't believe.
So there was other European coaches that would come in.
But I what the way that the Spurs found me
was my wife became pregnant with our oldest son, are
my third season in Belgium, and so we had planned
on spending the summer in Milwaukee, which is of course
(15:54):
the off season, and and since she became pregnant, I
asked her, do you still want to go back to walking?
She said no, I'd kind of like to be near
my mother when I have the baby. And I said,
well that makes sense to me. And her mom and
dad had just relocated Austin, Texas, and so we came
down and spent the summer in Austin and ended up
actually living with my in laws for the summer, and
(16:16):
my father in law, you know, he helped me find
a gym. So I found a gym and I started
working out with a personal trainer. And then my father
in law actually asked me if he could write letters
to the NBA teams in Texas and let him know
I'm in town. And I said, well, you go ahead
and write a letter, but that's not how it really works.
And so he end up writing a letter and letting
(16:40):
him know. He put together a little resume with my
collegiate statistics, my Belgian statistics, a picture and sent it
off to the Spurs, the Rockets and the Maps.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
That's amazing. And through that you end up in San Antonio.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
And it was like a brief try out or was
it actually training camp or out of that work.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
So they have a the NBA team, I think they
still do. They have a rookie free agent camp which
starts before preseason, and so they bring in all the
rookies they drafted, in any free agents they want to
look at, and that culminates in the Black and Silver Game.
And after the Black and Silver Game, mister Bass, Bob Bass,
came up and said, Hey, we'd like you to come
(17:22):
to fall camp. Would you Are you open to that?
And I'm like, you bet. And so they actually asked
me to come to Milwaukee for the intervening six weeks
and work out with the team so I'd be ready.
And so Mollie and I and our newborn son moved
down to San Antonio and Charlie actually slept and we
(17:42):
rented a little one bedroom apartment and Charlie slept in
the walk in closet, and you ended up making the team.
Speaker 5 (17:50):
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Speaker 2 (18:30):
The quote from Breg Popovich in this recently released story
by Jeff McDonald he was like a man from the moon.
He came in and started knocking heads.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
What do you remember about those early workouts and were
you trying extra hard to try to impress the coaches?
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Well, for sure, I was trying extra hard. And you know,
I was too naive to know that I shouldn't challenge people. So,
you know, I remember getting the ball one time at
the top of the key and I turn around and
Terry Cummings is there, and so I, you know, I
make a move. He goes left, I go right, you know,
I go for the dunk and Terry comes in. He
(19:06):
tries to block it, and so I just held my
arm up to shield him and ended up cutting his
forehead with my elbow. And uh, and you know, Terry
got kind of mad. And then Pop was there and
he says, Terry, the man's trying to earn a job,
like he's not here to screw around. And I wasn't.
You know, I don't know Bill, if you have children,
but you know, when you have a child, the rules change.
(19:31):
You know, you've got somebody. You had a mouth that
depends on you, right. And so I was unemployed, I
had a new baby, I had a wife. I was
essentially homeless, and I needed a job. And so I
was going to, you know, ply my trade. And so
I did.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Teller, are you going to tell me you couldn't retire
on the money you made?
Speaker 2 (19:51):
And Brussels.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Not at two thousand dollars a month.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Paid.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
If you ever get a chance. There's a guy that
wrote a book. His name is Paul Shirley. He was
a journeyman guy and you played for six or seven
teams overseas, played at Iowa State and College or Iowa anyway.
I think it was Iowa State. But his book is
so funny. It's called Can I Keep My Jersey? And
right because he gets cut from every team he's ever
played for. But the way he does with a sense
(20:23):
of humor and I guess that's the way you have
to approach these things. So anyway, you get to play
thirty three games with the Spurs and then I guess
you got to a try out of the Rockets the
next year.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
You were way first out of that whole workout.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Yeah, so it's kind of funny. I was in the
summer after my rookie year with the Spurs. They exercised
their option and I had a three year contract, but
they exercise their option and cut me and invited me
back to camp. And that's when Jerry Tarkanian was the
head coach. Wow, And you know, tark ran a running
(20:57):
gun kind of offense, and you know that's my game,
and so I decided to try something else. And as
uh as it turns out, Pop joined Don Nelson at
Golden State, and so he called me up and said, hey,
you want to come and work out here this summer,
and I said sure. So I went out to Golden
State for a little bit and was playing with them,
(21:19):
but I, you know, I just didn't really care for it.
I'm really not an Oakland guy or California guy, and
which is kind of a stupid reason not to like it,
but I just didn't, and so I came back to
Texas and my agent got me a try out with
the Rockets, and so I went to Houston and was
working out with them, and they invited me to camp
(21:39):
and ended up making the team for the for the
first couple of games, and we opened up against the
SuperSonics in in Tokyo, and so it flew over to
Tokyo with the team and opened up and then when
we got back after the first couple of games, they
cut me, and so then then I joined I joined
(22:02):
the Lacross Caffirds in the CBA for a couple of
months and then yeah, yeah, yeah, and Clips Onders, as
it turns out, was the head coach of the caf
Birds at the time.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
I've talked to Mario Elliot was one of the guests
we've had. Of course, he played in the CBA, and
I think he told me that per dem back then
was twenty or twenty two dollars a days something. You
couldn't really get a lot of steak and you know
chicken on you had to get a hamburger.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
I guess yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
And the CBA is is a is a temporary spot
for most guys because I think you make like twenty
I mean, I remember when I filed my taxes, I
made ten percent in nineteen ninety two that I had
made in nineteen ninety one ten percent, And I didn't
make that much in ninety one, by the.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Way, in the NBA and the CBA. Right, So let's
fast forward.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Say, so the career is over, and now I'm looking
at your bio and you're a bio technology executive. You've
had a great success in your career as a businessman.
Just kind of bring us up to day Tom, maybe
the reader's die, just version of where your basketball career
ended and where your business career began and where you
are now.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Yeah, so quickly, I quit playing a couple of years
after San Antonio. I was in Italy, and after I
left Italy, I quit. I was just really beat up
and sore, and I just I was just tired of
being sore all the time. So I was twenty nine
years old and my first job out of basketball was
(23:32):
selling surgical supplies for a company called Baxter Healthcare. And
I did that for a while, became a regional sales
manager with one of their other divisions, was recruited to
join a startup company here in Austin called Luminex, joined
them as a business development director, was there for seventeen
or eighteen years, rose up through the ranks and eventually
(23:52):
to the vice president of one of their business units,
and then and then joined a company called a Origin
here in Austin five years ago in September, and led
their sales, marketing and support organization called Commercial Operations. We
were bought a couple of years ago by a company
called biotechne and where I'm now the vice president of
(24:16):
commercial for one of their business units for the division.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
And you've settled there in Austin pretty much going to
be there for a while.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
I think, Yeah, I love Austin.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Now.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
We've got a ton of friends. We've got we were
active in our church, we were active in boy Scouts
and in the youth sports programs. All my kids went
to school here. We've got some property in the hill country.
You know, Central Texas is really a special place.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
It really is. And it was so cool to have
you on today.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
And also the fact that they did that story on
you to kind of bridge the Austin and San Antonio gap, which,
as you know, is getting closer and closer isn't it, Tom,
because those studies are almost growing together now.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
Well, you know, back when I first started at Backstor,
I lived here, but my territory was in San Antonio,
and I used to drive to San Antonio three or four
time times a week, and there used to be open
land between here in San Antonio. And now it's you know,
Kyle Beaudis and Marcus new Bronfels, you know shirts, you
know San Antonio, and it all just kind of melds together.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
It sure does well, Tom, I can't say how much
we appreciate you and taking the time to join us
and be part of this fiftieth celebration. Fiftieth anniversary celebration
for the Spurs. Ont of question, I asked this to
all the guests. You think about the Spurs fifty years
of course, they came from the ABA, the Dallas Chaparrels
fifty years ago. What are your thoughts on the Spurs
legacy in pro basketball and in the NBA.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
I think the Spurs legacy is really something special. They
they deliver a product that built on character and teamwork
and execution, and it's unlike any other team. And if
you watch not that the other teams don't work hard,
(25:53):
and not that the teams other teams don't have character,
but the Spurs went. Watching the Spurs play basketball is
like watching a European soccer team play soccer. They drive,
they dish, they drive, they penetrate, they pass around it,
they skip pass, and they're not always just looking for
the immediate shot. They're looking to set somebody else up
for an easier shot. And it's fantastic and they make
(26:15):
the game look so easy, but of course it's not.
But they just wear you down and and they do
it with guys of high moral character, and it's it's awesome,
and it's it's really really good to see people do
things the right way and also, by the way win
(26:37):
this season notwithstanding. So it's they to me are are
the bright shining star of how professional team should be run.
And all credit to them.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
For the ton Once again, thanks for the con words,
and also thanks for taking the time.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Hope to meet in person one day.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
You know, I'm running between Austin and San Antonio too,
so I'm sure we'll cross bads one.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Of these days.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
I look forward to that bill.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
That is Tom Coppa Former Spur episode number twenty one
of the Sound of Spurs podcast, brought you by SWBC.
I'm Bill Schoning, so long, everybody,
Welcome to another edition of Sound of Spurs podcast on
the longtime radio voice the Spurs, Bill Shooning. This episode
number twenty one presented by SWBC, and our guest today
might not be a household name, but he's got a
great journey and a great story, and we're very pleased
to be joined by former Spur Tom Kopa, the pride
of Coon Rapids High School and a native of Robbinsdale, Minnesota,
(00:31):
wherever that is. Tom, Welcome, and we're so happy that
you took the time to join us.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
And this is fun.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
We've had a great time this year in the fiftieth
anniversary of the Spurs, bringing back a lot of players,
some of whom have had great accolades. You have not,
but as I just alluded to, your basketball journey is
so cool. So let's just start at the beginning. What
was it like to grow up in Robbinsdale, Minnesota in
the sixties.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Well, I was born in Robinsdale, but that's that's actually
just where the h I grew up in a town
called Coon Rapids, and Coon Rapids is a northern suburb
of Minneapoa Saint Paul, and back in the day, it
was it was an idyllic life. I lived in a
neighborhood that was overrun with children and families and we
(01:17):
just we All we did was play sports. We played hockey,
we played street hockey, we played baseball, we played football,
we played basketball, softball. That's all we did and as
children in the street and so it was a great
place to grow up.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
There was no NBA back then because the Lakers had
left about five years before you were born to go
to Los Angeles, and the Temper Wolves hadn't come in yet.
So was as far as basketball following. Basketball was more
about the Minnesota Golden Gophers.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Yeah. At the time, the Gophers were strong. Michael Thompson
was there, Flip Saunders was there, and so we followed
the Gophers and listened to them pretty religiously on the radio.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Yeah, you were mister basketball in the state of Minnesota
in nineteen eighty three, I believe, is that correct?
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Right?
Speaker 1 (02:03):
You know, the Spurs current point guard Trey Jones was
mister basketball in the state of Minnesota in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
So you have gotom with one of the current Spurs.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Oh, that's fantastic. I wasn't aware of that.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Yeah, and he's a great guy, of course, and I
think his brother Tias may have actually been mister Basketball
in Minnesota. Well, you had a good career though Coon
Rapids High School. How heavily were you recruited after your
senior year?
Speaker 3 (02:27):
I was pretty heavily recruited. I was an All American
in both football and basketball, and I was recruited by
some of the biggest names in football, the University of Nebraska,
University of Minnesota UCLA. Back then, BYU was big. I
guess they're still pretty big. And then in basketball, I
was fortunate enough to attend the Five Star Camp in
(02:49):
Pittsburgh between my junior and senior year and made the
All Star team on the two weeks that I was there,
And so recruiting really amped up nationally after that. There
was recruited by Syracuse and Virginia and Duke and University
of Minnesota, of course, Marquette, Missouri, a lot of places,
and ended up, of course, choosing Marquette University out of Milwaukee.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Marquette of course a very good academic school as well
as being a good basketball school, which attracted you to
Marquette Milwaukee.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
There are quite a few things, so I number one
I had a really good relationship with coach Rick Majeris,
and he had a track record of developing big guys
and so tall guys as well as big guys, and
so I thought that would be a good fit. On
my trip, I met all of the players and it
felt like home when I walked into the locker room.
(03:44):
And then I also, I'm Catholic. In Marquette's Jesuit school
Catholic school, and so it felt culturally, it felt very
familiar to me, and so and I wanted to be
in a smaller school, wanted an opportunity. I knew college
was going to be a challenge academically, especially with the
commitments of athletics, and so a small student teacher ratio
(04:04):
where I could get individualized support was also important. And
so for those reasons, I chose Milwaukee and Marquette.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
I got to know Rick macgeris a lot better later
when he was at Utah and I was at the
University of Texas, and we'll probably talk a little bit
about Austin and Texas here in a moment, but he
had a very sarcastic sense of humor, and I don't
think I ever did a pregame interview Tom with Rick
majeris when I didn't have to edit something out, what
(04:32):
was your experience with, Like, give me a good Rick
Majeri's story that you could tell that maybe you could share,
because I'm sure there are a.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Few that you might not be able to. But he
was a funny guy, wasn't he.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Rick was great? Rick was great. So I got a couple.
So that one is Rick used to be very active
in practice, and he was really into the into the practice.
And he would he would lean down and he would
lean forward and he'd grab his head and and he
had this habit of sticking his hands in the back
of his coaching shorts and sitting there like this with
(05:07):
this with it. And you know, back then, you know,
he wore a jockstrap and so no underwear, and his
hands are all over his sweaty rear end and and
he's you know, he sweated profusely. And so at the
end of practice, he'd say, all right, guys, bring it in,
and then he'd stick his hand out and everybody's supposed
to put their hands on his hand, and you know,
(05:28):
and all the guys that are like, I'm not touching
that hand, and so we'd all like put our hands
in and play cat and mouse, and he'd be reaching
up trying to grab a hand, and he'd get one,
and then everybody would shove their hands in because he
would take his second hand and put it on top.
And so you wanted to be somewhere in the middle
between that bottom one and that top one and stick
your hand in there. And then then he'd go all
(05:50):
right on team together on three, and we'd go one, two, three,
team together, and then the two guys that are on
the bottom and the top would sprint to the locker
room to go wash her hands. And that happened every
single day, and Rick never knew why two guys sprinted
out of the gym, because nobody ever heard the audacity
to tell him. So that was one thing. Another really
(06:14):
good one is you know, you may remember the commercial
and I can't remember if I think it was either
insurance or a cell phone company, but they would they
would have this guy and a series of unfortunate events
would befall this person, like he would ride his bike
into the ditch and then a back end loader would
load some dirt on him, and then something else would
(06:35):
happen and this guy just went through this series of
horrible events. And then the the person the company advertising
would say, you need to have good coverage because if
you don't, you're going to ride your bike into a ditch.
A backend loader is going to fall on all this stuff.
And Rick used to say that same stuff in practice,
like if you if you had the audacity to miss
a layup in warm ups, he'd blow the mile hold on,
(06:59):
hold on, you missed a layup. You missed a layup
because you're not focused.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
If you don't focus in basketball, you're not gonna focus
in class. If you don't focus in class, you're not
gonna get good grades. If you don't get good grades,
you're not gonna get a degree. If you don't get
a degree, you're not gonna have a good job. If
you don't have a good job, your wife's not gonna
be happy. If your wife's not gonna be happy, she's
gonna leave you. If she leaves you and you have
a bad job, you're gonna be homeless.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
You're gonna be.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Slaying in a ditch. Make your goddamn lives. Like everybody's
looking around, like, whoa coach, I missed a layup next thing.
You know, I'm divorced and homeless. I had no idea
this was so important, but it was hilarious. And but
that guy was serious man. He took everything serious.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Well.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
You know, it's amazing the programs that he built in
different places. You know, of course Marketna had that reputation.
He went out to Utah and really build a national
power and recruited guys from LA and all over the
place to come to Salt Lake City.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Yeah, you know, he he went. He went from US
to the Bucks for a year, and then he went
to Ball State and I don't know if you remember
at Ball STATEI I think he took him to the
tournament and that's where he got his opportunity to go
to Utah. And then he just settled in at Utah.
And you know, he had a great career at Utah.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Let's get back to you for a moment, Tom, because
we talked about your career at Marquette. You even said
in a recent article that you were a marginal player,
a mediocre player. But the average day points in five rebounds.
But certainly that doesn't jump off the page to say
draft me in the first round.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
So you didn't get drafted.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
But you did get drafted by the CBA, the four
to fourth pick. So did you have thoughts at least
at that time of playing in the CBA.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Not at all, Not at all. I was done with
basketball when I left Marquette. I was fed up with it.
I just I was very disappointed in how my college
career went, and and and just didn't didn't enjoy the
game at the end. You know, Rick left my senior
(08:58):
year before my senior year, and we got an a coach.
You know, I didn't really get along with that guy,
and I was done. As matter of fact, I got
invited to Portsmouth. There there's a there used to be
a senior thing out in Portsmouth. I forget what they
called it.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
There still is, there still is, Yeah, And I didn't.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Want to go. And I got called it and I
was like, now I'm not going to go. And my
one of my teammates got invited and he says, Tom,
why aren't you going to go? And I said I
don't want to play. He's like, man, you're stupid. You
got to go. You should at least go. So I went.
Of course, I didn't want to be there. Didn't go well,
and I was. I just didn't want to play anymore,
and so so I didn't. And that's when I moved
(09:39):
out to Vail. After I took one extra semester to graduate,
and then I then I moved to Vale with a
buddy of mine and and tried to figure things out
when I was out in Veil.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
So about a year, maybe not quite a year, but
a hiatus, uh uh, trying to find yourself kind of thing.
When you were basically running shuttles from the Stapleton Airport
and Denver up to Vale, is that what you were doing.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Yeah? Yeah, I went out there and I needed to
get a job, and so I looked in the newspaper
like you used to back then, and this guy was
hiring for shovel drivers. So I'm like, I can drive.
So I did that and I got up every morning
at four thirty, left my apartment, had to go get
my van, get it warmed up, and then made the
rounds to the hotels are on Vail and picked people up,
(10:20):
brought them down to Stapleton, went and washed my van,
went back, picked up the folks that had landed at Stapleton,
drove them up to Vale, dropped them off their hotels,
washed my van, picked up the new group of people
at the hotels, drove them back down to Stapleton, dropped
them off, and then washed my van, and then went
back to Stapleton and picked up the next group and
(10:41):
drove them back to Vail. And I'd usually get home
around I'd get back to Vale around eight or nine
thirty at night, I'd have to go wash my van,
turn it back into the depot, and get home sometime
around ten thirty or eleven. And I did that pretty
much every day.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
That does not sound like a fun job. That sounds
like a long day, especially if you have to drive
in conditions up there at elevations.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Yeah, there were some conditions. But you know, when I
was young, I was twenty three years old, and I
I guess I was angry. I was I was not
a settled person at that time, and I was still
processing everything. You know. I had a degree from Marquette,
you know, good school, and here I was just out
(11:23):
I thought trying to escape. At the time. I was like,
you know what, I'm just going to go out there
and become a ski bump and just get out of
here and just end up skanning four or five days
and driving almost every single day, and I think, I
think the monotony of it was my own way. I
didn't do it consciously. I think it was a subconscious
(11:44):
thing that my brain told me to do, just to process,
you know, what I was going to do with my
life and what what happened at Marquette, because it was
not at all what I wanted to happen.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
But Tom, there was part of you somewhere deep inside
that said, I'm I'm not through with basketball yet. I
didn't really fulfill my complete potential with the game. And
I was writting this article that Jeff MacDonald wrote about
you in the San Antoni Express News, which by the way,
is a great little piece on you, I thought, and
he said that you had kind of a moment, a
(12:18):
revelation moment, if you will, during the nineteen eighty eight
Final four when Kansas got to Oklahoma.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
You're listening to game on the radio, Is that right?
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Yeah? Yeah. I was driving back one night from Stapleton
and I didn't have any passengers, and so I turned
on the radio, and as fate would have it, the
National Championship game was on, and I started listening, and
you know, I heard all the same old, familiar names
and guys that I had played with, played against at camps,
and had been following for you know, my entire career.
(12:48):
And I started to get angry. And I was like, well,
listen to all these guys. You can hear the crowd
going crazy, names being announced all across the world the radio.
And I thought that used to be me. I I
used to be on the floor and and I could play.
And here I am driving a shuttle bus. I've got
a beard and jeans, I haven't washed in three weeks,
(13:10):
and and uh, and.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
You were successful.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
I became a bomb and and I didn't like it.
I didn't like what I saw in the mirror. And
I didn't like where my my my mind was going.
And I said, you know what I've got to I've
got to I got to get back into the real world.
And so I again, just through a series of very
fortunate events, I I turned in my notice, said goodbye
(13:36):
to my my my roommates, and drove back to Milwaukee.
My arrival in Milwaukee coincided with the arrival of one
of my former teammates at Marquette, who had played a
year in Europe, and we went out for a bearing
and I asked him how things were going. He's like, man,
this is great. I'm over in Europe. I'm making a
bunch of money, you know, paying for all my expenses.
(13:56):
H and I just love it. It's the best thing ever.
You should do it. And I was like, huh, that's interesting,
and I said, I don't but I'm done with basketball.
He said, Tom, it's not the same when you're a pro.
There's nobody yelling at you. They just put the ball
out and you practice and they work on your skills
and you just go play, and it's it's a completely
(14:17):
different environment. You would love it. And then he showed
me the stack of money that he had, of course,
which I had done, and so I said, you know what,
I'm going to try. I'm gonna, I'm gonna. I'm going
to give it a go. So I dedicated myself that
summer to getting in shape, worked out with the Marquette guys,
went to the weight room, did all the things that
were supposed to do. And there was a camp in
(14:37):
Chicago at the end of the summer run by a
guy named Scott Woltzon, where he brought in one hundred
and fifty players put him on teams, and then scouts
from all over the world came and watched the guys play.
And again, as fate would have it, a coach from
Belgium was there and he saw me play and he
asked me if i'd join his team, and so I said.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Yes, And you ended up staying there three years? Is
that right?
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Yeah? Yeah, I stayed in Belgium in a town called Bruges.
I was there. I played there for three years.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Yeah, here's another connection for you with the Spurs. Bruges
is where Tony Parker was born.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
You know what, I think I knew that. I think
people told me that.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
I think Tony was born and I know he was
born in Belgium and raised in France. But I'm trying
to give you the connection with the with the younger generation.
But you average twenty one points and fourteen rebounds one year.
So were there some scouts from the NBA or from
some other leagues like the CBA looking at any of
these games.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
No, I don't. Well, back then, I don't, I don't believe.
So there was other European coaches that would come in.
But I what the way that the Spurs found me
was my wife became pregnant with our oldest son, are
my third season in Belgium, and so we had planned
on spending the summer in Milwaukee, which is of course
(15:54):
the off season, and and since she became pregnant, I
asked her, do you still want to go back to walking?
She said no, I'd kind of like to be near
my mother when I have the baby. And I said,
well that makes sense to me. And her mom and
dad had just relocated Austin, Texas, and so we came
down and spent the summer in Austin and ended up
actually living with my in laws for the summer, and
(16:16):
my father in law, you know, he helped me find
a gym. So I found a gym and I started
working out with a personal trainer. And then my father
in law actually asked me if he could write letters
to the NBA teams in Texas and let him know
I'm in town. And I said, well, you go ahead
and write a letter, but that's not how it really works.
And so he end up writing a letter and letting
(16:40):
him know. He put together a little resume with my
collegiate statistics, my Belgian statistics, a picture and sent it
off to the Spurs, the Rockets and the Maps.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
That's amazing. And through that you end up in San Antonio.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
And it was like a brief try out or was
it actually training camp or out of that work.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
So they have a the NBA team, I think they
still do. They have a rookie free agent camp which
starts before preseason, and so they bring in all the
rookies they drafted, in any free agents they want to
look at, and that culminates in the Black and Silver Game.
And after the Black and Silver Game, mister Bass, Bob Bass,
came up and said, Hey, we'd like you to come
(17:22):
to fall camp. Would you Are you open to that?
And I'm like, you bet. And so they actually asked
me to come to Milwaukee for the intervening six weeks
and work out with the team so I'd be ready.
And so Mollie and I and our newborn son moved
down to San Antonio and Charlie actually slept and we
(17:42):
rented a little one bedroom apartment and Charlie slept in
the walk in closet, and you ended up making the team.
Speaker 5 (17:50):
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Speaker 3 (18:11):
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Speaker 5 (18:12):
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dot com slash careers.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
The quote from Breg Popovich in this recently released story
by Jeff McDonald he was like a man from the moon.
He came in and started knocking heads.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
What do you remember about those early workouts and were
you trying extra hard to try to impress the coaches?
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Well, for sure, I was trying extra hard. And you know,
I was too naive to know that I shouldn't challenge people. So,
you know, I remember getting the ball one time at
the top of the key and I turn around and
Terry Cummings is there, and so I, you know, I
make a move. He goes left, I go right, you know,
I go for the dunk and Terry comes in. He
(19:06):
tries to block it, and so I just held my
arm up to shield him and ended up cutting his
forehead with my elbow. And uh, and you know, Terry
got kind of mad. And then Pop was there and
he says, Terry, the man's trying to earn a job,
like he's not here to screw around. And I wasn't.
You know, I don't know Bill, if you have children,
but you know, when you have a child, the rules change.
(19:31):
You know, you've got somebody. You had a mouth that
depends on you, right. And so I was unemployed, I
had a new baby, I had a wife. I was
essentially homeless, and I needed a job. And so I
was going to, you know, ply my trade. And so
I did.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Teller, are you going to tell me you couldn't retire
on the money you made?
Speaker 2 (19:51):
And Brussels.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Not at two thousand dollars a month.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Paid.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
If you ever get a chance. There's a guy that
wrote a book. His name is Paul Shirley. He was
a journeyman guy and you played for six or seven
teams overseas, played at Iowa State and College or Iowa anyway.
I think it was Iowa State. But his book is
so funny. It's called Can I Keep My Jersey? And
right because he gets cut from every team he's ever
played for. But the way he does with a sense
(20:23):
of humor and I guess that's the way you have
to approach these things. So anyway, you get to play
thirty three games with the Spurs and then I guess
you got to a try out of the Rockets the
next year.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
You were way first out of that whole workout.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Yeah, so it's kind of funny. I was in the
summer after my rookie year with the Spurs. They exercised
their option and I had a three year contract, but
they exercise their option and cut me and invited me
back to camp. And that's when Jerry Tarkanian was the
head coach. Wow, And you know, tark ran a running
(20:57):
gun kind of offense, and you know that's my game,
and so I decided to try something else. And as
uh as it turns out, Pop joined Don Nelson at
Golden State, and so he called me up and said, hey,
you want to come and work out here this summer,
and I said sure. So I went out to Golden
State for a little bit and was playing with them,
(21:19):
but I, you know, I just didn't really care for it.
I'm really not an Oakland guy or California guy, and
which is kind of a stupid reason not to like it,
but I just didn't, and so I came back to
Texas and my agent got me a try out with
the Rockets, and so I went to Houston and was
working out with them, and they invited me to camp
(21:39):
and ended up making the team for the for the
first couple of games, and we opened up against the
SuperSonics in in Tokyo, and so it flew over to
Tokyo with the team and opened up and then when
we got back after the first couple of games, they
cut me, and so then then I joined I joined
(22:02):
the Lacross Caffirds in the CBA for a couple of
months and then yeah, yeah, yeah, and Clips Onders, as
it turns out, was the head coach of the caf
Birds at the time.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
I've talked to Mario Elliot was one of the guests
we've had. Of course, he played in the CBA, and
I think he told me that per dem back then
was twenty or twenty two dollars a days something. You
couldn't really get a lot of steak and you know
chicken on you had to get a hamburger.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
I guess yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
And the CBA is is a is a temporary spot
for most guys because I think you make like twenty
I mean, I remember when I filed my taxes, I
made ten percent in nineteen ninety two that I had
made in nineteen ninety one ten percent, And I didn't
make that much in ninety one, by the.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Way, in the NBA and the CBA. Right, So let's
fast forward.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Say, so the career is over, and now I'm looking
at your bio and you're a bio technology executive. You've
had a great success in your career as a businessman.
Just kind of bring us up to day Tom, maybe
the reader's die, just version of where your basketball career
ended and where your business career began and where you
are now.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Yeah, so quickly, I quit playing a couple of years
after San Antonio. I was in Italy, and after I
left Italy, I quit. I was just really beat up
and sore, and I just I was just tired of
being sore all the time. So I was twenty nine
years old and my first job out of basketball was
(23:32):
selling surgical supplies for a company called Baxter Healthcare. And
I did that for a while, became a regional sales
manager with one of their other divisions, was recruited to
join a startup company here in Austin called Luminex, joined
them as a business development director, was there for seventeen
or eighteen years, rose up through the ranks and eventually
(23:52):
to the vice president of one of their business units,
and then and then joined a company called a Origin
here in Austin five years ago in September, and led
their sales, marketing and support organization called Commercial Operations. We
were bought a couple of years ago by a company
called biotechne and where I'm now the vice president of
(24:16):
commercial for one of their business units for the division.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
And you've settled there in Austin pretty much going to
be there for a while.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
I think, Yeah, I love Austin.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Now.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
We've got a ton of friends. We've got we were
active in our church, we were active in boy Scouts
and in the youth sports programs. All my kids went
to school here. We've got some property in the hill country.
You know, Central Texas is really a special place.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
It really is. And it was so cool to have
you on today.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
And also the fact that they did that story on
you to kind of bridge the Austin and San Antonio gap, which,
as you know, is getting closer and closer isn't it, Tom,
because those studies are almost growing together now.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
Well, you know, back when I first started at Backstor,
I lived here, but my territory was in San Antonio,
and I used to drive to San Antonio three or four
time times a week, and there used to be open
land between here in San Antonio. And now it's you know,
Kyle Beaudis and Marcus new Bronfels, you know shirts, you
know San Antonio, and it all just kind of melds together.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
It sure does well, Tom, I can't say how much
we appreciate you and taking the time to join us
and be part of this fiftieth celebration. Fiftieth anniversary celebration
for the Spurs. Ont of question, I asked this to
all the guests. You think about the Spurs fifty years
of course, they came from the ABA, the Dallas Chaparrels
fifty years ago. What are your thoughts on the Spurs
legacy in pro basketball and in the NBA.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
I think the Spurs legacy is really something special. They
they deliver a product that built on character and teamwork
and execution, and it's unlike any other team. And if
you watch not that the other teams don't work hard,
(25:53):
and not that the teams other teams don't have character,
but the Spurs went. Watching the Spurs play basketball is
like watching a European soccer team play soccer. They drive,
they dish, they drive, they penetrate, they pass around it,
they skip pass, and they're not always just looking for
the immediate shot. They're looking to set somebody else up
for an easier shot. And it's fantastic and they make
(26:15):
the game look so easy, but of course it's not.
But they just wear you down and and they do
it with guys of high moral character, and it's it's awesome,
and it's it's really really good to see people do
things the right way and also, by the way win
(26:37):
this season notwithstanding. So it's they to me are are
the bright shining star of how professional team should be run.
And all credit to them.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
For the ton Once again, thanks for the con words,
and also thanks for taking the time.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Hope to meet in person one day.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
You know, I'm running between Austin and San Antonio too,
so I'm sure we'll cross bads one.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Of these days.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
I look forward to that bill.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
That is Tom Coppa Former Spur episode number twenty one
of the Sound of Spurs podcast, brought you by SWBC.
I'm Bill Schoning, so long, everybody,
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