When Jim Ganotis arrived at Syracuse, he thought about joining the golf team. Ganotis was a quality golfer on the junior level, and he wanted to keep playing at the college level. He went to Manley Field House to talk with the team’s young coach, Jim Boeheim.

“I’m glad you came,” Ganotis recalled Boeheim saying. “We have a tournament tomorrow. Be here at 7:30 in the morning.

“He was really astute with things that he would predict, as far as abilities of players,” Ganotis said later. “I say to everyone now, ‘Listen closely to what the coach says.’”

People have been listening to what Boeheim has to say since the 1970s, when he doubled as an assistant men’s basketball coach and golf team head coach. He made $2,000 to lead the golf team, for which he played as a student at SU for two seasons.

As the university’s last golf coach, Boeheim’s intensity on the basketball sidelines did not translate to the golf course. The slight age difference between him and his players allowed for a light-hearted, laid-back environment that included going out to bars on road trips, betting on pick-up basketball and staying in hotel rooms together. There weren’t official uniforms and the equipment shed was scarce. Boeheim could simply be outside, play the sport he loved and give his golfers a few pointers.

“It was a way to get some money,” Boeheim said in 2016 on the Golf Channel. “That was when I played probably the best golf I’ve ever played. People thought we never lost because I phoned in the scores. I only phoned in the scores when we won.”

Boeheim, 74, has won hundreds of games as the Syracuse men’s basketball coach. He’s led SU to five Final Fours and the 2003 national title. But among the basketball circles, he’s known as one of the more elite golfers. Assistant coach Gerry McNamara’s played with him about 10 times and said Boeheim’s “swing is pure.” SU Director of Athletics John Wildhack called him a “very good player.” Coaches and administrators say Boeheim downplays his game, but he can hit the ball fluidly and maintains a quality short game.

“Beautiful swing,” Wildhack said last year.

Courtesy of SU Archives

Boeheim shared a cordial relationship with his players and “was one of the guys,” Ganotis, who was on the team from 1971-73, said. But Boeheim was closest with Brad Chapman. On road trips, they were roommates. When the team piled into a van for a road trip, the seat next to Boeheim was reserved for Chapman. As long as Chapman was ready to compete on match day, Boeheim allowed he and the team to do what they wanted.

Once, at a matchup in Cortland, Boeheim challenged Chapman. Boeheim bet him $5 that he couldn’t shoot 75 or better. Chapman shot 75, he said.

“No, no,” Boeheim told him. “The bet was you had to break 75.”

“I’m like, ‘Come (on),’” Chapman recalled. “I got a little loud on him. The next day, he threw five bucks with dust on it across the bar at me. Like, thanks Boe.”

Chapman’s bond with Boeheim was so strong that he became the only one to call him “Boe.” Today, Chapman still refers to the 74-year-old as “Boe” and greets him as such when they reunite on the golf course or in the Carrier Dome. Chapman said he can’t remember the last time he called him Jim.

“His way of keeping an eye on the team was keeping an eye on me,” Chapman said. “I never really saw Boe get upset about anything back then.”

Boeheim’s ex-players see one constant in his coaching style from the golf course in the 1970s to the basketball court in 2019 — competitiveness. Even when he lost, he’d figure out a way to say he won, former golfers and friends said. Even in a tie scenario, they said Boeheim would say he won because he, for example, played a better back nine than everyone else.

About 10 years ago, Boeheim and his former assistant, Mike Hopkins, golfed at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester. Hopkins had a bad day. Boeheim offered assistance and tweaked his motion. Boeheim was so frustrated that Hopkins wasn’t improving, they quit, though.
But Boeheim was more patient with the players he coached on the SU golf team. While some opponents had uniforms, team bags and caddies, the Orange got just a few golf balls before each match.
“It was a low-budget kind of team,” said Ed Mazza, a former SU golfer. “I honestly think that the reason he coached the team was so there could be a team.”

Mazza also said there was something distinct about the way Boeheim played: He went fast. Very fast. Some days, Mazza remembered driving the tee box first. Yet while Mazza’s ball was still in the air, he said Boeheim would already be teeing off.

Growing up, he spent full summer days on Wayne Hills Country Club, a 10-minute drive from his house. His parents were big golfers, and he fell in love with the game as a kid in the central New York countryside. He still loves golf and plays at charity events during the off-season. He’s also a member of Onondaga Golf & Country Club, a short drive from his Fayetteville home. After all these years, a golf club sits in Boeheim’s office at the Carmelo K. Anthony Center.

“I used to be better. I’m OK now,” Boeheim said. “There’s a lot of guys better than me now. I was pretty good at one time.”

Published on April 10, 2019 at 11:02 pm

Contact Matthew: mguti100@syr.edu | @MatthewGut21