Bobby Cremins wanted his purpose back. The request didn’t seem that unusual. At the time, Cremins wasn’t sure what to make of the fate that haunted him when he walked away from the Georgia Tech basketball program after 19 years of legendary-status-work in a conference that can be nothing short of unforgiving. 

So, the second most-tenured coach in the conference decided to walk away on his own terms. “When I left, I thought I’d be right back [coaching],” he says. “But then, it seemed like forever (about six years), and I still wasn’t back in the game. I needed to get my purpose back. Being a part of this game gives me purpose.”

When Cremins arrived on the scene in Atlanta, Georgia Tech was considered a non-entity in an ACC conference that boasted the likes of North Carolina, Duke and Maryland. The year before, the Yellow Jackets couldn’t even manage to win a conference game.

But Bobby Cremins is a tough Irish Catholic from the mean streets of New York City. And failure has never been an option. Just four years after blowing his first practice whistle, Tech won its first ACC championship.

Before long, the fiery court general with the trademark white hair was being mentioned in the same breath as North Carolina’s Dean Smith, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski and Maryland’s Lefty Driesell. The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and Bobby Cremins became relevant – real relevant: 354 victories; 14 winning  seasons and 14 postseason berths; three ACC tournament titles; two ACC regular-season titles; a Final

Four appearance; six All-Americans; 24 all-ACC players; eight ACC “Rookie of the Year” honorees; and a national College Coach of the Year and three-time ACC Coach of the Year awards.

These are not the things that Bobby Cremins dwells on. He has far too much going on these days. The College of Charleston named him its 21st head basketball coach in 2006, nearly six years after he left Tech. It was time to get back to work. “I’m very comfortable here,” Cremins says of the College of Charleston. “This has been a great program for me. There was a time [after Tech] where I thought I would never coach again. But I landed in the place I was supposed to be.”

Basketball for life

Bobby Cremins’ love of the game can be traced back to the playgrounds in the Bronx – the place where he felt most at home. Ask him and he might say that basketball saved him from a life where others took different paths. The constant dribbling and shooting and passing and practicing of his youth paid off. As a teenager, his basketball skills landed him a scholarship at All Hallows High School, an institution the Cremins’ family could have never afforded with a basketball scholarship.

From there, he landed a college scholarship at the University of South Carolina, where he played for legendary coach Frank McGuire and dreamed of making it to the next level. And so he did what any passionate and talented basketball player did – he moved through the NBA, the ABA, and then into international league play. In 1972, he tried out for the Olympic basketball team, where his roommate was future NBAer, coach and broadcaster Doug Collins. Cremins made himself a promise: If he didn’t make the Olympic team he wasn’t going to keep playing. If he could make that team, he knew he would have a shot at the NBA. Cremins didn’t make the team. He knew he could go back to Europe and play, but deep down, he didn’t want to be that guy.

So he took his talents to Pittsburgh, where he landed a job as a position coach for Point Park College. He not so fondly remembers being paralyzed in a dense fog on the Pennsylvania Turnpike while driving from South Carolina to Pittsburgh to report to work.

In his mind, he went back and forth on whether or not he should play or coach. He bounced from Pittsburgh back to South Carolina, where he coached as an assistant under McGuire. And then Appalachian State called. “I was young and hungry. I loved the game and still wanted to play. Nobody wanted the Appalachian State job. So I took it and never looked back.”

After winning the Southern Conference title several years in, Bobby Cremins’ name was on the coaching map.

When he looks back today, he is excited about the future. He also has a firm grasp on the road that led him to all the people, places and events that helped shape him. “Those were happy days at Georgia Tech,” Cremins recalls. We were the young guns. Me, Mike (Krzyzewski) and Jimmy (Valvano). We were the best of friends. Jimmy went 120 mph. I went 85 mph. And Mike, Mike had balance. He still does. They were special times.”

Heading into his 30th year, Cremins, who will turn 64 in July, will once again try to take the Cougars to the NCAA tournament. It’s the last hurdle he wants to take. In the world of Bobby Cremins, failure is not an option. The only losers are the ones who count him out.

Story by Michael J. Pallerino

Cremins on Cremins

I wanted to be a player, not a coach. It is what I dreamed of from the first time I picked up a   basketball. But when that door closed I had to go in a different direction. Coaching was that direction.

We had a schoolyard right across from our house in the Bronx. I just gravitated to that schoolyard. I loved the game. I couldn’t get enough of it.

I was young and hungry when I took the court at Appalachian State. I was 27 years old. Today when a job opens up people want experience, experience, experience. It’s because the game has changed so much. But some of these jobs, especially the ones nobody wants, they will take a chance on a young coach.

The ACC championship in 1985 had to been one of our defining moments. We had to beat North Carolina for the third time in the old Omni in Atlanta. It was truly defining.

I want my legacy to be that I was able to fulfill my parents’ dream. They came here from Ireland and dreamed of the American Dream. And they wanted their children to live that dream. I’d like to think that I’ve done that.

As a basketball coach, I would hope that my legacy is that I have been noticed. The work was fun.

The game has lost a lot of its purity. The compensation for coaches is off the charts. It has become a big business. Some of the exposure for the game has been good and some has been bad.

Recruiting has become very difficult today. Too many kids are leaving the game too early. If I could change any part of the game, I would definitely look at this.

I would like to have a say in the direction of the game. It might be a small say, but I’ve been coaching a long time. We have to keep the game going, keep the legitimacy of it. Some of the things that are happening out there want to make you cringe. Not so much on the coaching side, but on the administrative and player sides as well. I think it’s important to keep the game pure.

There is not that much of a difference from kids when I was playing and today. Everybody wants to make it to the NBA.

Today’s players are under a much bigger microscope. You have to let kids learn through their mistakes, but social behavior today gets publicized immediately. It’s not doing these kids any favors.

This is a team game – always has been. Passing. Defending. Footwork. Fundamentals matter. Before you play 5-on-5 you have to understand how the game works. You have to get your fundamentals down. There has to be more of an emphasis on this.

There comes a time when a player has to make his own decisions and stop running to mom and dad for the answers.

Coaches should do it the right way. Doing it the wrong way doesn’t work. You have to have balance and not be so obsessed with every little thing. It’s a pressure cooker without that.

The Bobby Cremins files

• Entering his 30th year of coaching and has a career record of 541–356 (.603) with Appalachian State, Georgia Tech and College of Charleston

• Named 21st head coach in College of Charleston men’s basketball history in 2003

• Named head coach at Georgia Tech in 1981 and is the school’s all-time winningest coach

with 354 victories

• 14 winning seasons and 14 postseason berths in 19 years at Georgia Tech

• Led Yellow Jackets to three ACC tournament titles, two ACC regular-season titles and a Final Four appearance in 1989-90

• Coached six all-American players, 24 all-ACC players and eight ACC “Rookie

of the Year” honorees

• Naismith National College Coach of the Year (1989-1990)

• Three-time ACC Coach of the Year (1983, 1985, 1996)

• Southern Conference Coach of the Year (1976, 1978, 1981)

• 21 of his players went on to play in National Basketball Association (NBA)

• Assistant coach on USA Basketball teams in 1989, 1990 and 1996

• Served as assistant coach at Point Park College in Pittsburgh (1972-1973) and University of South Carolina (1973-1975)

• Served as youngest Division I head coach at age 27 for Appalachian State (1975-1981)

• Three-year starter at point guard under legendary coach Frank McGuire at University of South Carolina

• Played professional basketball in Ecuador

• Works with charities such as Coaches vs. Cancer and the Jimmy V Foundation, and helps raise money for a five-to-six week summer program called the Hilton Head Basketball Camp 101 for disadvantaged kids

• Inducted into the Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame (2006), Georgia Tech Sports Hall of Fame (2006) and New York City Basketball Hall of Fame (2007)

• Georgia Tech officially named the basketball court at the Alexander Memorial Coliseum  Cremins Court” in 2003

• Holds B.S. degree in marketing and M.S. in guidance and counseling from University of South Carolina