Wheww. Man when I saw this thread from the past brought back up, the first thing that came to my mind was something unfortunate has stricken Coach T. So glad to see that I was wrong, and thanks for the update and the great pics. The Royals team photo must be a prized posession!

TOMORROW: Friday, January 6th, The Alumni of Covington Catholic will hold a reception after the home basketball game vs. Beechwood in the Griffin Alumni Center. We will celebrate and pay tribute to fellow alum, Dan Tieman ’58. A display will be unveiled to honor Coach T for his dedication to the Covington Catholic Community. The Alumni Association would like to invite all alumni and friends of Covington Catholic to this special evening that will start with the varsity basketball game at 7:30pm.

Here's a picture of Coach T standing in front of the display that was dedicated in his honor on Friday. The case seen in the right of the photo contains a handful of plaques, photos, and memorabilia from his time as a student, teacher, and coach at Cov Cath, and the photo behind him was taken in the locker room following Cov Cath's upset of Louisville Central in 1958 - Coach T's senior year in high school. Cov Cath was ranked at #6 in the state, and Central was #1. If you couldn't tell, Coach is the one on the foreground of the team picture on the right hand side - the ear is the dead giveaway. It was awesome seeing as many folks there as we had. Lots of alumni and former faculty/staff came back for the event.

 

It was a great evening, good to see a large group of people back at the Alumni center after the game.

As a young kid I used to keep score for the weekly mens league at Turners. Afterwards when I would clean up Dan would be shooting baskets all alone and just nail jump shots from everywhere. I would rebound for him. I thought he could not miss. And they all were swishes too. He used to show me a trick that when the basketball nets were brand new and real tight and that if you make a perfect swish it would snap the ball back out through the rim. And he did it over and over. I will always remember that. It was like magic to a kid.

 

If anyone knows please correct me, but I was told he had a nickname when he was with the royals. He played behind Oscar Robertson. So when Oscar took a break Dan would sub for him. The nickname was something like the "3 minute man", b/c thats all the Big O needed for a break.

 

What a great person.

 

:thumb: Awesome story.

 

I had always heard that Coach T was the Big O's backup, but I have no idea what his nickname was.