Bob Harlan: The journey begins

Continued from previous week

In 1959, Bob Harlan joined Marquette University, and Vince Lombardi joined the Packers, but a chance encounter would bring the two of them together in the same room — a locker room.

“When I was working at UPI, I wasn’t married yet. I was living single in Milwaukee, and the Packers were due to play the first preseason game at County Stadium that weekend. And my boss said to me, ‘Want to go to the game? You don’t have to work this time, just watch the game.’ I said, ‘I’d love to.’

“So, I went to County Stadium, and I was sitting in the press box, and the man who’s supposed to cover the Packers locker room got ill, so my boss came over to me and said, ‘I hate to do this to you, but would you go down to the Packers locker room?’

“So, the Packers lost the game to the Bears, and I went down to the locker room and went to Coach Lombardi’s first press conference. And when he was finished with the press conference, I was young and dumb. I was 21 years old and didn’t know any better. I just said ‘Coach, can I ask you a few more questions?’ And he couldn’t have been nicer to me.

“We sat in the locker room together for maybe 10 or 15 minutes. Question after question, he answered every one very carefully, very thoroughly and couldn’t have been nicer to me.

“If this had happened two or three years later, I probably would have never approached the man and asked him to give me another interview, because I know how tough he was on the press. But, at that time, it worked very well. And, I wish I had a picture of the two of us sitting by that locker, but I don’t. But it was a real highlight for me to meet the man.”

Harlan then spent six years at Marquette University as the sports information director, working first with Marquette Head Basketball Coach Eddie Hickey — until 1964 — and then with Al McGuire.

“The thing about Al that was so intriguing. He was a young guy, you know, just coming on the scene. Nobody ever heard of Al before. And the thing is, as I’m driving to the downtown to the press conference that day, the president of the university called and said, ‘We’re going to hire a basketball coach. We need you down here right away to make an announcement.’

“As I’m driving down to the press conference, I hear on the radio — on WTMJ in Milwaukee — that they’re speculating that it’s Frank McGuire. And, my gosh, Frank McGuire was a great coach at that time. I thought, what a catch from Marquette. So, I’m walking around looking for Frank McGuire, and I don’t see anybody. Finally, this young, good-looking, dark-haired man walks over to me and says ‘Hi, I’m Al McGuire.’ So that’s how we met.

“He’s coming in to take this job a couple of weeks later, and I was sent down Chicago to pick him up, and as we’re driving to Milwaukee, he’s telling different stories of what he’s going to do. He said, ‘Bob, I’ll tell you what we’re going to do. We’re going to get one blue-chipper a year, and by the time that player is a senior, he gives us one year in the spotlight.’ He said, ‘After we’ve been here for five years, look out for the Warriors.’ And by gosh, he went out and recruited just tremendously, tremendously.

“He said, ‘You’ve got to recruit the mother, to convince the mama that you’re going to take care of her little boy for four years now.’ And at that time, they played for four years.

“Al was dynamite, and Marquette goes to the national championship in 1977, and he was hired in 1964, so it took a long time to get there, but by gosh, he did it.”

Continued next week