Last night’s 60 Minutes featured this inspirational piece on Coach Bob Hurley, the highly successful basketball coach at St. Anthony’s School in Jersey City. For almost 40 years, Hurley has passed up college basketball coaching job offers and remained a stellar coach and role model to the mainly low-income boys on his team.
One of the most impressive moments in the piece is Coach Hurley’s answer when asked about his proudest accomplishments. The man who coached five first-round NBA draft picks, who is only the third high school coach to be inducted to the Basketball Hall of Fame, and whose team just won a national championship, instead focuses on the value of education in his answer.
“I’ve only had two kids in 39 years that have not gone to college. And we’re extremely proud of that, because we think that we’ve opened up doors in kids’ lives that they didn’t know that they could do. Their families certainly didn’t know that they could do it. And it’s because of education, it changes the direction of their life,” Hurley said.