Interview: Tim Floyd reflects on days at UNO fondly

The coaching career of Tim Floyd started as an assistant coach at Louisiana Tech, his alma mater, in 1976. He went on to become an assistant coach at Texas-El Paso for nine seasons under Don Haskins.

Then came his first head coaching opportunity, taking the job at Idaho for two seasons.

After posting a winning record, Floyd was hired as the head coach at the University of New Orleans in 1988, a position he would do a tremendous job in for six seasons. For that accomplishment, Floyd has been chosen for induction into the Allstate Sugar Bowl Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame.

Floyd was no stranger to New Orleans, the gulf coast or Louisiana.

As a young man from the age of 16 to the age of 21, he worked with the New Orleans Saints at training camp, in the equipment room for six years. He attended both Louisiana Tech and Southern Mississippi, growing up in Hattiesburg.

“I thought that the urban jobs were great, great jobs,” Floyd said. “There were players in the area, I had never been in that kind of situation before. At El Paso, we would literally have to go 12 hours to find to find a player. The University of Idaho, I remember taking that job telling the alumni that the heart and soul of our team was going to be the Idaho athlete. I’d been there about six months and found out that those players just weren’t in the area and the heart and soul would have to come from someplace else and the arms and legs as well.”

Floyd went on to do a brilliant job at UNO, posting a 126-59 record, taking the Privateers to a pair of NCAA tournaments and making three NIT appearances.

“We got down there and got into a situation where Tulane was not working at the time,” Floyd said. “They were out of business because of the gambling scandal. We kind of had the whole city to ourselves as we thought and then all of a sudden Perry Clark and Tulane came rolling in there six months later and I think they made us better. It was a wonderful opportunity that Ron Maestri gave me at that time.”

Floyd knew he could attract good players to UNO.

“I knew how much talent was in the area,” Floyd said. “We got as many as five kids at El Paso from the Greater New Orleans area. I was really excited about the job. Things went well because we had above average coaches and above average players.”

Four of the players who played for Floyd at UNO spent time in the NBA.

“Dedric Willoughby played with the Bulls for a while, Mike McDonald made a roster with the Philadelphia 76ers, of course, Ervin Johnson had a 13-year career,: Floyd said. “Tony Harris got a cup of coffee in the NBA as well. We had great players. We just had a stretch there where we were able to find guys that weren’t highly recruited other than Melvin Simon, who was one of the top five players in America. The city was rich in talent.”

Floyd felt the ability for him to build a very good program and real interest in college basketball was ripe in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s.

“There was no pro basketball in the city,” Floyd said.

One of the other Allstate Sugar Bowl Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame inductees for 2020 is Clark. The rivalry between UNO and Tulane was fierce when Floyd and Clark opposed each other and there was immense dislike between the rivals. That has changed dramatically over the years.

“Perry may have said that we made him better but he certainly got us better because he was a relentless, relentless recruiter and a terrific, terrific coach,” Floyd said. “We went at each other. I didn’t like the guy and I know he didn’t like me. We were going back and forth at each other. Perry and I have actually became really, really good friends.

“It’s not unlike my situation out at USC. We were nine miles away from UCLA. They were the powerhouse in town. Ben Howland and I couldn’t stand each other, either, but we talk three times a week now. I really feel like if you’re getting along really, really well with a guy across town, it probably tells me that you’re not doing your job. I think he (Clark) is a hell of a guy.”

When Iowa State made an amazing offer to Floyd in 1994, Floyd initially turned down the much more lucrative offer.

“We loved the city of New Orleans,” Floyd said. “We loved the fact that we were building something pretty special. I loved the fact that I was in an area with talent. I knew that there wasn’t a whole lot in the state of Iowa. I knew that Iowa State had a history of last place finishes.

“I think the biggest thing that played in for me was I had worked for a man in Don Haskins at Texas-El Paso which had been Texas Western College and he stayed at the same school for 38 years. He always told me that if you ever got with an athletic director that you liked, you’d be really, really lucky, really, really fortunate. You better just hang onto him and stay. I had an incredibly great relationship with Ron Maestri. We’re still very close to this day. New Orleans was going to be my El Paso. I was going to stay for 38 years.

“I remember going up to Iowa State and they had great facilities but it didn’t feel like home,” Floyd said. “Beverly and I got back and said, ‘you know, I’ll just have some fun with this thing.’ They were offering me seven times the amount of money that I was making at the University of New Orleans. I just came out with a quote that said I prefer bass fishing over ice fishing.”

That led to an unusual decision.

“I turned the job down,” Floyd said. “Tom Benson sent me a telegram the next day and it was the front page of the sports page with the Times-Picayune. The headline was it’s not about money. Tom Benson was quoted about how refreshing it was that everything was not based on money.”

Floyd looked like a hero but things would change. He could not reach Haskins during the decision making process as Haskins was on a hunting trip. When he finally did, it changed Floyd’s mind.

“He got back, I told him I turned down Iowa State and he called my wife and said, ‘how much did they offer him?’ She told him. He said, ‘you get out a pen and a piece of paper and you subtract what he was making from what he was going to make at Iowa State. You tell him to go out and buy a coat, call them back (Iowa State) and tell them he made a huge mistake and he’d like to go back. We took the job the next day and the next day, the headlines of the sports page was that it was about money. That’s really what it came down to, being perfectly honest,” Floyd said.

After doing a great job at Iowa State, Floyd became Phil Jackson’s successor as head coach of the Chicago Bulls, which we will follow up on with another story. He would go on to become the head coach of the New Orleans Hornets, USC and Texas-El Paso and even returned to New Orleans as an assistant with the Hornets later.

Still, the days at UNO were as memorable, if not the best days of Floyd’s illustrious career.

“New Orleans is our adopted home city,” Floyd said. “We love it there and get there as often as possible. We will always love UNO.”