Cruisin’ Instead of Celebrating a Coach

Ever wish you could be in two places at the same time? It happened to me several days ago.

A scheduled family cruise placed us aboard the good ship Carnival Pride during the second week of February, so I was forced to miss the tribute to Fairfield University’s late basketball coach, Fred Barakat.

As sports editor, and late executive sports editor, of the Waterbury Republican-American, I had chronicled Barakat’s entire 11-year career as head coach, and was present for many of the Stags’ highs – the three NITs, the 26-game winning streak at home, the 22-5 season in 1977-78 – and lows during this period.

Both Fred and his wife, Florence, were good friends to me. Indeed, Florence introduced me to the woman who would become my wife and the mother of our three children.

So, I wish I could have been among the nearly 4,000 people who gathered at Webster Bank Arena at Harbor Yard on Saturday for the tribute to Barakat, and, not incidentally, to watch the current Stags defeat Austin Peay, 76-69, for their 22nd victory against just five losses.

“It was an emotional time, a beautiful time. It was so nice,” Florence said of the ceremony celebrating her late husband’s many coaching accomplishments at the university.

“We spent some of the best years of our lives in Fairfield. It meant a lot to have our children there (for the tribute). We took the kids around the school to see the growth. I’m sure Fred was pleased up in heaven.”

After leaving Fairfield in 1981, Barakat joined the Atlantic Coast Conference as supervisor of officials, and he remained with the ACC in various capacities until 2007, when he retired as associate commissioner. He died last June, much too young, at age 71.

“We live in a beautiful part of the country,” said Florence, who has called Greensboro, N.C., home for nearly 30 years. “Fred had a great stint with the ACC. His job kept growing. He got involved with television contracts, he ran the ACC tournament for 20 some years.”

Florence Barakat was delighted to see so many of her husband’s Fairfield players at the tribute. Mark Young, Ray Kelly, John Ryan, Bobby Hurt, Craig Moorer, Ralph Rehn, Mark Plefka, Kim Fisher, Steve Balkun, Joe Finn, Pete Holland, Rich Broggini, George Groom and perhaps a dozen more. Former assistant coaches Tom McCorry (who came up from Florida), Bob Baroni, Jack Phelan. The man who hired him, retired athletic director George Bisacca. And the athletic director for most of his tenure at Fairfield, Don Cook.

A TV commitment prevented the greatest of all Stags – All-East guard Joe DeSantis (1,916 points, 667 assists) – from attending. Jerome “Flip” Williams, captain of Fairfield’s 1979-80 squad, couldn’t be present because of a knee injury.

DeSantis, though, was there in another sense, in the 6½-minute video tribute to the late coach. Joey D, Ryan and Kelly spoke about the positive impact Barakat had on their lives, and there were words of commendation from this generation’s most successful coach, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, former UConn coach Dee Rowe and broadcaster extraordinaire Dick Vitale. (See the video on FairfieldStags.com.)

Rowe, who was Barakat’s boss for one season in Storrs prior to Fred’s hiring at Fairfield,  made the trek from upstate to participate in the ceremony.

Coach K was effusive in his praise, saying, “There has never been a better coach at Fairfield than Fred Barakat. I can attest to that because I had to coach against him when I was at Army … He was an outstanding coach, and really brought Fairfield basketball to the highest level on the East Coast. An outstanding man, a great friend and a wonderful basketball mind.”

Vitale called Barakat “a basketball ambassador….Let me tell you this, he loved Fairfield, he really loved his tenure at Fairfield. I love him dearly and I miss him.”

For Florence Barakat and three of their four children, Nancy Vaughan, Amy Cook and Rick Barakat (a fourth child, Christy Barakat, lives in Italy), it was a whirlwind weekend, beginning with Friday night dinner at the Bisacca home in Fairfield.

“Millie (Bisacca) cooked a wonderful dinner for us, my children and (current athletic director) Gene Doris,” she said. “There must have been 120 people in the suite overlooking the arena. We went to Johnny Ryan’s house after the game, and then 15 of us went to the Angus – our old stomping ground – for dinner.”

Florence was impressed with the Stags’ current coach, Ed Cooley, calling him a “nice man” who was “easy to talk to.” And Harbor Yard? “That facility is very nice.”

Saturday's tribute, said Ryan, whose artful playmaking sparked the 1973 and '74 squads to the NIT, "was testament to the way people felt about him. The best thing to come out of it was, the guys want to get together on an annual basis."