Celebrating Fred Barakat at Harbor Yard

Chalk up one more assist for John Ryan. The former Fairfield University point guard, who accumulated assists in bunches before this statistic became an official part of the NCAA numbers lexicon, was on the phone with some news.

He was calling to talk about the university’s plans for its Feb. 19 celebration honoring the late Fred Barakat, which will take place at halftime of the Stags’ BracketBuster game against Austin Peay at Webster Bank Arena at Harbor Yard. ESPNU will televise the game live, starting at 1 p.m.

Barakat, the winningest coach in the university’s 63 seasons of intercollegiate basketball – 160 wins, 128 losses, three National Invitation Tournaments across 11 seasons, all achieved on a shoestring budget – died last June 23 at 71. Much too young.

The coach’s widow, Florence Barakat, will take part in the ceremony, and a video featuring numerous high points of Barakat’s coaching career is being assembled for the occasion by Casey Timmeny of the university’s media center.

“He got the best out of all of us,” said Ryan, who was the hyperactive floor leader on the Stags’ first two NIT teams, in 1973 and ’74. “He was a player’s coach, a good guy. Jimmy Lynam recruited me, but I played for Fred.”

Ryan and another Fairfield point guard who starred for Barakat, Joe DeSantis, are spearheading some of the behind-the-scenes activities for the event. Each has contacted many of his teammates and asked them to attend the celebration honoring their late coach.

“From my era, Craig Moorer, Ralph Rehn, Ray Kelly, George Groom, Joe Morina, Paul Wells, Tim Barnes, Tom Purcell, Gary Bowen, Joe Finn and Pete Holland said they’re coming,” Ryan said. “Ralph is coming in from Atlanta, Craig from Washington, D.C.”

Another person from that era, Gary Dittrich, who played freshman basketball and later became the coach of Fairfield’s first women’s team, also indicated he would attend.

Dittrich, though, may be best remembered as one of three students who dribbled basketballs from the Fairfield campus to Madison Square Garden – a journey of some 60 miles – prior to the Stags’ 1973 NIT first-round game against Marshall. They completed their trek by depositing layups into the Garden’s baskets.

Fairfield, led by Groom’s 23 points and Ryan’s high-spirited floor play, capped the day by defeating Marshall, 80-76.

DeSantis, a second-round NBA draft choice by the Washington Bullets in 1979 and still considered the finest player in Fairfield history, has had some success in connecting with former teammates, too.

“Steve Balkun says he’s coming,” Joey D said. “Kim Fisher, Mark Plefka, Barry Gunderson, Flip Williams and Rich Broggini are going to be there, too.”

He has yet to reach Mark Young, the 6-foot-10 center who was chosen by the Los Angeles Lakers in the second round of the 1979 NBA draft, and forward Mike Palazzi. Hank Foster, Ken Daniels and Bobby Hurt are on his to-call list.

Ironically, DeSantis can’t be there. He already has a commitment that afternoon as a color commentator for Sacred Heart’s televised Northeast Conference game at Bryant. “It bothers me,” he said, “but what can I do?”

George Bisacca, the former Fairfield coach and athletic director who hired Barakat, will participate in the ceremony. As will retired UConn coach Dee Rowe, who was Barakat’s boss for one season at the state university and later a competitor.

The most renowned coach of the current era, Mike Krzyzewski of Duke, may be seen and heard on the video, according to DeSantis. Coach K and Barakat were coaching colleagues in the late 1970s – when Coach K was at Army – and they worked together later during Fred’s 26 years as supervisor of officials with the Atlantic Coast Conference.

“I’ve heard they’ve already got Mike K for the video,” DeSantis said.

Three of the men who served as assistant coaches under Barakat, Bob Baroni, Jack Phelan and Jim Kish, are planning to be there as well.

Two other ceremonies are scheduled a bit later in the day at Harbor Yard. Between games, the 1985-86 Stags team – the first to win the MAAC championship and compete in the NCAA Division I Tournament – will be recognized for its accomplishments. And at halftime of the Fairfield’s women’s contest against Loyola, the Stags’ 2000-01 women’s squad – the first to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament – will be honored.

Full disclosure: As sports editor of the Waterbury Republican-American, I had the privilege of chronicling Fred Barakat’s coaching career at Fairfield from start to finish, from those early uncertain days and nights through the multitude of highs in the 1970s, and up to the finale – a win over Manhattan in 1981. He brought a breath of fresh air to the Fairfield campus and lifted the Stags program to rarefied heights -- three NITs, the 26-game winning streak at home, the 123-103 rout of nationally ranked Holy Cross in 1978, the sellout crowds at Alumni Hall.

I am also indebted to Florence, for it was she who introduced me to the woman who would become my wife and the mother of our three children.