Bleeding Orange

Syracuse, New York, is like Hawaii for eight months of the year. The other four months, I don't care about the weather because we're playing basketball.

Jim Boeheim - Syracuse University men's basketball coach

He may be talking about a different Syracuse than the one to which we moved in the middle 80s. Perhaps there is a side to Hawaii we didn't see on our visits to Maui. Certainly, I was never tempted to go scuba diving in Onondaga Lake.

But, deference is due to a man who had been the men's basketball coach at Syracuse for ten years when I enrolled in law school as a 1L in August 1986, and who retired at the end of the 2023 season. It is said that "It's the dash that counts" (his tenure was 1976-2023) and within Mr. Beoheim's dash are more than a thousand wins, a national championship and a hand in making the Big East conference one of the best in college basketball. That's a pretty good dash.

Jim Boeheim attended Syracuse as an undergrad, rising from freshman walk-on to senior year team captain. He played a little minor league pro ball, then came back to SU as a volunteer assistant coach. It wasn't long before he was the head coach.

Much has been made of his single-mindedness when it comes to Syracuse the university, and Syracuse the region. Commentators have observed that there is no other coach in men's basketball who grew up, played for and coached through their whole career the same school in the same town.

It isn't like Syracuse is actually, literally, akin to Hawaii. It's beautiful in its own way - lush and green, access to outdoor activities on beaches, in forests, along lakes and streams. It was once a vibrant industrial town, remade itself when heavy manufacturing died or departed, and has an appealing small-town feel. Our years there were the usual in a life on its way to other destinations, filled with good times and challenges. Like Jim Boeheim, I would have stayed. Unlike him, fate had other ideas.

My spouse and I were visiting our daughter in her adopted city of Fort Myers in 2006, and free one afternoon we toured Sanibel Island. Stopping in a small restaurant for appetizers and a beer, we found a seat at the bar. The Big East tournament was on the TVs hanging in several locations. Syracuse was making an "improbable run" (Wiki) as a 9 seed, playing arch-rival Georgetown in the semi-final. We were the only ones paying much attention as the game, a back and forth nail biter, drew to its dramatic conclusion.

Apparently, the grip the game had on us was infectious. The patrons in the bar became fans of Jim Beoheim and his underdog Orange. Each Hoya basket elicited a groan. Robust cheers accompanied an SU bucket. Back slaps, high fives... We counted down the seconds together and toasted a Syracuse victory. 

That is the House that Jim Built.

I'm often asked where I attended law school. When I answer, the first thing that comes to people's mind is Jim Boeheim and Orange basketball. It should be noted that the President of the United States is an SU law alum. Jim Beoheim built a powerful program in Maui by the Onondaga, as much by his own will and love of Syracuse as anything. He deserves the best of everything, including the thanks of an educational institution to whose name he will be forever attached.