Man Behind the Scenes Sigmund Freud's world-famous theories would have been very different had Fran Dunphy been one of his test subjects. That thing called the ego, the need for self-gratification it imposes on all of us -- Freud would never have known it existed. Dunphy's first words to Freud would have been along the lines of what he says before answering most personal questions about himself: "I just find myself boring to talk about. It's in many ways uncomfortable." "In a lot of programs," Penn captain Jerome Allen says, "you'll run across guys who think they are bigger than the establishments themselves." In this world, Dunphy is truly an anomaly. He is a college basketball coach who shies away from the spotlight, preferring to remain in the shadows while his players show the world what they can do. Basketball does not begin and end with him. He is a "facilitator," to use his word. For basketball is, at its core, of and for the players, at least to Dunphy. This starts with the kids he recruits. Coaches often complain about the tribulations of recruiting, about having to prostitute themselves and their university to a mere teenager. Not Dunphy. He enjoys the travel, the high school games and most of all, the interaction with the kids. "I think it's fun," he says. "I enjoy going into kids' homes, and I enjoy when they come here, trying to make a good impression on each and every kid." And if they choose the University of Pennsylvania, Dunphy does his best to keep them satisfied with their choice. Penn is playing at Michigan in December so Shawn Trice can return to his Detroit home. Last year's game at Ohio State was designed with the same considerations in mind for Columbus-native Scott Kegler. Dunphy inserted Kegler, usually Penn's sixth man, into the starting lineup so he could be introduced in front of his friends and family. "It was an honor for me, it was an honor for my family," Kegler said. "Coach realizes things like that. I don't think a lot of coaches would do that kind of thing." The players return this loyalty with unbounded devotion and gratitude. All of them, without prompting, say the same thing about the man who has guided Penn to 29 straight Ivy League victories, one short of the all-time record. They say what '92 grads Paul Chambers and Vince Curran said a year ago at a March of Dimes banquet honoring Dunphy as college coach of the year. "We talked about how he was a friend off the court, how you could always go talk to him no matter what had just happened in practice," Chambers said. "But once you got in between the lines, he was all business. Even if you were just joking in his office an hour before practice, he would never hesitate to get on you. A good coach has to have that mix?.He walks that fine line." Dunphy has been walking that line for many years. As a guard under Dan Dougherty at Malvern Prep, Dunphy played with many of the characteristics his players show today. "Their intensity, their unselfishness and their knowledge of the game are just like he played," said Dougherty, who also coached Allen and senior Eric Moore at Episcopal Academy. Dunphy enjoyed a solid playing career at La Salle, averaging 19 points a game in 1970, his senior year. But after graduation, he wasn't quite sure what to do. Somehow, he says, he ended up in coaching. When his high school alma mater approached him in 1975 about coaching there, Dunphy agreed, but without any visions of a head-coaching job at a prestigious Division I school dancing in his head. Thirteen long years later, while an assistant to Speedy Morris at La Salle, he was offered an assistant-coaching position at Penn under Tom Schneider. "I would have loved to have gone to Penn when I got out of high school," he says. "I just wasn't a good enough student. But I valued what Penn's reputation was. We would come every Wednesday and Saturday to the Palestra and to Franklin Field to watch games. Penn is special in the City of Philadelphia. That was important to me." One year later, after Schneider left for Loyola-Maryland, former athletic director Paul Rubincam knew Dunphy was his man. Chambers, a sophomore in 1989 when Dunphy took the reins, remembers not all the players felt the same way. When Schneider was absent during the 1988-89 season, Dunphy would run practice in his place. They were the toughest workouts of the year, and not occasions to which anyone looked forward. "Going into sophomore year," Chambers said, "some guys didn't want him as head coach because of how hard he would be on the players. But some of us wanted him because we knew he had what it took to turn the program around, to make it what it used to be. He's just a guy who hated to lose." More than a decade of hard work had paid off for Dunphy. He called his father, and both of them cried. "That was fun," he says. "It was pretty emotional. It's a culmination of years of wanting to get to that level. In one fell swoop you say, 'Jesus, I got this job. I can't believe it.' " But the hard part was only beginning. The Penn program simply lacked the talent it had when it was winning Ivy titles in the mid '80s. In Dunphy's second season, the Quakers were blown out often and limped to a 5-16 mark with five games to go. Then, Penn won four of its last five games, losing only a tough battle at eventual-Ivy champion Princeton. Even though the season had been a disaster to that point, the Quakers continued to play with the same hard-nosed will that has been the hallmark of all of Dunphy's teams. Dunphy gives all the credit to his players. "Those kids just never gave up," he says. "They never quit. That was really impressive to see?.We may not have been as talented as some teams, but that didn't matter. We were going to battle just as hard as everybody else, if not more so." Penn's final record was 9-17, but Rubincam was impressed enough with the end-of-the-season run, with the energy the team showed, to offer Dunphy a contract extension. The next year, with a freshman named Jerome Allen on the team, the Quakers finished second in the league with a 9-5 record. The rest is history -- two straight 14-0 Ivy seasons and an NCAA tournament victory last season over Nebraska. Through it all, Dunphy has not forgotten what that contract extension meant to him. "I'm very grateful for the patience they showed," he says. "Not every athletic director is going to do that for you." Without fail, he refuses credit for his accomplishments. Whether he gives it to the administration, his players, even to fate itself -- Dunphy wants none of it. Dunphy takes the blame when things go poorly, but when they are looking up, he tells the media to go talk to the kids. "He's not excited about being honored or getting awards," Kegler says. "He likes the drive, he likes the intensity, the fight, the battle. He doesn't necessarily like to be praised for it." For all his generosity off the court, Dunphy is truly demanding on it. Walk out for practice on time but with your shirt untucked or your shoelaces untied, and you've earned the right to a Dunphy rebuke. "Anytime we ever slack, he lets us know," Moore says. "He's all over us, getting us to work harder. Sometimes it worries me, because it might put his blood pressure up a little bit." All it does is produce wins. And more wins. And as the players learn about basketball, they get a few lessons about life as well. Cherish basketball while you can, because it is only going to last so long. Keep in mind all the opportunities basketball can provide you now and in the future. Above all, be a good person. The players remember every word of it. When they leave, they are more knowledgeable and well-rounded than they ever dreamed. And they know, as does everyone who has ever been close to Dunphy, they have a friend for life. "If I ever need anything," Speedy Morris says, "I know he'll give me the shirt off his back." He'd just never take credit for doing it.
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