helltopay1 said:
SFCB---aubrey Tendell actually started out at SI ( like me) He played 120's as a freshman. ( didn't start) He drove Neff crazy because he couldn't remember the plays. One time Neff grabbed Aubrey by the ear and marched him the entire length of the floor. poor Benny couldn't survive today. He would be sued 30 times daily. if I had a nickel for every time he swore at me, I'd have more money than rockefeller. aubrey passed away a few years ago while in new Orleans. Quite a character---
Helltopay1 I never knew Aubrey, just saw him play for a semester. My first year, I played with Aubrey's brother, Reggie Tendell, who was a really nice guy and good teammate. He played only one year and either left or graduated Lowell.
So you started out playing for Rene Herrerias at St Ignatius and left for Lowell to play for Benny Neff? Wasn't that like going from the frying pan into the fire?
The first time I attended practice at Lowell, we were doing a pivot drill, and I pivoted on the wrong foot. Someone came up behind me and kicked right in the butt and it sent me sprawling to the floor. I wasn't hurt, only shocked, and turned around to see Benny Neff standing there yelling at me that I had used the wrong foot and not to do it again. Then he broke into a big laugh, and reached over and helped me stand up.
My father played for Ben Neff, as did my uncle. My uncle sent his son to Lincoln to play for Will Ryan, because he did not want Benny Neff yelling at his son. My father was second string. One day, Neff called him "A G..damn little ***. My dad hit Neff with one blow to the face, and Neff fell to the floor. The next day, my dad was promoted to first string, and started every game thereafter.
My first year I played for Bob Anino, who couldn't coach his way out of a paper bag. We were in a 3rd overtime at Balboa, sudden death, first two points wins the game, when Martin Badie fouls a Bal player in the backcourt, which in those days was a two shot foul. The kid makes the first free throw. Neff comes down out of the stands and tells Anino to call time out, and Neff takes over as coach. The time out froze the Bal player. Neff proceeded to yell at Badie, really cussed him out. Badie goes down to the end of the bench to sulk, figuring Neff is taking him out of the game. Neff pulls the coins out of his pocket tosses them on the floor and diagrams a play for our best player, Eddie Jackson. the buzzer sounds to start play, and Neff yells at Badie. "What are you doing sitting there? Get back into the game." Badie goes back in. The Bal player misses his second free throw, and we get the ball. Badie helps set a double screen, and Jackson is wide open for a layup and we win. That was classic Ben Neff. Neff was always riding Badie, who was good but hard to control. One day at practice Neff cussed him out pretty good. Badie just stood there. If he had decked Neff with one punch, he would have been back on the first string. Instead Badie quit the team, and never played again. He reportedly got involved in stealing, dealing drugs and pimping after Lowell.
Students at Lowell in those years were not allowed to smoke cigarettes. At lunch time some guys went across Hayes street to Johnnie's coffee shop to eat a hamburger and smoke. Athletes started going over there to smoke. One day, in the door comes Neff, and he sees a football player, the meanest bully on the team who was about 6'-3" and 235 lbs, smoking. Little Benny goes up to him, takes the cigarette out of his mouth, and throws it on the floor and steps on it, confiscates the kid's cigarettes, and walks out. He had no authority to do that outside of school grounds, but that wouldn't stop Benny. After that none of Benny's players went to Johnnies to smoke.
What a lot of people never got was that with Neff, it was all an act. He tried to intimidate young players, to get them to put aside their selfish instincts and sacrifice them for the team. Some star players he never bullied, and some, like me, he never gave a compliment. He only told my father when I had done something good. Meschery and Balling used to just laugh at Neff when he went off. But the swearing and throwing things (he threw ball, whistle, and anything else at me) was just psychology trying to get control of young skulls full of mush. It worked fine at Lowell, where he won plenty of titles, but one time he needed some extra money, so took a job coaching St Marys College along with coaching Lowell for three years. His St Marys teams had a losing record. When I came to Cal and went to Newell's practices, I saw Newell as a professor, quietly instructing players in a soft voice. The players were older, a little more mature, and you could not intimidate them like high school kids. That is why I think Neff failed at St Marys. That stuff seldom works in college. Campanelli was another example. Brad Duggan was successful at it, and so was Bobby Knight, but they are rare.
Ben Neff was great Cal fan, and attended every home game for years, sitting in the southeast corner about 12 rows up. He told me the corner was the best place to see a game from. His life was his family, his players, and the game.
While Neff was sometimes brutal at practice, away from the game, he was a different person. I had asthma pretty bad, so I would get gassed after 3-4 trips down the court, and have to come out of the game. I didn't dare tell Neff, because I knew he would kick me off the team. He used to tell me to go play for the girl's team, and he used to wait for me after practice, and make me walk up the hills with him to Twin Peaks, instead of riding the bus. He figured all that was wrong with me was that I was in poor condition, and I needed more exercise. He spent summers backpacking in the Sierras, and he told me many stories of the mountains, and of his former players, whom he loved. Whenever he was downtown, he used to stop by my dad's office and tell him how well I was playing. He used to stop by my uncle's office as well. He used to take walks with his dog, and sometimes he'd stop by our house to see my dad and me. He always cared about us and about many other players. I had a life long relationship with him as did my dad. He never really hurt anyone. They were just words, along with a few balls and whistles to get your attention, and he helped make men out of a lot of boys. You are right about Neff being sued today, and probably fired. You can't do that stuff today, and as a result, fewer boys are becoming men, or it is taking them a lot longer, IMHO.
