for it. In the future the mods may wish me just to email various parts when requested. But, this is about UGA BB anyway.
When Loran Smith, a longtime behind the scenes powerbroker in the UGA athletic department, offered me the opportunity to become color analyst for UGA basketball broadcasts I was extremely pleased. After all, it was my school’s team and it not only allowed me to be involved with UGA and basketball, but to get paid to give my opinion, which I have done por gratis low these many years. And basketball is one of the few subjects I know enough about to offer an informed opinion…well along with bigfoot, ufos, dogs, women, music, golf etc. etc. As I observed in my opening lines on this topic, Hugh was a great coach for many years, as well as a likeable guy and an entertaining speaker at public events. Hugh and I knew one another casually, as a former player knows the present coach of his school’s team, through attending events etc. When I began my first year in the job I had no problem with Hugh personally or professionally to that point. And although Hugh didn’t actually hire me, he had to sign off on it and I was very grateful to him for his support. I had no agenda going into my role other than to enjoy my time being around the game I loved. If I had been keenly prescient I might have gleaned an inkling of clouds on the horizon from circumstances surrounding my very first episode of hosting the Hugh Durham pre-game show.
A couple of months prior to the beginning of my first season as color analyst I met with Butch Clifton, who had held the position for the preceding nine years. Butch was a friend and former colleague on John Guthrie’s staff at UGA. I was a graduate assistant coach in 1973 and 1974 while Butch was an assistant to John Guthrie UGA’s head coach. Butch and I were co-coaches of the JV team in 1973. Butch had been a very successful high school coach and his 1971 Mark Smith team from Macon had the somewhat dubious distinction of being the last all-white squad to win a Georgia high school association championship. Integration of high school sports had begun in 1967 and within five years the dominance of black players and teams in high school basketball was well established. I respected Butch’s knowledge and coaching experience and learned a great deal from him that helped me often in my years as a coach. During our meeting, Butch and I discussed various details of what I should expect and prepare for in my new position. I listened attentively, because he and the aforementioned legendary announcer Larry Munson had several broadcasters of the year nominations during their time doing UGA basketball broadcasts. So, when Butch looked me in the eye and said the toughest part of your job will be the Hugh Durham pre-game show I thought he meant the preparation at first, but he quickly clued me in.
Hugh is very tight prior to the games Butch told me. He is superstitious and almost ritualistic as to what occurs after he enters his dressing room. He doesn’t want to talk to anyone except you and maybe the team manager who brings him his popcorn and coke. He continued on and said there are three important things you must remember and carry out. One, you must appear at his dressing room door at exactly six twenty- five, no earlier, no later, which is sixty-five minutes prior to tipoff ( this allowed time to take the tape and integrate it into the entire pregame show, which tipped off at seven). Two, you must knock on his door with the secret code ( this is the honest to god’s truth) and he preceded to knock three quick raps on the table in front of us, followed by a pause and two more knocks. I almost thought he was joking, but then realized he was serious. I rapped three times on the table, then a pause and two more. He said that’s it….don’t forget. Three, you must always remember to wish him good luck as your last comment. I sat quietly for a moment taking it all in and told Butch I figured I could handle that with no problem. He nodded, we talked a while longer and I left feeling I was prepared for my new duties. I was a bit nervous about being on the air doing the games, but I had done some interviews over the years on-air and was confident in my knowledge of the game. Larry Munson, the legendary play by play man for UGA football and basketball, was the consummate professional, we knew each other a bit as he had called Vanderbilt University games during my playing days and we had some casual contact during his time at UGA. I knew I could trust him to shepherd me through.
November 27, 1989 finally rolled around and UGA was opening the season vs Baptist College, one of the obligatory cupcake games major schools schedule early in the season. No pressure…except on a new color analyst to perform his duties and hopefully bring something worthwhile to the broadcasts. Munson and I sat chatting at the scorer’s table beginning at around six pm. He would soon leave to have a quick pre-game meal and shortly thereafter I would mosey over to Hugh’s sanctum sanctorum for our initial pregame show. Hugh’s dressing room was along one of the four main entrance ways leading into the coliseum playing floor. The Coliseum had been built in 1963 for a price of $4 million. It is an esthetically pleasing building and with some renovations over the years is still a truly comfortable venue with great sightlines. It has affectionately and somewhat accurately been called the barn, by supporters and opponents. Initially, it’s primary function, apart from a venue for basketball and concerts ( and man they had some great shows in that building. My first couple of years at UGA I saw Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Sam and Dave, The Righteous Brothers ) was serving as a place for livestock shows and exhibitions. It also hosted an annual rodeo. UGA has always had a reputation as a great agricultural institution and has a respected animal husbandry (insert crude joke here about football players and stumpbroke cows) and veterinary school. The coliseum had a smooth concrete floor and of course the basketball court was portable. There was a stage at one end that could be disassembled to allow for huge dumptrucks to bring in hundreds of loads of dirt. It would be smoothed out by bulldozers and other equipment to a level of about three feet deep. The only problem posed by these events was a strong odor of bs and other animal residue that lingered for weeks afterwards. It was always a welcome relief when a rock concert was held in the building and the clouds of pot smoke would mask the aroma of the barnyard. Those days are long gone now, as the renovations have changed the configuration of the coliseum and it hasn’t hosted any animals since the mid-eighties.
I checked my watch about every ten seconds as I awaited my pre-game show premier. It was reminiscent of Guns of Navarone, The Great Escape or some other war movie where, in the words of the great Kingfish, (no not Huey Long) everyone had to simonize their watches. At precisely six-twenty I did a check of my equipment, a small tape player and microphone. Everything was in order and at six twenty-three I arose and walked at a moderate pace towards my destination. I had timed the walk a few times at practice and knew it was a casual stroll of less than thirty seconds. But, with some folks milling around and a chance of an unanticipated interruption I allowed about a sixty to ninety second cushion. I arrived at the dressing room door with some seconds to spare and took a few deep breaths. Hoping the code hadn’t been changed unbeknownst to me, because there was no way to confirm it one way or another, I knocked on destiny’s door. There was a short pause and then a barely audible high pitched rasping that sounded like a yeeeeaaaah.. Hugh. You see, Hugh Durham has a unique speaking voice. It is difficult to describe or compare to anyone. Possibly the closest comparison I could come up with, for you older readers, would be that of Rodchester on the Jack Benny show, especially when he was excited. I’m sure there are clips of him on youtube for the edification of you younger readers. Again, it’s not an exact comparison, but it will give you an idea. Many have made light of Hugh’s intonations over the years and there have been on-air contests to see who could do the best impression. It’s not quite guttural, because it’s not deep, still it appears to emanate from someplace other than the throat. It’s not a falsetto, but has some slight similarities with one. Words begin with a tone that that is mid-range, but extend over a period and begin to rise in tenor as it plays out. My name would be pronounced something like Huuurrrb with the highest pitch at the end.
Anyway, sensing that I had been ushered to enter, I opened the door and stepped inside. The room was dimly lit, but I could see Hugh sitting in a chair over by his locker. I approached and he nodded for me to sit on the wooden bench in front of his chair. As Butch had told me he would be, he was eating popcorn and drinking a coke the manager had brought him from the concession stand. It escapes me now, but I’m sure I offered some pleasantry as an icebreaker, which he either ignored or didn’t hear as he was lost in his pre-game perusals. Without further niceties I turned on my tape player, said “testing, testing” ran it back to make sure it was recording and then said “good evening I’m Herb White and this is the Hugh Durham pre-game show”. It seemed Hugh grimaced slightly and I went on…” Coach Durham you are about to begin a new season (and here I knew I had to be careful because the team had gone 15-16 the previous season and 6-12 in the conference, so I felt I should allude to last year without being specific) and though you’ve lost some key players to graduation it appears you have good reason to be optimistic about this year’s squad. You have some very good experienced players returning along with some exciting new faces coming on board. What are your feelings about the team at this point as you begin a new season”?
Now that may not be a word for word transcription of what I said, but it is pretty close and did not exceed twenty-twenty five seconds of airtime for sure. I felt that it was a nice introduction for the listeners beginning a new season and a solid segue for Hugh. Well, there was what one might call a pregnant pause and Hugh appeared to have a pained expression. He finally said “Huuurrrb turn off that tape recorder”. Instantly and silently I wondered if he had gas, or worse, if I had forgotten one of the pre-game pre-requisites. But, I knew I had been on time, evidently given the correct secret knock and it wasn’t time for the wishing of good luck. Then came the answer as Hugh said “there’s one thing you gotta remember ( good god I thought did Butch forget to tell me something, or deliberately leave it out as a joke, or to sabotage his replacement) this is the Hugh Durham pre-game show, not the Herb White pre-game show. It took a second for his words to sink in and then I realized that I had used up too much, at least in his mind, of the time making my introductory comments. Without another word from either of us I fumbled to erase the recording, hit the record button again and said “ Hi I’m Herb White ( and was afraid that maybe I shouldn’t even introduce myself, but I knew that was standard on-air procedure) and this is the Hugh Durham pre-game show. Coach Durham you’re starting a new season, what are your thoughts about this year’s team”. Hugh’s expression relaxed and he began to extrapolate. Only when I was sure he had completed his entire thought did I venture only the briefest leading comment into another response. In a couple more minutes I knew it was time to wrap it up and when Hugh finished his thought I wished him good luck on the new season. He thanked me and said “we’ll take it”. I turned off the recorder thanked him again and made my exit. It was certainly the longest and most un-comfortable 5 minutes I had spent in quite some time. I now understood what Butch meant when he said the toughest thing about the job is the Hugh Durham pre-game show. And man was I thankful that Munson handled the post-game show. I turned the tape over to our producer and joined Munson at the scorer’s table where our mics were set up. He kinda searched my face for a moment as if expecting something from me and then I related the story. He just grunted, gave a short knowing chuckle and returned to his preparations.
I was color analyst for four seasons and did approximately one hundred and thirty Hugh Durham pre-game shows. They ran the gamut from absurdly humorous to mildly confrontational. There are more of them that deserve mentioning, but all were interesting and wildly entertaining for my friends with whom I had shared inside information in regards to the nature of the beast and my efforts to tame it. Certainly it was must listen radio for them as they tuned in to the unseen, intricate dance Hugh and I did for each of those 130 shows. You see, my being a lifelong provocateur, albiet unknown to most, I could not resist matching wits with Hugh, who considered himself a master manipulator and comic wit. It was co-incidentally fun and scary as I walked the tightrope of insinuating my personality into the show without going too far and losing my job. When my termination finally did come it was not as a result of anything that transpired on-air, because after all, I was a professional.
Travelling with the team, attending many practices, calling every game and hosting “The Hugh Durham pre-game show for four seasons allowed me an up close and personal look at Hugh Durham’s coaching and his personality. It will be understandable if some readers construe my comments, thoughts and observations regarding my hiring, tenure and ultimate dismissal as color analyst as sour grapes. I don’t deny I was very disappointed to lose my position and there is no doubt it was entirely at Hugh Durham’s discretion. However, that was completely his prerogative as head of the program and understandable to me. But, I believe I am relating my experiences in an honest, and as much as possible, unbiased perspective. I am not a vindictive person by nature and because of the love and respect I have for the game of basketball I have always spoken the truth about what I see occurring on the court and surrounding it.
Hugh is the only coach to lead two different Division I schools to the final four for the first and only time in each school’s history. His 1972 FSU team reached the championship game only to lose to John Wooden’s UCLA squad. And in 1983 he led UGA to the final four losing to eventual champion NC State. They beat the UNC Tarheels featuring Sam Perkins and James Worthy in the NCAA regional finals. Perkins had a nice NBA career and Worthy was an all-star forward on several Los Angeles Laker teams that won NBA titles. Oh yeah, there was a young guy by the name of Jordan on the team as well. What made the victory so compellingly sweet, at least for me, was Sam Perkins quote prior to the game saying about their upcoming opponent “The University of Georgia? We don’t even know what conference they play in”. Durham is also the only Division I coach to be the most successful coach at three different Universities, Florida State, The University of Georgia and Jacksonville University. Hugh won 633 games in his career, which is/was top ten all-time. And to his credit he signed Lenny Hall, FSU’s first African-American basketball player in 1966-67.
So, we have established Hugh was a very good basketball coach for a long time and I have no argument with that statement….hell I just made it. But, by the time I was hired to do color commentary in 1989-90 he was approaching the last several years of his stay at UGA. UGA won the SEC regular season championship for the only time in school history that season, my first as color analyst. Coincidence you aver, possibly, but I know for a fact that conversations I had with Hugh’s number one assistant at that time, Tevester Anderson, who was a great coach in his own right, were the basis for suggestions from Coach T to Hugh. Tevester and I had a strong mutual respect for each other’s basketball knowledge and though Hugh was loathe to admit he sought anyone’s advice, he did so from Tevester. There were more than a few issues that arose around the team concerning lineup changes, player’s abilities, defensive adjustments etc. that were seemingly resolved based on a consensus of mine and Tevester’s discussions and subsequently relayed to Hugh. Ultimately what role my observations played in helping secure the championship is conjecture on my part and lost to posterity at this point.
As testimony to my statements above regarding my actual input and effect on the team during my tenure as color analyst I relate the following anecdote. A couple of years after the SEC championship season our post man was a 7’ 1 tall, 290 lb young man named Charles Claxton. Charles was not a great athlete, but he had some skills and he was huge. He was a good kid and we had a fun relationship. I was around practice a lot and often gave my advice to players solicited and unsolicited. They generally were receptive knowing I had played in the NBA and had heard of my exploits from former players. At some point early in the season I noticed that Charles had a couple fingers on each hand taped together. I thought maybe he had injured his fingers and didn’t think much about it. But it became evident to me, after a while, that Charles was mishandling a lot of passes, losing rebounds and the tape was definitely affecting his game. Charles did not have the softest hands (a sports term for guys that can catch a ball and have some touch on it) to begin with and the tape was exacerbating the situation without a doubt. I asked him why he was wearing it. He said for protection and also that he had seen films of Connie Hawkins (a legendary player from New York city in the 1960’s and 70’s. Connie was 6’8 and had an enormous wingspan. He grabbed rebounds with one hand and could handle the ball like it was a softball with one hand) and some other pros doing it. I told him that Connie had the largest hands of any player ever and that yours aren’t as big as mine, which they weren’t because I have very large hands for my size (you know what they say big hands…big). Anyway, Charles took my advice, removed the tape and suddenly he was playing much better. After a couple games passed without the tape I overheard Hugh on the sidelines at practice bragging to several of the assistant coaches about how Charles was playing much better since he told him to remove the tape from his fingers. I glanced over at Tevester Anderson, who just rolled his eyes and smiled as he had heard me talking to Charles about the tape previously.
UGA was a #7 seed in the 1989-90 NCAA tourney and lost to Texas a #10 seed in the first round. I believe our team was the most talented and deep of any UGA team ever and we lost a game I felt we should have won. Coach Durham followed up with another good, but, imo, underachieving year in 1990-91. UGA was a #6 seed going into the NCAA tourney that year and lost to #11 Pittsburgh in overtime. The worst part of that loss was a quote by Hugh in the paper the next day alluding to one of our guys missing big free throws. That guy was Rod Cole, Captain of the team and one of the best players and persons who ever laced ‘em up for the dogs. It was a cheap attempt to shift the blame for the loss from where it belonged. That close loss was indicative of a disturbing trend that I had discerned in Hugh’s coaching. We were losing more than our share of games decided by 5pts or less. That trend continued and the percentage of close losses grew. At one point after I was dismissed as color commentator I compiled a chart of games, decided by five point or less, that we lost and it was something like 80%. IMO, good coaching wins more than its share of close games and Hugh was not getting it done.
There are several reasons, in my estimation, for Coach Durham losing his edge. Other coaches and observers, whose opinions I respect, concurred with some of my conclusions. Among them were “the game is passing him by” alluded to by more than one of the type of folks mentioned above. In other words, the game was evolving with the advent of the three point shot and the shot clock and Hugh was not evolving with it to a great extent. Another troubling attribute Hugh acquired late in his career was the use of time outs. He simply refused to call them when situations dictated he should. We would often have time outs left over at the end of closely contested games. That is not always a bad thing, but more often than not it should not occur. Again, this point was brought up many times by knowledgeable people. I remember an AJC sportswriter asking Hugh at some point why he had not called a timeout in a particular situation. Hugh’s response was, as I live and breathe, “if you call a timeout you’re just giving the opposing coach a chance to set something up”, which, I guess in some weird way is true enough at times, but it doesn’t say much for one’s self confidence in formulating strategy. More often than not Hugh would freeze at the controls and let things just play out. Which, from his record in close games, was not a winning strategy. When and why to call timeouts is one of the most important basics of in-game coaching….nuff said.
At this point Hugh knew enough to be increasingly paranoid about his job and how he was perceived as a coach. The pre-game show, always tough, was now a tortuous ordeal as Hugh became even more sarcastic and cynical. He began to remind me of Richard Nixon in his final days. There was a certain physical resemblance as well, in that both appeared to hunch their shoulders in a somewhat defensive posture and kind of look around with squinted eyes. Hugh, like Nixon also had a heavy beard and often had that shadow about his visage that suggested a dark side. During the summer after my fourth year doing the color I was playing golf at Kenny Rogers farm outside of Athens with several big supporters of the basketball program. There were six or seven guys there and most of them I had known since I had been a player. Over beers, after we completed our round, the basketball program was being discussed and someone asked me what my personal views were as to how Hugh was doing as the coach. Several others said we’d really value your opinion Herb so I figured I owed them an honest one. I basically told them what I outlined above about the close games etc. assuming of course it was in confidence among friends. Well, it turned out that my comments got back to Hugh. Probably not directly from one of those guys although, I never knew for sure. A few weeks later Coach Dooley called me and asked me to meet him for lunch. I did and he told me that Hugh had asked him to relieve me of my duties as color analyst. He said he didn’t give him an explanation, but he was surprised and sorry, because he felt I had done a very good job. I replied it is Hugh’s program and he can do as he wishes. It turned out to be an unfortunate decision for Hugh. Within a couple weeks I was hired by 680 THE Fan to do an afternoon drive-time sportstalk show which allowed me to espouse my views to listeners all over Atlanta and surrounding areas.
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When Loran Smith, a longtime behind the scenes powerbroker in the UGA athletic department, offered me the opportunity to become color analyst for UGA basketball broadcasts I was extremely pleased. After all, it was my school’s team and it not only allowed me to be involved with UGA and basketball, but to get paid to give my opinion, which I have done por gratis low these many years. And basketball is one of the few subjects I know enough about to offer an informed opinion…well along with bigfoot, ufos, dogs, women, music, golf etc. etc. As I observed in my opening lines on this topic, Hugh was a great coach for many years, as well as a likeable guy and an entertaining speaker at public events. Hugh and I knew one another casually, as a former player knows the present coach of his school’s team, through attending events etc. When I began my first year in the job I had no problem with Hugh personally or professionally to that point. And although Hugh didn’t actually hire me, he had to sign off on it and I was very grateful to him for his support. I had no agenda going into my role other than to enjoy my time being around the game I loved. If I had been keenly prescient I might have gleaned an inkling of clouds on the horizon from circumstances surrounding my very first episode of hosting the Hugh Durham pre-game show.
A couple of months prior to the beginning of my first season as color analyst I met with Butch Clifton, who had held the position for the preceding nine years. Butch was a friend and former colleague on John Guthrie’s staff at UGA. I was a graduate assistant coach in 1973 and 1974 while Butch was an assistant to John Guthrie UGA’s head coach. Butch and I were co-coaches of the JV team in 1973. Butch had been a very successful high school coach and his 1971 Mark Smith team from Macon had the somewhat dubious distinction of being the last all-white squad to win a Georgia high school association championship. Integration of high school sports had begun in 1967 and within five years the dominance of black players and teams in high school basketball was well established. I respected Butch’s knowledge and coaching experience and learned a great deal from him that helped me often in my years as a coach. During our meeting, Butch and I discussed various details of what I should expect and prepare for in my new position. I listened attentively, because he and the aforementioned legendary announcer Larry Munson had several broadcasters of the year nominations during their time doing UGA basketball broadcasts. So, when Butch looked me in the eye and said the toughest part of your job will be the Hugh Durham pre-game show I thought he meant the preparation at first, but he quickly clued me in.
Hugh is very tight prior to the games Butch told me. He is superstitious and almost ritualistic as to what occurs after he enters his dressing room. He doesn’t want to talk to anyone except you and maybe the team manager who brings him his popcorn and coke. He continued on and said there are three important things you must remember and carry out. One, you must appear at his dressing room door at exactly six twenty- five, no earlier, no later, which is sixty-five minutes prior to tipoff ( this allowed time to take the tape and integrate it into the entire pregame show, which tipped off at seven). Two, you must knock on his door with the secret code ( this is the honest to god’s truth) and he preceded to knock three quick raps on the table in front of us, followed by a pause and two more knocks. I almost thought he was joking, but then realized he was serious. I rapped three times on the table, then a pause and two more. He said that’s it….don’t forget. Three, you must always remember to wish him good luck as your last comment. I sat quietly for a moment taking it all in and told Butch I figured I could handle that with no problem. He nodded, we talked a while longer and I left feeling I was prepared for my new duties. I was a bit nervous about being on the air doing the games, but I had done some interviews over the years on-air and was confident in my knowledge of the game. Larry Munson, the legendary play by play man for UGA football and basketball, was the consummate professional, we knew each other a bit as he had called Vanderbilt University games during my playing days and we had some casual contact during his time at UGA. I knew I could trust him to shepherd me through.
November 27, 1989 finally rolled around and UGA was opening the season vs Baptist College, one of the obligatory cupcake games major schools schedule early in the season. No pressure…except on a new color analyst to perform his duties and hopefully bring something worthwhile to the broadcasts. Munson and I sat chatting at the scorer’s table beginning at around six pm. He would soon leave to have a quick pre-game meal and shortly thereafter I would mosey over to Hugh’s sanctum sanctorum for our initial pregame show. Hugh’s dressing room was along one of the four main entrance ways leading into the coliseum playing floor. The Coliseum had been built in 1963 for a price of $4 million. It is an esthetically pleasing building and with some renovations over the years is still a truly comfortable venue with great sightlines. It has affectionately and somewhat accurately been called the barn, by supporters and opponents. Initially, it’s primary function, apart from a venue for basketball and concerts ( and man they had some great shows in that building. My first couple of years at UGA I saw Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Sam and Dave, The Righteous Brothers ) was serving as a place for livestock shows and exhibitions. It also hosted an annual rodeo. UGA has always had a reputation as a great agricultural institution and has a respected animal husbandry (insert crude joke here about football players and stumpbroke cows) and veterinary school. The coliseum had a smooth concrete floor and of course the basketball court was portable. There was a stage at one end that could be disassembled to allow for huge dumptrucks to bring in hundreds of loads of dirt. It would be smoothed out by bulldozers and other equipment to a level of about three feet deep. The only problem posed by these events was a strong odor of bs and other animal residue that lingered for weeks afterwards. It was always a welcome relief when a rock concert was held in the building and the clouds of pot smoke would mask the aroma of the barnyard. Those days are long gone now, as the renovations have changed the configuration of the coliseum and it hasn’t hosted any animals since the mid-eighties.
I checked my watch about every ten seconds as I awaited my pre-game show premier. It was reminiscent of Guns of Navarone, The Great Escape or some other war movie where, in the words of the great Kingfish, (no not Huey Long) everyone had to simonize their watches. At precisely six-twenty I did a check of my equipment, a small tape player and microphone. Everything was in order and at six twenty-three I arose and walked at a moderate pace towards my destination. I had timed the walk a few times at practice and knew it was a casual stroll of less than thirty seconds. But, with some folks milling around and a chance of an unanticipated interruption I allowed about a sixty to ninety second cushion. I arrived at the dressing room door with some seconds to spare and took a few deep breaths. Hoping the code hadn’t been changed unbeknownst to me, because there was no way to confirm it one way or another, I knocked on destiny’s door. There was a short pause and then a barely audible high pitched rasping that sounded like a yeeeeaaaah.. Hugh. You see, Hugh Durham has a unique speaking voice. It is difficult to describe or compare to anyone. Possibly the closest comparison I could come up with, for you older readers, would be that of Rodchester on the Jack Benny show, especially when he was excited. I’m sure there are clips of him on youtube for the edification of you younger readers. Again, it’s not an exact comparison, but it will give you an idea. Many have made light of Hugh’s intonations over the years and there have been on-air contests to see who could do the best impression. It’s not quite guttural, because it’s not deep, still it appears to emanate from someplace other than the throat. It’s not a falsetto, but has some slight similarities with one. Words begin with a tone that that is mid-range, but extend over a period and begin to rise in tenor as it plays out. My name would be pronounced something like Huuurrrb with the highest pitch at the end.
Anyway, sensing that I had been ushered to enter, I opened the door and stepped inside. The room was dimly lit, but I could see Hugh sitting in a chair over by his locker. I approached and he nodded for me to sit on the wooden bench in front of his chair. As Butch had told me he would be, he was eating popcorn and drinking a coke the manager had brought him from the concession stand. It escapes me now, but I’m sure I offered some pleasantry as an icebreaker, which he either ignored or didn’t hear as he was lost in his pre-game perusals. Without further niceties I turned on my tape player, said “testing, testing” ran it back to make sure it was recording and then said “good evening I’m Herb White and this is the Hugh Durham pre-game show”. It seemed Hugh grimaced slightly and I went on…” Coach Durham you are about to begin a new season (and here I knew I had to be careful because the team had gone 15-16 the previous season and 6-12 in the conference, so I felt I should allude to last year without being specific) and though you’ve lost some key players to graduation it appears you have good reason to be optimistic about this year’s squad. You have some very good experienced players returning along with some exciting new faces coming on board. What are your feelings about the team at this point as you begin a new season”?
Now that may not be a word for word transcription of what I said, but it is pretty close and did not exceed twenty-twenty five seconds of airtime for sure. I felt that it was a nice introduction for the listeners beginning a new season and a solid segue for Hugh. Well, there was what one might call a pregnant pause and Hugh appeared to have a pained expression. He finally said “Huuurrrb turn off that tape recorder”. Instantly and silently I wondered if he had gas, or worse, if I had forgotten one of the pre-game pre-requisites. But, I knew I had been on time, evidently given the correct secret knock and it wasn’t time for the wishing of good luck. Then came the answer as Hugh said “there’s one thing you gotta remember ( good god I thought did Butch forget to tell me something, or deliberately leave it out as a joke, or to sabotage his replacement) this is the Hugh Durham pre-game show, not the Herb White pre-game show. It took a second for his words to sink in and then I realized that I had used up too much, at least in his mind, of the time making my introductory comments. Without another word from either of us I fumbled to erase the recording, hit the record button again and said “ Hi I’m Herb White ( and was afraid that maybe I shouldn’t even introduce myself, but I knew that was standard on-air procedure) and this is the Hugh Durham pre-game show. Coach Durham you’re starting a new season, what are your thoughts about this year’s team”. Hugh’s expression relaxed and he began to extrapolate. Only when I was sure he had completed his entire thought did I venture only the briefest leading comment into another response. In a couple more minutes I knew it was time to wrap it up and when Hugh finished his thought I wished him good luck on the new season. He thanked me and said “we’ll take it”. I turned off the recorder thanked him again and made my exit. It was certainly the longest and most un-comfortable 5 minutes I had spent in quite some time. I now understood what Butch meant when he said the toughest thing about the job is the Hugh Durham pre-game show. And man was I thankful that Munson handled the post-game show. I turned the tape over to our producer and joined Munson at the scorer’s table where our mics were set up. He kinda searched my face for a moment as if expecting something from me and then I related the story. He just grunted, gave a short knowing chuckle and returned to his preparations.
I was color analyst for four seasons and did approximately one hundred and thirty Hugh Durham pre-game shows. They ran the gamut from absurdly humorous to mildly confrontational. There are more of them that deserve mentioning, but all were interesting and wildly entertaining for my friends with whom I had shared inside information in regards to the nature of the beast and my efforts to tame it. Certainly it was must listen radio for them as they tuned in to the unseen, intricate dance Hugh and I did for each of those 130 shows. You see, my being a lifelong provocateur, albiet unknown to most, I could not resist matching wits with Hugh, who considered himself a master manipulator and comic wit. It was co-incidentally fun and scary as I walked the tightrope of insinuating my personality into the show without going too far and losing my job. When my termination finally did come it was not as a result of anything that transpired on-air, because after all, I was a professional.
Travelling with the team, attending many practices, calling every game and hosting “The Hugh Durham pre-game show for four seasons allowed me an up close and personal look at Hugh Durham’s coaching and his personality. It will be understandable if some readers construe my comments, thoughts and observations regarding my hiring, tenure and ultimate dismissal as color analyst as sour grapes. I don’t deny I was very disappointed to lose my position and there is no doubt it was entirely at Hugh Durham’s discretion. However, that was completely his prerogative as head of the program and understandable to me. But, I believe I am relating my experiences in an honest, and as much as possible, unbiased perspective. I am not a vindictive person by nature and because of the love and respect I have for the game of basketball I have always spoken the truth about what I see occurring on the court and surrounding it.
Hugh is the only coach to lead two different Division I schools to the final four for the first and only time in each school’s history. His 1972 FSU team reached the championship game only to lose to John Wooden’s UCLA squad. And in 1983 he led UGA to the final four losing to eventual champion NC State. They beat the UNC Tarheels featuring Sam Perkins and James Worthy in the NCAA regional finals. Perkins had a nice NBA career and Worthy was an all-star forward on several Los Angeles Laker teams that won NBA titles. Oh yeah, there was a young guy by the name of Jordan on the team as well. What made the victory so compellingly sweet, at least for me, was Sam Perkins quote prior to the game saying about their upcoming opponent “The University of Georgia? We don’t even know what conference they play in”. Durham is also the only Division I coach to be the most successful coach at three different Universities, Florida State, The University of Georgia and Jacksonville University. Hugh won 633 games in his career, which is/was top ten all-time. And to his credit he signed Lenny Hall, FSU’s first African-American basketball player in 1966-67.
So, we have established Hugh was a very good basketball coach for a long time and I have no argument with that statement….hell I just made it. But, by the time I was hired to do color commentary in 1989-90 he was approaching the last several years of his stay at UGA. UGA won the SEC regular season championship for the only time in school history that season, my first as color analyst. Coincidence you aver, possibly, but I know for a fact that conversations I had with Hugh’s number one assistant at that time, Tevester Anderson, who was a great coach in his own right, were the basis for suggestions from Coach T to Hugh. Tevester and I had a strong mutual respect for each other’s basketball knowledge and though Hugh was loathe to admit he sought anyone’s advice, he did so from Tevester. There were more than a few issues that arose around the team concerning lineup changes, player’s abilities, defensive adjustments etc. that were seemingly resolved based on a consensus of mine and Tevester’s discussions and subsequently relayed to Hugh. Ultimately what role my observations played in helping secure the championship is conjecture on my part and lost to posterity at this point.
As testimony to my statements above regarding my actual input and effect on the team during my tenure as color analyst I relate the following anecdote. A couple of years after the SEC championship season our post man was a 7’ 1 tall, 290 lb young man named Charles Claxton. Charles was not a great athlete, but he had some skills and he was huge. He was a good kid and we had a fun relationship. I was around practice a lot and often gave my advice to players solicited and unsolicited. They generally were receptive knowing I had played in the NBA and had heard of my exploits from former players. At some point early in the season I noticed that Charles had a couple fingers on each hand taped together. I thought maybe he had injured his fingers and didn’t think much about it. But it became evident to me, after a while, that Charles was mishandling a lot of passes, losing rebounds and the tape was definitely affecting his game. Charles did not have the softest hands (a sports term for guys that can catch a ball and have some touch on it) to begin with and the tape was exacerbating the situation without a doubt. I asked him why he was wearing it. He said for protection and also that he had seen films of Connie Hawkins (a legendary player from New York city in the 1960’s and 70’s. Connie was 6’8 and had an enormous wingspan. He grabbed rebounds with one hand and could handle the ball like it was a softball with one hand) and some other pros doing it. I told him that Connie had the largest hands of any player ever and that yours aren’t as big as mine, which they weren’t because I have very large hands for my size (you know what they say big hands…big). Anyway, Charles took my advice, removed the tape and suddenly he was playing much better. After a couple games passed without the tape I overheard Hugh on the sidelines at practice bragging to several of the assistant coaches about how Charles was playing much better since he told him to remove the tape from his fingers. I glanced over at Tevester Anderson, who just rolled his eyes and smiled as he had heard me talking to Charles about the tape previously.
UGA was a #7 seed in the 1989-90 NCAA tourney and lost to Texas a #10 seed in the first round. I believe our team was the most talented and deep of any UGA team ever and we lost a game I felt we should have won. Coach Durham followed up with another good, but, imo, underachieving year in 1990-91. UGA was a #6 seed going into the NCAA tourney that year and lost to #11 Pittsburgh in overtime. The worst part of that loss was a quote by Hugh in the paper the next day alluding to one of our guys missing big free throws. That guy was Rod Cole, Captain of the team and one of the best players and persons who ever laced ‘em up for the dogs. It was a cheap attempt to shift the blame for the loss from where it belonged. That close loss was indicative of a disturbing trend that I had discerned in Hugh’s coaching. We were losing more than our share of games decided by 5pts or less. That trend continued and the percentage of close losses grew. At one point after I was dismissed as color commentator I compiled a chart of games, decided by five point or less, that we lost and it was something like 80%. IMO, good coaching wins more than its share of close games and Hugh was not getting it done.
There are several reasons, in my estimation, for Coach Durham losing his edge. Other coaches and observers, whose opinions I respect, concurred with some of my conclusions. Among them were “the game is passing him by” alluded to by more than one of the type of folks mentioned above. In other words, the game was evolving with the advent of the three point shot and the shot clock and Hugh was not evolving with it to a great extent. Another troubling attribute Hugh acquired late in his career was the use of time outs. He simply refused to call them when situations dictated he should. We would often have time outs left over at the end of closely contested games. That is not always a bad thing, but more often than not it should not occur. Again, this point was brought up many times by knowledgeable people. I remember an AJC sportswriter asking Hugh at some point why he had not called a timeout in a particular situation. Hugh’s response was, as I live and breathe, “if you call a timeout you’re just giving the opposing coach a chance to set something up”, which, I guess in some weird way is true enough at times, but it doesn’t say much for one’s self confidence in formulating strategy. More often than not Hugh would freeze at the controls and let things just play out. Which, from his record in close games, was not a winning strategy. When and why to call timeouts is one of the most important basics of in-game coaching….nuff said.
At this point Hugh knew enough to be increasingly paranoid about his job and how he was perceived as a coach. The pre-game show, always tough, was now a tortuous ordeal as Hugh became even more sarcastic and cynical. He began to remind me of Richard Nixon in his final days. There was a certain physical resemblance as well, in that both appeared to hunch their shoulders in a somewhat defensive posture and kind of look around with squinted eyes. Hugh, like Nixon also had a heavy beard and often had that shadow about his visage that suggested a dark side. During the summer after my fourth year doing the color I was playing golf at Kenny Rogers farm outside of Athens with several big supporters of the basketball program. There were six or seven guys there and most of them I had known since I had been a player. Over beers, after we completed our round, the basketball program was being discussed and someone asked me what my personal views were as to how Hugh was doing as the coach. Several others said we’d really value your opinion Herb so I figured I owed them an honest one. I basically told them what I outlined above about the close games etc. assuming of course it was in confidence among friends. Well, it turned out that my comments got back to Hugh. Probably not directly from one of those guys although, I never knew for sure. A few weeks later Coach Dooley called me and asked me to meet him for lunch. I did and he told me that Hugh had asked him to relieve me of my duties as color analyst. He said he didn’t give him an explanation, but he was surprised and sorry, because he felt I had done a very good job. I replied it is Hugh’s program and he can do as he wishes. It turned out to be an unfortunate decision for Hugh. Within a couple weeks I was hired by 680 THE Fan to do an afternoon drive-time sportstalk show which allowed me to espouse my views to listeners all over Atlanta and surrounding areas.
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