![]() ![]() Besides his wife, he is survived by six children from his first marriage, his sons, Michael, Steve, Roman and John, and his daughters, Robin and Molly McCloskey a stepson, Ryan Gray a stepdaughter, Lisa Haugen 14 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.Northwestern’s John Mayberry was a 19 Detroit Free Press All-PSL first-teamer before he traded in his basketball shoes for baseball spikes and belted 255 homers over 15 big-league seasons - including his first four with the Houston Astros. His marriage of 28 years to Anita Morales ended in divorce. After leaving Minnesota, he was a consultant for the Toronto Raptors. He was an assistant for the Lakers under Coach Jerry West before joining the Pistons. ![]() In 1972 he became the head coach of the Trail Blazers, compiling a 48-116 record over the next two seasons before resigning in 1974. McCloskey became the head basketball coach at Penn in the mid-1950s and stayed there until he took over Wake Forest’s program in 1966. before becoming a high school basketball coach. After graduating he played one game with the Philadelphia Warriors of the N.B.A. McCloskey lettered in baseball, football and basketball in high school, then played football at the University of Pittsburgh before serving in the Navy at Okinawa during World War II.Īfter the war he finished his education at the University of Pennsylvania, where he continued to play three varsity sports. His mother, the former Beulah Spade, was a homemaker his father, Eddie, was a miner. John William McCloskey was born in Mahanoy City, Pa., a coal mining town, on Sept. He worked with the Timberwolves until 1995, during which time they never had a winning record. McCloskey told The Associated Press that May. “I’ve been here a long time, perhaps too long,” Mr. McCloskey moved to the Minnesota Timberwolves, who were in desperate need of better front-office management. Shortly after Tom Wilson was appointed president of the Pistons in 1992, Daly resigned and Mr. But Detroit flagged after that the next two years in the playoffs, losing to the Bulls in the Eastern Conference finals and then to Patrick Ewing’s Knicks in the first round. The Pistons repeated as champions the next season, defeating the Portland Trail Blazers in five games. He picked the players and the coach and made all the moves.” “There’s the man who deserves a lot of the credit for this championship,” Thomas told The New York Times as Mr. McCloskey drafted in 1981, praised his general manager in the locker room after the game. Thomas, the small but dominant point guard whom Mr. This time they swept the Lakers (Johnson was injured during the series) to win the first championship in franchise history. In 1988, the Pistons made the finals for the first time in decades before losing to the Lakers, four games to three.īut the next year, the Pistons had the best regular-season record in the N.B.A., at 63-19, then went 15-2 in the playoffs. McCloskey, Detroit made the playoffs nine times in a row, the Eastern Conference finals five consecutive seasons and the N.B.A. They were known for an implacable defense that wore down dominant 1980s teams like Larry Bird’s Boston Celtics and Magic Johnson’s Los Angeles Lakers, as well as the ascendant Chicago Bulls led by Michael Jordan. McCloskey and Daly, the Pistons became a sharp-elbowed team nicknamed the Bad Boys. McCloskey replaced him in 1983 with Chuck Daly, a future Hall of Famer. McCloskey also engineered a string of trades, earning the nickname Trader Jack after acquiring the rugged center Bill Laimbeer, power forward Rick Mahorn, the 7-foot-1 center James Edwards and the dependable sixth man Vinnie Johnson.įans were furious when he traded Adrian Dantley, a six-time All-Star forward, to the Dallas Mavericks for Mark Aguirre, a forward and a three-time All-Star - until the Pistons won the championship the next season.Īfter three losing seasons under Coach Scotty Robertson, Mr. ![]()
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