The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - People We Miss Hearing From - Bill Worrell

Episode Date: April 7, 2020

is the Matt Thomas Show. Time is 201 on Sports Talk 790. It is the final hour of the Matt Thomas shows. We get you ready for the A team coming up at 3 o'clock today. Earlier we had our buddy Chris Pezman on, the Vice President Intercollegiate Athletics for the University of Houston to talk about how he's handling the student athletes and what they're doing to get themselves ready for the next football season,

the future of college athletics. And speaking of college athletics and a great cougar, Bill Orell, my partner, Rossville-O-R-Areale, wanted me to ask you, were you a pitcher or a shortstop of the University of Houston way back in the day? I was a pitcher. And your career, ERA was what? Do what? Your ERA. What was your ERA back then?

Oh, hell, I don't even remember. That's all right. Well, I pitched in the 60s. Do you expect me to remember that far back? That's true. So you weren't even in the Southwest Conference, right? That was before then, correct? That was before the Southwest Conference.

So we played as an independent. And my junior year, we lost to Texas in the best two out of three, and they went on to the College World Series. And the next year, my senior year, we beat Texas in Austin. That was a team we had Tom Pichoric. Yeah. One of the great college and pro baseball players. And then we went to the College World Series that year in 67.

Oh, the good old times. I miss college baseball. Coach winning's done a nice job over there, and I'm sad that his kids are not able to compete this year. How are you feeling? How's life? I know that you've enjoyed semi-retirement. You still doing the games, obviously, in the home on AT&T,

but this has got to be even a stretch for you, not having to call a game in a long period of time. Yeah, it really is. I have never, I have been off before when we've had strikes and shutdowns. Two times it's happened to me in 30-some-odd years, and so that's the only other time I haven't done basketball games, but so this is unique. But we live in that time now where this is the only thing we can do, and I think pro-basketball, when a couple of guys tested positive,

Adam Silver shut it down right away, so we were the first league to do it. And Adam's way ahead of the curve there. So he says it may not be until June. We'll just have to wait and see. But he promises that we will finish the season, and I'm hoping he's right. Are you as fascinated at I am when you see the daily updates,

whether it be if you're looking in the paper or watching TV or looking on the Internet, of the variety of different options out there. Do any of them seem to make practical sense to you, or all this comes with every scenario comes with different sorts of questions with it? Yeah, I think the big question is, Matt, is how many games you will be able to get in, should you go to the playoffs right away? And, of course, you've got two or three teams that are on the outside looking at it,

that would like to play some extra games to get into the playoffs. And you have another option, too, of maybe taking the season all the way to, since it's an indoor sport, you could take it back all the way to September, October. And I've even heard an idea floating around that you would start 2021 on our 2020, 2021 season on Christmas Day. And you've heard that talk, too, where there's been a lot of owners in favor of starting the season on Christmas Day with five or six double-headers, you know, and go from there and extend the season through the summer. So I think the owners are taking a hard look at it, and they're doing everything they should do. And I'm just confident, I think, that we will be able to finish out this season when we're all able to go back to summer. kind of normalcy.

You know, Bill, my kids ask me about, you know, have I ever gone through something like this? And I obviously, the answer is no. We've gone through 9-11. We've gone through hurricanes and other sorts of terrible weather events, but those have been very short-term. In your life that has spanned, you know, multiple decades and been able to experience so many things both in the world of sports, but in news as well with your longtime background

at Channel 2. Is there anything close to this in your lifetime that you can equate this to or is this something completely out of context of anything else that's happened in our life? Yeah, nothing. Nothing close to it, of course, with the assassination of President Kennedy. Of course, that didn't last that long. I'm trying to decide whether to postpone games. That was the only thing.

We've had a couple of natural disasters, as you mentioned. And Matt, I really appreciate that you're not getting me to compare this with the 1918 pandemic. Thank you very much. I was going to say World War I and that's not fair either. So I just wanted to make sure that. No, that's not. But I thought that was coming. And so I was waiting for that. No, no, no. You're being very good to me today. I'd rather do that right to your face as compared to doing it on the phone. You know what I'm saying? We're visiting with Bill O'Rell, one of the great Houston sportscasters of all time. I will say this, Bill, we have done more YouTube watching of old games and whatnot, whether it was

Dreams quadruple double, watching some playoff games, watching a no-hitter. I mean, there have been a variety of interesting things. Are you much of a guy that, you know, and I know you love playing golf and love staying active, that's part of the reason why you are as sharp as you still are to this day. But do you do a lot of reminiscing of gold games? You either were a part of a team or a part of a broadcast. Or is that something that just doesn't happen a lot for yourself? No, I don't.

And there's one reason why I really don't. like to listen to myself. And I'm, I critique myself too hard and I would rather not, I'd never really like to look at old games because I sit there going, gosh, I wish I'd have said this or I should have said that. And so I really don't look at a lot of old games, but it is fun to see these old games. I'm with you. Some of the, you know, I did one quadruple double and they took it back the next day. the NBA did on Hakeem. He really had two quadruple doubles, but they took one away from him.

They said the scores table was too lenient with some rebound. He got there at the end of the game, so he didn't get the quadruple double, but he did get the other one. And I remember doing that game, and boy, he took it right down to the wire before he got it done with an assist. But, yeah, we've had a lot of great games.

I'll tell you, I wish they would show that game back my first season in 1980. That was the one where Calvin Murphy and George Gervin squared off in game seven of the semifinals in the NBA. And Gervin had 43 and Calvin had 42 and the Rockets won to advance. And that was that first year where they finished under 500, 40 and 42 and went to the NBA final. That was my first team I ever followed, and I became a huge fan of Moses Malone, almost from the get-go, and Mike Dunleavy and everybody in Calvin and a mental love affair ever since then. We're visiting with Bill Orell with us here on the people we miss hearing from segment of the Matt Thomas show at 209. Speaking of Hall of Famers, Rudy gets in, and I've told my audience, Bill, and you have the same relationship with Mike that I do.

But I travel with Mike, and I really have grown to appreciate not only his coaching acumen. but his personality and his professionalism, the way he treats people. I'm speaking in Mike Dan, Tony. I'm assuming all those years, you and Rudy had that same sort of report when you were traveling around the NBA together. Yeah, we did. Rudy was just, he's just probably the nicest person that I've ever been around. I can truly say that he's always thinking about the other person.

He's always putting the team ahead of any of his wishes. He was like that when he was a player, and that's why so many people liked him. You know, he was Michigan's. He's still number three in all-time rebounds in Michigan history. He was a heck of a college player and a five-time All-Star. But he decided when he retired that he wanted to work from the ground up. He started out scouting. And then Bill Fitch moved him to the bench to be the third coach and kind of the developmental coach.

He looked at a lot of film. Didn't have a lot back then, but we had a couple of satellites at HSE, which, you know, we started in the early 80s. He was able to come over there and look at some other games on the satellites. So he was able to put up scouting reports. So he did it from the ground floor. I mean, he did everything that a coach needs to do to prepare. So by the time he became the head coach, he knew what system he wanted to run. He knew the players he wanted to have on his team.

And he put that team together in a hurry around the Keem, Elizewan. And then he had to take Akeem who had already been in the league 10 years. And for your team, I need you to change your game a little bit. and make it look like it was a King's idea. Rudy was great in the huddle, too. I remember, you know, players would tell me that you could tell he'd played the game before he was a players coach. They'd come in there and they'd talk about what they wanted to do and then he'd listen to them and then he dropped up proper play. So I see that a lot in Mike Dantonie.

He shares with the players. The players love him. They're very much alike. And I remember Mike, the first thing he told me is when I first met him, he said, why isn't Rudy Tom Jonovitch in the Hall of Fame? Because Mike, Mike did a lot of things Rudy did. You know, Rudy was way ahead of his time. He had a center in Akeem, Elizawan, who didn't play like a normal center.

But he learned to pass, and he surrounded him with three-point shooters. And he could also post up at either side with Clyde Drexler on one side, and he posted up with a keen. And if you look at their formations and the way they spread the court, they played a lot like the Rockets play now. So it took the league about 15 years to catch up. And finally, speaking catching up,

the Basketball Hall of Fame decided to catch up and give him his proper due. I'm so happy for him. I'm happy for you that you're enjoying your life now. I know you're playing a little bit of golf here and there. Are the golf courses pretty empty or fairly? busy these days? Well, it's everybody walking, and that eliminates a lot of players.

Yeah. So you have to walk and you maintain, it's easy for me to maintain my six feet because everybody hits ball so far past me. That's true. So way up ahead of me, so I don't have to worry about any, my social distancing is just fine. But you just have to stay sharp. You have to do what you can do and get through this. But I think we were a little late getting started as a country to catch up to this coronavirus,

but I think we're on the right track now. And if it's going to take a couple of more months, and I know everybody's impatient, but it's so important to follow the guidelines so that we don't lose thousands of more people to this terrible virus. into that. I hope to see you very soon. If it's not until June 15th, I know you know know what I look like. I know what you look like. We'll do some more games, have some fun and maybe crown an NBA champion. And like you were talking about earlier, I would, I'm all forebill. I don't know what your thoughts are. I do think the NBA should move its season

back to December 15th, December 20th, because I just feel like there's so much good basketball in the first two or three months of the year that America just doesn't catch because they're still getting their fill of college and pro football. I think a December to August, say late August champion would be perfect for the NBA and give them more of the shine that I think the league deserves. I agree with you. Let's do it. All right, Bill, thank you very much for the time. We really appreciate it. I'm glad you're doing well and we'll hopefully see you very soon, my friend. Well, I miss seeing you, Matt, but I listen to you a lot. You've got one of the best talk shows in the country. Thank you, friend. Bill Warrell, joining us here. Take care now. All right, Bill Warrell from AT&T SportsNet, and, of course, one of the icons of Houston Sports Television.