Legendary coach gets hall call

This was the ninth time the legendary baseball and basketball coach at Archbishop Molloy, Jack Curran, has been inducted into a hall of fame. But this time, when the 75-year-old Curran, joined by his sister, two nephews and two nieces, was officially inducted into the Archbishop Molloy High School Hall of Fame at the New York Athletic Club last Wednesday evening, it meant far more than all the others. “This was the most impressive,” Curran said. “I knew everybody in the building. … The whole thing was the Molloy family was there. So it was kind of nice; it was like going to your own wake while you’re alive.”
Among the 350 former Stanners in attendance was Kenny Smith, the former star point guard and a two-time NBA champion with the Houston Rockets, who served as MC. The former coach at St. John’s University, Lou Carnesecca, who actually preceded Curran as the Molloy basketball coach, was also on hand, as was the great North Carolina coach Dean Smith, who Curran got to know in the 1950’s, and the now-famous basketball coach Jim Larranaga, who played for Curran in the mid 1960’s and whose upstart George Mason Patriots just reached the Final Four. At Larranaga’s invitation, Curran actually went out to Indianapolis to watch his former pupil’s Cinderella team play in their valiant Final Four loss to Florida, the eventual national champion. “That was great,” said Curran. “You don’t get to the Final Four every year; it’s kind of an accomplishment.”
Curran, an All Hallows graduate who grew up in the Bronx, played baseball at St. John’s University and then became a physical education teacher and baseball and basketball coach at Molloy. He’s coached five professional basketball players - Smith, Kenny Anderson, Kevin Joyce, Brian Winters and Robert Werdann - but it wasn’t just former professional athletes and coaches who were on hand for the celebration. Politician Andrew Cuomo, taking time off from running for attorney general, was there, along with City Councilman Joseph Addabbo and Dr. George Todd, one of the top vascular surgeons in the country. “It was great,” said Curran, inducted into the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame last September. “I enjoy seeing them. You renew your acquaintances and talk about the games.”
Curran has put together an impressive body of work - five City Catholic basketball championships and a City-record 17 Catholic baseball titles - yet his approachability is what has endeared him to so many. The Molloy athletic director, Michael McCleary, recalled working basketball camps with Curran when he was a college student but didn’t truly get to appreciate his warmth until he worked full time at the Briarwood school.
“You would be afraid to talk to him because of his legendary status, but as we interact every day, you see how truly humble and how good a man he is on a day-to-day basis,” McCleary said. “It’s not a facade; it’s not an act he puts on; it’s the way he is all the time. … He’s ready to talk and be receptive to anybody who approaches him.”