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James Ernest Mora (born May 24, 1935) is the former head coach of the USFL's Philadelphia/Baltimore Stars and the NFL's New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts. He played football at Occidental College where he was also a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. His son Jim L. Mora is the current head coach of the UCLA Bruins.

As an NFL coach, Mora is well known for turning two of the NFL's consistently losing franchises into perennial post-season contenders, his lack of success once he got his teams to the playoffs, and his often impassioned post-game tirades and press conferences, including his oft-quoted "Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda," "Diddly Poo," and "Playoffs?" tirades.^[1]

Early career[link]

As a youth Mora became an Eagle Scout in 1950 and was presented the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award as an adult by the Boy Scouts of America.^[2] Mora was a tight end at Occidental College, graduating in 1957. His college roommate was Jack Kemp, an all star quarterback with the Buffalo Bills, U.S congressman for 18 years and presidential candidate in 1988. Another teammate was Ron Botchan, who went on to become a successful NFL game official. After playing three years of service football in the United States Marines Mora became an assistant coach at his alma mater in 1960. He moved up to head coach of Occidental a few years later and led the team for three seasons (1964–66) compiling an 18-9 record.

Mora received a master's degree in education in 1967 and left Occidental to serve as an assistant coach at Stanford for the 1967 season. He then spent five seasons at Colorado, one at UCLA and three at Washington. In 1978 he moved to the professional ranks as the defensive line coach for the NFL's Seattle Seahawks under head coach Jack Patera.

USFL[link]

In 1983 the United States Football League came into existence and Mora became head coach of the Philadelphia Stars (who moved to Baltimore in 1985). During his tenure the team compiled a 48-13-1 (.782) record, appeared in all three USFL championship games and won two of them. Mora was named Coach of the Year in 1984 and is considered by many observers to be the best coach in the short history of the USFL. Soon after the Stars won the 1985 USFL title, Mora was named head coach of the NFL's New Orleans Saints. The USFL would eventually be forced out of business after only winning $3 in an antitrust suit against the NFL.

New Orleans Saints[link]

Mora was hired by new Saints General Manager Jim Finks to turn around the franchise largely viewed as the NFL's most inept. The Saints had only won 90 games in their first 19 seasons, had never achieved a winning record, and only twice had reached .500, in 1979 and 1983. In late 1984, then-owner John Mecom. threatened sell the team to a group of investors who planned to move the franchise to Jacksonville, Florida if he could not find an owner or group of owners who would buy the team and keep them in New Orleans.

Mecom sold the Saints to Tom Benson in May 1985 for $70 million. Benson, who grew up in the city's Ninth Ward, pledged to keep the team in New Orleans. The Saints limped along to a 5-11 record in 1985, and coach Bum Phillips resigned with four games remaining. Benson hired Finks in January 1986 and charged the former Vikings and Bears executive with the task of hiring the new coach.

Mora spent his first off-season remaking the Saints roster. He convinced several players from the USFL to come to New Orleans. The imports included linebackers Sam Mills and Vaughan Johnson, who went on to form the inside tandem of the legendary "Dome Patrol" linebacking corps with veteran Rickey Jackson and draftee Pat Swilling on the outside. Mora inherited quarterback Bobby Hebert and receiver Eric Martin from Phillips, and drafted running back Reuben Mayes and tackle Jim Dombrowski.

After a 7-9 record his first season, Mora led the Saints to a 12-3 record in 1987. In week 6 of the 1987 season the Saints lost a 24-22 game to the San Francisco 49ers, missing a last-second field goal. After the game Mora launched what became known as his "Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda" speech. In his postgame press conference, Mora angrily said the following:

"They're better than we are; we're not good enough. We shouldn't be thinking about beating these 49ers; we shouldn't be talking about it, 'cause the Saints ain't good enough. And you guys shouldn't write about us being a playoff team and all that bullstuff--that's malarkey. We ain't good enough to beat those guys and it was proven out there today. It's that simple. We're not good enough yet. We've got a long way to go; we've got a lot of work to do; we're close, and close don't mean shit. And you can put that on TV for me. I'm tired of coming close, and we're gonna work our asses off until we ain't close anymore, and it may take some time; we're gonna get it done; we aren't in their--we aren't good enough. They're better than us--black and white, simple, fact! "Could've, would've, should've" is the difference in what I'm talking about! The good teams don't come in and say "Could've." They get it done! All right? It's that simple! I'm tired of saying "Could've, should've, would've." That's why we ain't good enough yet! 'Cause we're saying "Could've" and they ain't! I'm pissed off right now. You bet your ass I am. I'm sick of coulda, woulda, shoulda, coming close, if only."

The Saints responded by winning their last 9 games, notching the franchise's first-ever winning record and playoff berth. The team's 12–3 record in the 1987 season was the second-best in the NFL that year. Unfortunately for them, the 49ers had the league's best record (13–2), and also played in the NFC West. Therefore, the Saints were a wild-card team (since 1987 was a strike-shortened season with replacement games, it should be noted that the Saints and 49ers had identical 10–2 records in regular season non-replacement games). Nonetheless, the Saints were able to play their first playoff game at home, which they lost 44–10 to the Minnesota Vikings. Mora received the NFL Coach of the Year Award.

Mora's Saints finished 10–6 in 1988, and were part of a three-way tie for first in the NFC West with the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams. However, the 49ers won the division on tie-breakers, and the Saints lost the wild-card tiebreaker with the Rams and missed the playoffs. In 1989, the Saints again had a winning record (9–7) but finished 3rd in the NFC West and missed the playoffs.

Thereafter his Saints teams made the playoffs three more times. In 1990, the Saints only finished 8–8, but managed to make the playoffs as a wild card. They lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Chicago Bears, 16–6.

In 1991, Mora's Saints finished 11-5 and won the team's first division title. However, the Saints lost again in the first round of the playoffs. They lost at home to the Atlanta Falcons 27-20, in spite of finishing one game ahead of the Falcons in the NFC West during the regular season.

In 1992, Mora led the Saints to its second 12-win season in 6 years, finishing 12-4. They were a wild card again, however, as the San Francisco 49ers finished 14-2. But for the second time in two years, the Saints were upset at home in the first round the playoffs, as the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Saints, 36–20. This would be the Saints' last playoff game during Mora's tenure, leaving Mora with an 0–4 playoff record in New Orleans. The Saints would not win a playoff game until 2000.

(Following a 33-3 exhibition loss to the Houston Oilers in 1992 marred by poor kick returns) "I'm sure people vomited in the stands after watching our kicking game. I'm sure they vomited in the stands. That was just horrible, embarrassing. Was that on national television? (told it was blacked out locally) Thank God."

1993 marked the beginning of the decline of Mora's Saints. The team started the season 5–0 and appeared to be headed to the postseason again; however, after the Saints' bye week, the team went into a tailspin and went only 3–8 in the final 11 games, including losing 4 out of their last 5 games. 1993 was Mora's last season of .500 or better in New Orleans. In the Week 16 game against the New York Giants, quarterback Wade Wilson was injured on Monday Night Football and fans were cheering that fact, earning an angry retort:

"You know I'd like to begin my remarks by saying this, and I mean this in all sincerity; I've been coaching for 34 years, and tonight I saw and heard one of the most disgusting, rudest, sick, demonstrations in my entire career. Probably the worst. When Wade Wilson got hurt, I actually looked up into the stands and saw people standing, clapping, and cheering when he was laying on the ground with a knee injury. And I say this, those are some sick, sick, sick people! Mentally sick! I thought it was horrible, disgusting, embarrassing, shameful, it stunk! People are sick when they do something like that; absolutely friggin' sick! Guy's out there busting his ass like all our guys were, gets his knee blown up, not badly hopefully, and they're standing and cheering and clapping! Those are sick people! Sick in the head! They oughta get their ass thrown right out of the stadium!"

After two 7–9 seasons in 1994 and 1995, Mora appeared increasingly frustrated with his team's situation in New Orleans. The Saints' defense went into a steep decline, negating the passing heroics of quarterback Jim Everett, acquired from the division rival Rams in 1994 for a seventh-round draft choice. Everett came to the Saints shortly before his infamous incident with Jim Rome on ESPN2 when Rome insulted the quarterback by calling him Chris Evert, a reference to Jim Everett's lack of toughness.

The 1996 season started off very badly. The Saints lost their first five games, including an embarrassing 28-14 loss at home to the then-winless Arizona Cardinals in which LeShon Johnson rushed for 214 yards, a Cardinals franchise record which has since been broken by Beanie Wells in 2011. Following a road loss to the Baltimore Ravens, the Saints won back-to-back home games vs. the Jacksonville Jaguars and Chicago Bears, but the turnaround was a mirage.

After the Saints were beaten 19–7 by the Carolina Panthers on October 20, a loss which put them at 2–6 midway through the season, Mora walked out of the postgame press conference in disgust after a profanity-laced tirade. His outburst became famous on sports highlight reels for years to follow, largely because of Mora's use of the phrase "Diddley Poo." On the Saints' performance, Mora said the following:

"Well, what happened was, that second game we got our ass kicked. Errr - the second half, we just got our ass totally kicked. We couldn’t do diddly...poo offensively. We couldn’t make a first down. We couldn’t run the ball; we didn’t try to run the ball. We couldn’t complete a pass - we sucked. The second half, we sucked. We couldn't stop the run. Every time they got the ball, they went down and got points. We got our ass totally kicked in the second half - that's what it boiled down to. It was a horseshit performance in the second half. Horseshit. I’m totally embarrassed and totally ashamed. Coaching...[all]...[unintelligible]...Coaching did a horrible job. The players did a horrible job. We got our ass kicked in that second half. It sucked. It stunk."

The next day, Mora unexpectedly resigned his position as head coach and was replaced by interim coach Rick Venturi. The Saints finished the season at 3–13, their worst season since going 1-15 in 1980. Venturi was replaced by veteran Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka. Mora is still the winningest coach in Saints history; his 93 wins in 10-plus years in New Orleans are three more than the Saints had won in their first 20 years combined.

Indianapolis Colts[link]

Mora served as a color analyst for NBC in 1997, and in 1998 he replaced Lindy Infante as head coach of the Indianapolis Colts. The team struggled to a 3–13 mark in his first year with a rookie Peyton Manning learning the ropes at quarterback, but had an amazing turnaround to 13-3 in 1999, thanks in large part to the addition of rookie running back Edgerrin James. At the time, this turnaround was the "largest" in NFL history. The Colts lost their first playoff game in the AFC Divisional Playoffs (the team received a first-round bye to advance to the Divisional Playoffs) to the Tennessee Titans, which dropped Mora's all-time NFL postseason record to 0-5.

The Colts finished 10–6 in 2000 and made the playoffs once again, but the team lost a wild-card round playoff game to the Miami Dolphins by a score of 23-17 in overtime. This defeat dropped Mora's overall postseason record to 0-6. Coincidentally, just hours after Mora lost what would be the sixth and final playoff game of his career, his former team, the New Orleans Saints, won their first-ever playoff game.

On November 25, 2001, after a loss to the San Francisco 49ers that dropped the Colts to 4–6, Mora made his famous "Playoffs?" tirade. Of the Colts' performance, Mora said:

"Well, I'll start off by saying this: do not blame that game on the defense, OK? I don't care who you play, whether it's a high school team, a junior college team, a college team, much less an NFL team; when you turn the ball over five times -- four interceptions, one for a touchdown, three others in field position to set up touchdowns -- you ain't going to beat anybody I just talked about. Anybody. All right? And that was a disgraceful performance, in my opinion. We threw that game. We gave it away by doing that. We gave 'em the friggin' game. In my opinion, that sucked. Ah. You know? You can't turn the ball over five times like that. Holy crap! I don't know who the hell we think we are when we do something like that! Unbelievable...five turnovers. One of them for -- We've thrown four interceptions for touchdowns this year. That might be an NFL record! Hell, we've still got six games -- five? Five, five. Um. We've still got six games to play, no telling what might happen. That's pitiful! I mean, it's absolutely pitiful to perform like that. Pitiful! If our defense hadn't played halfway decent against a great offensive football team, they might have scored 60! That's it, the name of the game, end of story. It was horrible, horrible five interceptions -- five turnovers. Horrible! And we couldn't cover the kickoffs the first half. Shit, our defense played pretty damn good, considering. That's all I got to say. That's the story of the game right there, the story of the game."

Later in the press conference, in response to Tim Bragg, a reporter for WRTV, who asked a question about the Colts' chances for making the playoffs, Mora said in a high-pitched, incredulous tone:^[3]

"What's that? Ah -- Playoffs? Don't talk about -- playoffs?! You kidding me?! Playoffs?! I just hope we can win a game! Another game!"

His "Playoffs" sound byte is regularly played back as a joke on a number of sports radio talk shows when discussing mediocre NFL teams or playoffs of other sports. The tirade would go on to be featured in a Coors Light commercial in 2006 as part of an ad campaign that recreated NFL coaches' infamous press conferences with twenty-something male actors asking the coaches inane and unrelated non-football questions about the beer. In an appearance on the Best Damn Sports Show in 2003, Mora talked about going to autograph signings and having a kid come up to him and ask him to say "playoffs" in lieu of an autograph. He's also had some fun with the remark, saying the Playoffs? line during a media session to the New York Giants in the days leading up to Super Bowl XLII in Arizona. More fun was had^{[citation needed]} during 2007 training camp when he talked to his son Jim L. Mora, then an assistant with the Seattle Seahawks, via satellite feed on the NFL Network and Marcus Pollard, a former member of Mora's Colts, spoofed Mora Sr's "Playoffs?" rant.

Hampered by a defense that allowed the most points in the league (30.4 per game), Indianapolis only won two more games that year. Some sources believed that Mora could have saved his job if he fired one (or more) of his coordinators (especially defensive coordinator Vic Fangio) but he refused to do so. Mora was fired after the season and replaced by Tony Dungy who led the Colts to win the Super Bowl in 2006 before leaving the Colts after the 2008 season.

Coaching philosophy[link]

Mora favored a conservative approach to the game, relying on a strong running game and solid defensive play. Perhaps more than any other teams, the Saints teams of the late 1980s embodied his coaching style. Those teams were led by the "Dome Patrol" linebacking corps. This unit consisting of Rickey Jackson, Sam Mills, Vaughan Johnson, and Pat Swilling became known as one of the best four-man linebacking corps in NFL history. Those same Saints teams also had a strong running game, mostly led by Rueben Mayes and Dalton Hilliard, as well as a conservative but efficient passing game led by quarterback Bobby Hebert and wide receiver Eric Martin.

Despite his solid regular season record (125–106), the biggest criticism of Mora has been his NFL teams' inability to win any playoff games in six appearances. His critics, both among fans and media reporters, often blamed his lack of success in the postseason to his conservative approach. Mora did not appear to take the criticisms seriously, as evidenced in another famous Mora quote from a press conference during his years in New Orleans.

"You don't know when it's good or bad. You really don't know, because you don't know what we're trying to do, you guys don't look at the films. You don't know what happened. You really don't know. You think you know, but you don't know. And you never will."

Critics continued to argue that this conservative approach prevented his teams from closing out big games against good teams, like the Marty Ball approach Marty Schottenheimer used during his coaching career. The most frequent complaint was that his teams' offenses would no longer be aggressive late in these football games. They accused him of trying the run out the clock and not make mistakes, and over-relying on his defense to hold the lead (instead of trying to build on the lead and score more points). Critics argued that this aspect of his conservative strategy backfired on him. They point to the fact that his teams had second-half leads in four of his six playoff games, but won none of them. In three of those games, Mora's teams had leads in the fourth quarter.

In an NFL Network program naming Jim Mora the #10 "Coach Who Never Won a Championship," former Philadelphia Eagles offensive lineman Brian Baldinger said of the Saints' playoff loss to the Eagles in 1992, "We beat 'em. But that's only because they called the dogs off. Whatever reason, they called the dogs off in the second half. I don't know what Jim Mora was thinking about that day." In that game, the Saints led 17-7 at halftime and 20-10 after the 3rd quarter. However, the Eagles scored 26 unanswered points in the 4th quarter and won the game 36-20.

Head coaching record[link]

Life after coaching[link]

In 2003, Mora became an on-air analyst for NFL Total Access, the primary analysis show on the newly-launched NFL Network, a job he holds to this day.

Mora was a sports radio commentator for Fox Sports's GameTime Saturday and GameTime Sunday with Dan Moriarty. On Thanksgiving Thursday, November 23, 2006, Mora made some critical comments about the Atlanta Falcons' quarterback Michael Vick which became controversial because the Falcons were coached at the time by Mora's son, Jim L. Mora. Craig Shemon of Fox Sports Radio called Vick a "coach killer" and Mora quickly agreed with that assessment, saying that Vick was not a good passer and expressing concern for his son's prospects of keeping his head coaching job while the popular Vick was the team's quarterback.^[5]

On Wednesday, December 6, 2006, according to ESPN and confirmed by FOX, Mora quit his radio show on FOX because of the controversy he caused with his comments about Vick.

Currently, Mora does game analysis for Saints games that either air on NBC or ESPN for WDSU in New Orleans.

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Playoffs? on YouTube
• Diddley Poo on YouTube
• Top 10 Most Embarrassing TV/Radio Interview moments by SI.com.
• Jim Mora Post Game Rants on Postgamerants.com

Douglas Mitchell Gottlieb (born January 15, 1976 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is a former NCAA collegiate basketball player for the University of Notre Dame and Oklahoma State University, professional basketball player in the [(USBL, IBA, ABA, CBA)] and Europe Russian Basketball Super League, Israeli Super League, Korac Cup, French National League.

Early basketball career[link]

Gottlieb grew up in Orange, California, he is the son of former Division 1 head coach Bob Gottlieb. His brother Gregg was an all league player at El Modena High School in Orange. His father started a highly successful AAU program then called the "Orange County Express" after he got out of college coaching in 1986. In the early years of the program Gottlieb was a ball boy for local stars like Mike Hopkins (now head coach in waiting at [(Syracuse)]), Leron Ellis, Scott McCorkle, Andy Karich, Bobby Joyce and later Cherokee Parks. In 6th grade Doug was part of the AAU 12 and Under National Champion Mid Valley ARC team along with Cameron Murray and Alex Lopez, brother of Brook and Robin. From that point on, Doug only played with ARC as the "Express" was beaten in the Southern California AAU Championships by ARC and ARC had the ability to pick 2 players from any team to compete with them in Bellevue, Washington. Gottlieb was selected, along with teammate Lorenzo LeLeui, a story discussed in the Best Selling Book "Raw Recruits, by Armen Keteyian. From that point forward Doug played solely for his father's program along with future starts Miles Simon, J.R. Henderson, Kristaan Johnson and Tony Gonzales as their core group. The "OC Express" would be arch rivals with "Slam N Jam" led by Toby Bailey and Ricky Price, and ARC led by Cameron Murray, Jelani Gardner to name a few. When it came time to choose a high school, Gottlieb chose to pass on Mater Dei, despite his best friends Miles Simon and Darren Hite (Princeton) already attending the powerhouse. Instead Gottlieb chose to repeat 8th grade as he was just 5' tall and 105 lbs, whereupon he grew 10 inches, and enroll in the class of 1995. That high school class meant being in the same class with Clay McKnight, the talented son of Mater Dei head coach Gary McKnight, and the two fathers thought it was best if Gottlieb not compete with his son for minutes at the point guard position. Instead Gottlieb enrolled at Tustin High School, coached by Tom McCluskey, who played for Dick Harter at [(Penn State)} and were defending Division 2 State Champions. Gottlieb played some varsity in the preseason tournaments and during the CIF playoffs, but McCluskey chose to play him primarily with the JV for Andy Ground. At the end of the season Ground would become the head coach as McCluskey left to take over at Golden West College. Gottlieb Started every game from that point forward and after an being first team all-league as a sophomore, he was All Orange County and All CIF as a junior. Gottlieb's Senior season he lead Tustin to their second straight league title and they lost for the second consecutive year to Compton Dominguez in the CIF Finals. In the State playoff Tustin fell on the road to El Camino High school and Gottlieb's career ended without a CIF or State Championship. Upon graduation Gottlieb held the All Time Scoring title at Tustin High School, where he was passed the following season by close friend and Future [(Notre Dame)} and [(Pepperdine)} forward David Lalazarian. Gottlieb still holds Tustin Records for single game points (44) and single season scoring. He holds every assist and steals record in Tustin High School history as well. In 1995 he was named the Orange County Player of the Year in 1995 for Tustin High School. Gottlieb was a high school All-American who played in the Magic's Roundball Classic following his senior year. Gottlieb was considered the "Best in the West" point guard, as rated by the Long Beach Press-Telegram. Gottlieb was named the MVP of the "Pac 10 vs the US" All Star game finishing with 32 points and 14 assists. After the game his All Star Head coach Adam Keefe, an Orange County Legend and then player for the Utah Jazz, said in the Long Beach Press Telegram "He is the closest thing I have seen to John Stockton". Gottlieb had signed a letter of intent to play at Notre Dame in the fall of 1994. Gottlieb Chose Notre Dame over Florida, Michigan State, Connecticut and UCLA.

College basketball career=[link]

After signing a national letter of intent with Notre Dame, Gottlieb was their starting point guard during the 1995-1996 college basketball season, starting all but the first four games and leading the team with 154 assists (against only 70 turnovers) as well as steals and minutes played. However, Gottlieb's stint at Notre Dame would be short. During Gottlieb's freshman year, he was charged with stealing credit cards from a roommate and fraudulently charging over $900 to those cards; Gottlieb has since stated that, after paying back the $900, he was allowed to leave Notre Dame.^[1] He then transferred to Golden West College where he concentrated on academics and received an Associate of Arts in business.^[2][3] Despite offers from Cincinnati, Alabama and others to transfer and sit out a season on their campus, Gottlieb chose to sit out his transfer year at Golden West College. GWC was coached by his former Tustin Coach Tom McCluskey, and Gottlieb took on the role of redshirt player/coach. He practiced witht he team and traveled to road games as the assistant coach. In addition, Gottlieb was a volunteer assistant at his high school under Andy Ground. In one game at Santa Ana Valley, Ground was ejected and Gottlieb coached the team to an overtime loss. Gottlieb was perceived to be waiting on Baron Davis to choose a school, as UCLA and Georgia Tech both expressed that Gottlieb was their second choice to Davis. After Davis chose UCLA, a school in which Gottlieb's family had season tickets to for 20 years and his brother and sister were alums (sister was captain of the cheer squad), Gottlieb looked elsewhere to play college ball. His final schools were Marquette, Georgia Tech, Alabama, Oklahoma State, Utah, Oregon and Tennessee.

In 1998, Gottlieb accepted an offer from Oklahoma State coach Eddie Sutton (under whom Gottlieb's father had once been assistant coach) to attend the university. He immediately took over as point guard for an Oklahoma State team that had gone 17-15 in consecutive years and led the Cowboys to the NCAA tournament. After the season, Gottlieb was an All-Big 12 Honorable Mention and was named the 1998-99 Big 12 Newcomer of the Year. During his second year in Stillwater, Gottlieb was again named All-Big 12 honorable mention and led the nation in assists (8.8 per game), only the second Cowboy to lead the nation in a statistical category. He also started setting Oklahoma State assist records, breaking the school career mark with 500 (after only two seasons) and broke the school record of 22 career double-figure assist games. In a game against Florida Atlantic, Gottlieb set a school record and tied the Big 12 mark with 18 assists, and in the Big 12 tournament, he set the record for assists in a game (14) as well as in tournament play (38). The 1999-2000 season would culminate with another trip to the NCAA tournament. As senior, Gottlieb finished second in the nation in assists with 8.5 per game.^[4] Gottlieb's senior season would end with a third consecutive trip to the NCAA tournament and the team would make it all the way to the Elite Eight.^[5]

He currently holds all of Oklahoma State's assist records and ranks tenth all-time in NCAA career assists with 947.^[6] Gottlieb graduated from Oklahoma State in 2000 with a bachelor's degree in marketing. In addition to being named All Big 12 Team (Honorable Mention or 3rd Team) every year at Oklahoma State, Gottlieb was named the 1999 Big 12 Scholar Athlete Community Service Athlete of the Year. Gottlieb was spent time with a local elementary school every week of his time in Stillwater and used his tickets for underprivileged children.

Professional basketball career[link]

After graduating from college, Gottlieb went undrafted in the NBA draft but was made the No 1 pick of the Oklahoma Storm in the 2000 United States Basketball League Draft.^[7] Gottlieb's season with the Storm would be successful as he led the USBL in assists and helped the Storm to a 2nd place finish in the team's inaugural season (losing to the Dodge City Legend in the USBL Championship Game). Gottlieb then took his basketball career overseas, which included a stop in Israel after signing with Maccabi Ra'anana. Gottlieb played professionally internationally, in France, Russia and Israel.

The Idaho Stampede of the Continental Basketball Association signed him on Nov. 28, 2000, prior to training camp and then released him on Dec. 13, 2000, two days before their opening game.^[8] On Dec. 28, he signed with the Salina Rattlers of the (now defunct) International Basketball Association and played in six games (four starts) before the team released him due to Gottlieb's intent to play overseas. In February 2001, he joined Ural Great Perm of the Russian Basketball Federation and helped the team win the league championship.^[9] Following Ural's season, Gottlieb traveled to Israel and won a Gold Medal as the MVP for the United States team at the Maccabiah Games. In the title game, the US team defeated Israel 82-71.^[10] He then played for the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Summer League and then was invited to return to the Oklahoma Storm. However, he and new coach Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did not see eye-to-eye and he was released before the season began. Following his release, Gottlieb played the 2001-2002 with the Israeli team Maccabi Ra'anana.

Broadcast career[link]

In 2002, Gottlieb co-hosted a midday sports-talk show on an Oklahoma City, OK radio station WWLS 640-AM known locally as "The Sports Animal". Gottlieb was hired by ESPN Radio in September 2003 as co-host of ESPN Radio's GameNight. He would then move to host The Pulse weekday evenings from 8 to 10 Eastern before moving to afternoon drive (4 P.M. to 7 P.M. ET). The hourly opening to his current program, The Doug Gottlieb Show, starts with the question, "Um, It is Doug Gottlieb, right?", a jab at his poor track record of actually hosting his own show. He also serves as a college basketball analyst for ESPN and ESPN2, additionally appearing on ESPNEWS and writing for espn.com. Gottlieb is also a frequent guest on ESPN television shows, including SportsCenter and also on College Basketball Gameday Final.^[11] He occasionally appears on the shows SportsNation (TV series) and Mike and Mike in the Morning as a guest host. he also

Gottlieb and Syracuse University basketball coach, Jim Boeheim have traded barbs since 2005 because of Gottlieb's criticism of what he regards as Syracuse's soft nonconference schedule and Boeheim's comments regarding Gottlieb's difficulties at Notre Dame. Boeheim has discussed their feud publicly.^[12] Along with then-University of Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl, Gottlieb helped coach the United States team at the 2009 Maccabiah Games.

Honors[link]

On June 26, 2011, he was inducted into the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.^[13]

Personal life[link]

Gottlieb met future wife Angie, a native of Drumright, Oklahoma and fellow Oklahoma State alum, while attending Oklahoma State and has been married since August 2000.^[14] The couple have three children.^[15]

See also[link]

• List of NCAA Division I men's basketball career assists leaders
• List of NCAA Division I men's basketball season assists leaders

References[link]

External links[link]

• Doug Gottlieb ESPN Bio
• Statistics at Oklahoma State

Ronald Alan Swoboda (born June 30, 1944) is a former Major League Baseball outfielder best remembered as a member of the Amazin' Mets.

MLB debut[link]

After graduating from Sparrows Point High School, one season at the University of Maryland, and a stellar showing in the AAABA tournament in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Swoboda was offered a $35,000 contract to sign with the New York Mets and scout Pete Gebrian on September 5, 1963.

He spent only one season in the Mets' farm system AA Williamsport, PA before making the team out of Spring training, 1965. He made his major league debut as a pinch hitter in the 1965 season opener, and lined out in his only at-bat.^[1] He pinch hit, again, in the second game of the season, this time, hitting an 11th inning home run (the Mets still lost, as the Houston Astros scored four runs in the top of the inning).^[2] He homered again, in his first at-bat on April 18, giving him two home runs in his first four Major League at bats.

He had 15 home runs by the All-Star break, the most by a Mets rookie ever in the first half, ahead of Benny Agbayani (11; in 1999) and Ike Davis (11; in 2010).^[3] He commented during a TV interview that he loved hitting fastballs. From that point forward, he began seeing a lot more breaking balls, and only hit four more for the rest of the season. Still, his 19 home runs stood as a Mets rookie record until Darryl Strawberry hit 26 in 1983. His fielding percentage his rookie year was a below-league-average .947, however, he had nine outfield assists.

1966–1968[link]

Swoboda wore number 14 as a rookie in 1965. When the Mets acquired third baseman Ken Boyer from the St. Louis Cardinals prior to the start of the 1966 season, they granted him number 14, as he'd worn it in St. Louis. Swoboda wore number 17 briefly during Spring training in 1966, then switched to number 4. His home run drought continued through the 1966 season, when he hit only eight home runs and batted .222, with fifty runs batted in.

During his early years with the Mets, he acquired the nickname "Rocky" as a result of his less-than-reliable fielding. Although he possessed a strong, accurate throwing arm, a fly ball hit in his direction was, by no means, a sure out. After having spent most of his time in left field his first two seasons with the Mets, Swoboda was shifted to first baseman in 1967 to make room for newly acquired Tommy Davis in left. Swoboda's fielding at first was no better, and he was soon shifted to right field. Offensively, he had perhaps his best season, hitting .281 with thirteen home runs and 53 RBIs. He led the Mets with six triples and a career high 59 RBIs in 1968, and also had a career high fourteen outfield assists.

Amazin' Mets[link]

By May 21, 1969, the Mets won their third game in a row for a .500 winning percentage 36 games into the season for the first time in franchise history. This was followed by a five game losing streak that saw the Mets fall into fourth place in the newly aligned National League East.

The Mets then went on an eleven game winning streak that brought them back into second place, seven games back of the Chicago Cubs. On September 10 the Mets swept a double header against the Montreal Expos. Coupled with a loss by the Cubs, the Mets jump into first place for the first time in franchise history. On September 13, Swoboda hit a grand slam against the Pittsburgh Pirates to propel the Mets to a 5–2 victory.^[4] Two days later, the St. Louis Cardinals' Steve Carlton struck out a record nineteen Mets batters in a losing effort, as the Mets defeated the Cards 4–3 at Busch Stadium on a pair of two run home runs by Swoboda.^[5] On September 24, facing Carlton and the Cardinals, again - only this time at Shea Stadium, the New York Mets clinched the NL East as Donn Clendenon hit two home runs in a 6–0 Mets victory.^[6] The Mets won 39 of their last 50 games, and finished the season with 100 wins against 62 losses, eight games over the second place Cubs.

1969 World Series[link]

Swoboda did not appear in the Mets' 1969 National League Championship Series three game sweep of the Atlanta Braves to reach the World Series. The Mets were heavy underdogs heading into the World Series against the Baltimore Orioles. In Game 4, Swoboda, not known for his fielding, made a spectacular catch of a ball hit by Brooks Robinson in the ninth inning to stop an Orioles rally. The Mets won the game 2–1 in ten innings, and subsequently, the World Series. For the World Series, Swoboda batted .400. His only RBI was the game winner of the fifth and final game.^[7]

A photograph of Swoboda, stretched almost horizontally, just inches off the ground, became an iconic image for Mets fans. The Right Field entrance gate of Citi Field, the current ballpark of the Mets, features a metal silhouette of a baseball player making a diving catch similar to the one Swoboda made during the 1969 Series.^[8]

Trades[link]

In March 1971, Swoboda and minor leaguer Rich Hacker were traded to the Montreal Expos in exchange for young outfielder Don Hahn. Three months later, the Expos traded Swoboda to the New York Yankees in exchange for outfielder Ron Woods. He was released by the Yankees at the end of 1973, and signed with the Atlanta Braves during Spring training of 1974. The Braves, however, released him on March 25, 1974, after which Swoboda retired from baseball. He attempted an unsuccessful comeback with the Mets during spring training in 1976.