A LITTLE GIRL'S IDOL

February 25, 2006


When Maggie Dixon was just five years old, a few hours every Saturday were spent at the local pizza place watching TCU basketball games. The pizza was good, but the real draw was the Horned Frogs’ 6-foot-4 guard, Jamie Dixon.

For Maggie it was simple -- she wanted to grow up and be just like her big brother.

No one could have known then what a tough act that would be to follow, but just over twenty years later the two share the same stage.

Jamie is in the midst of another very successful season at the University of Pittsburgh, while Maggie turned in a pretty good debut season, leading the Army women’s basketball program to a Patriot League regular season championship. It’s first time that either the Army women or men’s basketball program has won a Patriot League crown.

And that is fitting because when Maggie was named the head coach last fall, it marked the first time that a brother and sister were division I head coaches at the same time.

“We always use to joke about the fact that she would get a head coaching position before me,” says Jamie Dixon. “I always knew she would get there and I knew she would be very successful.”

For a time it appeared that sister would be beat brother in the race to join the head coaching ranks. She was on the fast track. In five short years as an assistant coach at DePaul, Maggie quickly gained a reputation a one of the bright young stars in women’s coaching.

And that doesn’t surprise anyone that has followed her career.

“One of the things that has always impressed me is her way of dealing with people,” says Jamie of his sister. “I remember being at a clinic, talking with Maggie, Bill Raftery, John Calipari and Ben Howland. I had to step away and when I came back there was Maggie holding court with those guys. She has a great personality and when she makes up her mind to do something, it gets done.”

It’s a trait that both brother and sister admit to inheriting from their father.

Without it their story could never have been told.


CAREER CHANGE

After graduating from TCU Jamie Dixon went to play professionally in New Zealand. A poster boy for the self-made player, Dixon was all about basketball. Back home in San Diego, Maggie was following in the same footsteps. And like a good coach does, she was attentive to every detail.

“Those times when he came home to visit were when I first realized what it would take to be successful,” says Maggie. “He would take me down to Venice Beach. He would play and I would just shoot on the side, but I loved watching him play. Here was this scrawny kid who was just dominating. That’s when I first understood how hard work could really make the difference. Jamie always worked so hard.”

Big brother was relentless, almost to a fault. That proved to be contagious, but it almost proved to be deadly.

“On Christmas Day (1988) we got a call from Holland,” says Maggie. “Jamie took a charge and ruptured his pancreas. It was very scary.”

Scarier was the fact that Jamie continued to play, thinking it was nothing more than a bruise. Later that night he became violently ill. After several operations the road to recovery finally began.

But due to the severe nature of his condition, he was unable to fly. It would take three months of lying in a hospital bed in Holland and nearly 50 days with nothing more than intravenous nourishment until he was finally fit to return home.

That gave him plenty of time to reflect on what could have been and what would be next.

“I wasn’t ready to walk away from basketball,” he says. “I spent some time coaching high school kids while I was playing in New Zealand. I couldn’t play any more so coaching seemed like the next step.”

Dixon set a goal to be back home for the Final Four so he could find a job. Fifty pounds lighter in stature, but not in determination, Dixon landed his first coaching job at Los Angeles Valley Junior College. A year later he would join Jerry Pimm’s staff at the University of Cal Santa Barbara where he would meet another young coach by the name of Ben Howland.

At the same time that he was getting his feet firmly planted in the coaching profession, Jamie began helping Maggie on her future path, which would eventually lead to a basketball scholarship to the University of San Diego.

“He stayed with us for four months, when returned from Holland,” Maggie says. “It was during that time that time that he told me that if I wanted to pursue basketball I had to put all my focus on that. I was involved in volleyball, basketball and other sports at that time, but he told me that I needed to focus on just basketball. I learned that it would take a lot of hard work and a lot of focus.

And that is not all that she leaned.

“We became a lot closer when he returned home,” says Maggie. “You realize just how quickly things can be taken away from you. I love my brother.”


A REAL CHRISTMAS GIFT

With a little coaching from Jamie and a little more natural talent then big brother, Maggie was becoming a very good player. She spent the summer months continuing to work on her game. And every chance she got she would go to visit with her brother. Those trips quickly became more then just social visits.

“She would come to camp to help out,” says Jamie. “Before you knew it, she was running the camp. It was interesting for me, during that time, to find out just how similar her and I were. I can’t say that I knew then that she would one day get into coaching, but looking back it’s clear she was on her way to great things.”

Maggie went on to have a nice career at San Diego. She was named most improved player, following her junior year and was named team captain as a senior. The summer months were once again spent improving her game, this time playing with a local pro-am team, coached by former Los Angeles Lakers star and future WNBA coach, Michael Cooper.

Keeping in step with her brother, the plan was to step off the college hardwood and into the professional ranks. She tried out for Cooper’s L.A. Sparks.

And was cut.

“We spent a lot of time talking about her being cut,” says Jamie. “That was not easy for her, but I give her so much credit because she didn’t sit around and cry about it. She did something about it.”

Just two days after realizing her dream of playing professional basketball was not to be, she showed up on the campus of DePaul University. She walked and said, “My name is Maggie Dixon will you hire me?”

“That’s basically how it happened,” she laughed. “It was a dramatic move from San Diego to Chicago, but Jamie told me that if I wanted it, I had to take the chance.”

And just like that she was hired in May of 2000.

After spending one season as the director of basketball operations on Doug Bruno’s staff, she was elevated to assistant coach in the summer of 2001. A year later she was promoted to recruiting coordinator and the next year she became Bruno’s top assistant.

Three promotions in as many years -- Maggie Dixon had arrived.

While she was helping to bring a top ten recruiting class to DePaul, Jamie was just finishing up his first season as a head coach.

And what a debut it was.

The Panthers posted a school-record 31-5 mark, which included the Big East regular season championship, a sport in the conference tournament championship game and a trip to the “Sweet Sixteen.”

Not bad considering that he took over a program that was minus three starters from a team that advanced to the “Sweet Sixteen” the previous season.

His accomplishments made him the first rookie head coach in league history to be guide his team to the conference tournament championship game and also be named Big East Coach of the Year. He also won the first eighteen games of his coaching career, a mark that ranks third in NCAA Division I history for most wins to begin a coaching career.

Jamie Dixon had arrived.

But not lost in all their success was the path that got them there. It seems like only yesterday that a sister wondered if her brother was going to live, let alone pursue a career in coaching.

Looking back now, given the timing, it almost seems like a gift.

“We’ve talked about the fact that it happened at Christmas,” says Maggie of her brother’s near-death injury. “That changed everything. Not only did he go on to a career in coaching, but it also brought him home to us. Who knows how things would have turned out?”


IT’S NOT ABOUT THE NUMBERS

Perhaps it’s a new appreciation of things or maybe it’s just the bond between brother and sister. Likely it’s a combination of the two that finds them talking on the phone to one another almost every day.

But that is nothing new for Jamie and Maggie. The only difference is where they both are these days, a long ways from player and spectator at Venice Beach. Aside from that, nothing has changed. They have it all in perspective.

“He’s funny he will call me literally right before a game,” laughs Maggie. “I will ask him, ‘don’t you play in a little while?’ He’ll say yes, but I didn’t get a chance to call you last night after your win. He is getting ready for a big game and he is more concerned about how my team did last night. He is so relaxed.”

It should come as no surprise that Jamie played a significant role in helping his sister, when it was announced that there was a coaching vacancy at West Point. Being well familiar with the process, he was able to help her think through and consider every little detail.

Not strategy or personnel, just plain, simple good advice. And for as far back as Maggie can remember, that’s how it’s always been.

“He was a huge influence on me, not only with basketball, but with life in general,” she says. “We never sat at the kitchen table and talked about zone defense or a flex offense. It’s always been about life, attention to detail and things of that nature. Besides I don’t really think he needs much advice on strategy from his little sister.”

Perhaps not, but the older Dixon has learned plenty from the younger Dixon.

“She has a lot of courage,” he says. “It takes a lot to walk into an office at DePaul or take the Army job just before the start of practice. Those were not easy things to do, but once she decided to do them, there was no convincing her otherwise. I really admire her courage and her great ability to relate to people.”

As they say, apples don’t fall far from the tree. You would be hard pressed to find someone in the coaching fraternity that has anything but high praise for Jamie Dixon the coach and Jamie Dixon the person. And that is what Maggie has had as a role model.

She still takes advantage of every opportunity she has to spend time with him and -- even now -- she is still in awe of what her big brother has become. The little girl with the idol is still there.

“It has been great to see how much his players respect him and how much they want to play for him,” she says. “Many coaches profess to being a player’s coach, but that should only be determined by the players. After they beat Rutgers earlier this season, so many parents came up to me to say what a great man he was and how he had done so much for their son. I can’t tell you how great that is to hear.”

What’s really great isn’t the fact that Maggie’s team is Patriot League champions or that Jamie is finalist for national coach of the year honors (Jim Phelan Award). Nor is it vitally important that they are the first brother-and-sister duo to be coaching programs together at the DI level.

The numbers and the accolades are nice, but it’s the mutual admiration and respect that is the real story. In a profession being ever more consumed by self-promoters and personal agendas, it is refreshing to know Jamie and Maggie Dixon are the future of their respective games.