DON’T CALL
ME COACH -- A Lesson Plan for Life
BY PHIL MARTELLI
with Harold Gullan, Ph.D.
At last, those of us not lucky enough to hear Phil
Martelli in person can now draw inspiration from his book.
Don’t Call Me Coach presents him at his compelling and
captivating best, as he finally puts into print the mantra
of his memorable speeches. In fact one of America’s most
colorful, outspoken, and successful coaches, Martelli
compresses his three decades of experience into a
ten-point “lesson plan for life” that will benefit anyone,
no matter what the challenges may be.
“We are all coaches,” he insists, and each of us
represents a book of unique experiences others can learn
from. We are defined not by what we do, but by who we are.
Yet we should not take ourselves seriously, but, rather,
what we do. And so, even though he was named college
basketball’s Coach of the Year in 2004, this
quintessentially regular Philly guy prefers not to be
addressed as Coach Martelli. “If you will, just call me
Phil. . . . This book is my conversation with you.”
This unpretentious tone pervades Don’t Call Me Coach––as
distinctively different from most life-lessons books as
Phil Martelli’s spontaneous HawkTalk is from other
coaches’ tightly scripted TV shows. Martelli’s experiences
within his own extended family—often funny, sometimes
poignant, and always instructive—form a warmly personal
background to everything he spells out in his book. Having
turned down far more lucrative offers to coach at
mega-universities, Martelli enters another new season at
the helm of the storied men’s basketball program at
Philadelphia’s Saint Joseph’s University. As he puts it,
“You have to know where your heart is.”
These expressions of his heart and mind will resonate in
yours, no matter where you went to school, and whether
you’re an avid sports fan or not. As Phil concludes, “The
Hawk will never die!” is more than the slogan of one
specific university. It represents the will to excel, to
never give in—an approach to life we can all share.
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Phil Martelli, a graduate of St. Joseph’s Prep and Widener
University, has been head men’s basketball coach at
Philadelphia’s Saint Joseph’s University since 1995.
Acclaimed as Division I consensus coach of the year after
his team’s 2003-04 season, Martelli is one of the nation’s
most visible, colorful, and outspoken sports figures and
is the recipient of two honorary doctorates. He lives with
his wife, Judy, in Media, Pennsylvania. They have three
children: Phil Jr. and Jimmy, both of whom are college
basketball coaches, and Elizabeth, now in her junior year
at Saint Joseph’s.
Harold Gullan, Ph.D., a noted historian and sports fan, is
also the author of The Upset That Wasn’t, Faith of Our
Mothers, First Fathers, and Jumping Through Hoops. Gullan
lives with his wife, Elizabeth, in Philadelphia.
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©2007 Phil Martelli and CollegeInsider.com.
All Rights Reserved.
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