Coach Bob Hurley: The Sage of St. Anthony

High school basketball is one of the most popular sports in the country, and those who follow it on the national level - particularly college scouts and coaches - are familiar with St. Anthony of Jersey City, N.J. and its coach, Bob Hurley.

Going into this season, St. Anthony had won 23 state championships and three national titles under Hurley, who is one of only three high school coaches ever inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

In nearly 40 years at St. Anthony, Hurley has never earned more than a $9,000 annual stipend, passing up lucrative college jobs to change lives in the inner city and to help save a small struggling Catholic school by putting it on a very big stage.

One night earlier this month, 8,000 people jammed the Rutgers Athletic Center to watch what was technically the North Jersey Non-Public Class B Finals. But the game also happened to be the National High School Championship.

It featured number one ranked St. Patrick of Elizabeth, N.J., with the nation's top prospect Michael Gilchrist. Against one of the most storied programs in America, St. Anthony and its legendary coach, Bob Hurley, ranked number two.

Link: St. Anthony High School

"Hard work" was the mantra as St. Anthony broke the huddle, something they had been doing all year in preparation for this game.

Their practices under Hurley are famous for being among the most intense, grueling workouts in the country - at any level of the game. It's a basketball boot camp unsuited for the uncommitted or the politically correct.

"Go Josh, get him get him. Get candy ass out. Sit down softie," Hurley admonished one player.

It's the only coaching job Hurley has ever had, and lots of things have changed in the 39 years that he's been at St. Anthony. But Hurley is not one of them.

He admitted to correspondent Steve Kroft he's really "old school."

"In this day and age, I'm still one of the most demanding people that the kids are gonna come across," he told Kroft.

But this is not a story about a tyrannical coach who churns out athletes at some high school sports factory: it's about values, loyalty and commitment at a small inner city parochial school that doesn't meet anyone's idea of what a basketball powerhouse should look like.

St. Anthony is in an old brick building with no gym, in a rundown neighborhood not far from the Jersey side of the Hudson River facing New York. There are only 240 students, most of them from families living below the poverty level, who somehow manage to scrape together the $5,000 tuition.

And Sister Felicia, who runs St. Anthony, says the standards are every bit as high as Coach Hurley's.

"For the past 17 years, 100 percent of all of our seniors have been accepted into college. And we're proud of that," she told Kroft.

But all of this has been under threat for some time now: St. Anthony, like many parochial schools, is deeply in debt, and constantly struggling to keep its doors open. It has managed to succeed, so far, for one reason: "I think every school has their own particular talent and ours obviously is basketball," Sister Felicia explained.

And in some ways St. Anthony is the Julliard of high school basketball, a place where the gifted and the promising enroll to learn the finer points of positioning, technique, ball movement and endurance.

Produced by Pete Radovich Jr.They are not there to have fun - they're there to get better and to learn how to win from one of the masters.

"This is your program. There's no mistake about that?" Kroft asked.

"Yeah, I think my fingerprint is on everything that we do. I've had five NBA first round picks, I've had about 150 kids play Division 1 basketball. I think everybody can be better than they think they can be. And I don't let them dictate - I dictate everything," Hurley said.

"You're very tough and very demanding on these kids," Kroft pointed out.

"I'm dealing with adolescent males," Hurley said. "And in order to get them to perform on a regular basis, this group of people, I have to drive them. There's no question I have to drive them. Even the best teams I've had, there has to be times when you know you have to really push the pedal."

And Hurley is something of an expert on adolescent males: for 28 years, his day job was working as a probation officer. He knows the streets of Jersey City and their temptations as well as anyone, and he makes sure his kids stay on the straight and narrow.

Hurley makes the kids sign a contract when they join his program.

"Don't know that it's legally binding, but you know, when I have to mete out justice, it's as far as I'm concerned, it's a legal document. Steve it's up to 19 things now," Hurley explained.

Asked what some of the items on the contract are, Hurley said, "Alcohol, cigarettes, narcotics is one.... Some of them are haircuts, short haircut. No tattoos. Jewelry has to be basic. You know, a ring, a watch."

When Kroft asked if Hurley drug tests his players, the coach said, "I've drug tested entire teams!"

"Do you have rebels? I mean, do you have people rebel against this?" Kroft asked.

"Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's why I think that's why there are hinges on doors. You know? This is not meant for everybody," Hurley said.

It's meant for bright, talented kids who are committed to earning a college scholarship and competing at the next level. Everyone has to try out for the team, and Hurley doesn't do any recruiting. Players or their parents seek him out because of his remarkable record.

When Kroft asked a group of students if they all came to St. Anthony because of Coach Hurley, they all replied, "Yes sir."

Over the years they have come from far and wide to attend St. Anthony.

This year's longest commute belongs to Jimmy Hall, who wakes up every morning at 6 a.m. in Brooklyn and travels by subway, bus and train across New York City and the Hudson River to Jersey City - a commute that can take an hour and a half each way.

His mother Noreen Wiggins, who raised her son in a single parent home, thought St. Anthony was exactly what Jimmy needed.

"It's time for Jimmy to grow up. And Coach Hurley is just a part of the piece that's helping him to mature into a young man," she told Kroft.

Asked if this is the most demanding situation her son has ever been in, Wiggins said, "Yes by all means. It is. It took a little while for him to realize that, 'No, Coach Hurley is not trying to kill you Jimmy. He is really trying to make you the best player you can be.'"

When Kroft asked Jimmy if it's worth it, he replied, "Yeah, it's worth it. Very much so."

Senior guards Miles Mack, Lucius Jones, and junior forward Kyle Anderson all knew exactly what to expect from Hurley.

"He admitted to me today that he loses it every now and then," Kroft said.

"He pretty much puts the fear in your heart, you know. Don't mess up," Anderson said. "But one thing that makes me pretty happy is when we see Mrs. Hurley come in. You know, that's when you realize, 'Okay, practice is comin' to an end. She's coming to save us.'"

Hurley's wife Chris has been St. Anthony's official score keeper for the past 25 years, and knows a lot more about basketball than the average fan.

Together, the couple raised two of St. Anthony's greatest players: Bobby Hurley Jr., who went on to lead Duke to two national championships, and his younger brother Danny, who starred at Seton Hall. Danny Hurley is now the head coach at Wagner College, where Bobby is his chief assistant.

"Did you feel he was harder on you than some of your teammates?" Kroft asked Hurley's sons.

"Yes, and I think almost everyone on my team would say that my dad went out of his way to be harder on me just to kind of send the message that there was no favoritism on the team. So it was real, Dad, you gotta admit," Bobby Hurley Jr. said.

"I think it the treatment I received strengthened the relationship I had with the other players," Danny Hurley said.

"They felt sorry for you?" Kroft asked.

"I don't know. I think they felt sorry for themselves some days too," he replied, laughing.

"Yeah, they weren't alone," Bobby Hurley Jr. added.

"Yeah, I mean, we were all in it together," Danny Hurley said.

"Of all your accomplishments, what are you proudest of?" Kroft asked the coach.

"I've only had two kids in 39 years that have not gone to college. And we're extremely proud of that, because we think that we've opened up doors in kids' lives that they didn't know that they could do. Their families certainly didn't know that they could do it. And it's because of education, it changes the direction of their life," Hurley said.

There were 23 of them playing college basketball this season: five of them in the NCAA tournament for Pittsburgh, Richmond, Villanova, Kansas and USC.

He could have left St. Anthony for the big time long ago - there have been any number of opportunities to coach at the college level. But he has never been that interested in money or glamour and each time decided to stay put in Jersey City.

"You know, some people may say I just wasn't very ambitious. But you know, I think my wife and I found that over the years you just found so many kids that were here that (when they come into school, you saw something in them,) this potential. And you wanted to see it out. And then four years would go by. And then there's another kid in there someplace, freshman, sophomore. And then eight years have gone by. And before long you've been here 20 years. And then people started talking to me about the college level," he told Kroft.

Asked if he regrets that he didn't take any of the college offers, Hurley said, "Absolutely not. I don't think I'm built for that. I think I'm where I'm supposed to be. I think I'm good with this age and I'm good with city kids, because, you know, I was a city kid."

"There are a lot of inducements for people to move on. There's money. There's the challenge of proving yourself at the next level. You weren't interested in either of those things?" Kroft asked.

"No. I always felt it, you know, the challenge here was pretty strong," Hurley said.

Like the small school, with no gym and no money, and trying to raise the bar each year to maintain the level of success.

St. Anthony's financial shortfall is $1.2 million each year and Hurley is the engine that propels the fundraising effort. He hits the speaking circuit, runs all year basketball clinics, with all of the proceeds going to the school.

"He's indispensible and in addition to helping us financially, he's a role model for the kids and a father figure. Because they know that he has stayed in the city, he hasn't left them. Money was not something that attracted him. He was here to help them and kids appreciate that, families appreciate that," Sister Felicia told Kroft.

"Would this school be here right now if it wasn't for Bob Hurley?" Kroft asked.

"Probably not," she replied.

Sister Felicia and the entire school were at Rutgers for the national championship game a few weeks ago, and it did not begin well for St. Anthony. St. Patrick and Michael Gilchrist roasted them in the first half.

But after trailing most of the game, St. Anthony's superior conditioning, poise and coaching, finally turned the tide.

They outscored St. Patrick 23-5 in the final quarter and won in a route. They closed out the season with their 24th state championship and fourth national title.

It was the perfect ending for the season, and for our story. The players' dreams had been realized, and the lessons well learned.

As for Coach Hurley, he's already plotting another championship season.

Sister Felica expects him to be around for another 15 years to coach his 20-month-old grandson Gabe.

In fact, he's already begun.