Sunday Conversation: Larry Lucero talks basketball

Editor's Note: Where were you in '62? Larry Lucero was at Great Falls High, helping the Bison win the state basketball championship. He went on to play at Montana State and then returned to his hometown to begin a long and illustrious basketball coaching career. Larry is one of the few men to have coached Class AA boys' and girls' state championship teams. He spent four years with the CMR girls, with a record of 57-29, then coached the Great Falls High boys for 13 seasons, a run that produced two state titles, 11 state tourney appearances and a record of 167-132. His love of the game was evident a few years ago when he coached the Choteau boys for three years, which meant a 55-mile daily commute, and took them to the State B tourney two years ago. Larry, 70, looked back on his career with Scott Mansch this week for our Sunday Conversation.

Question: I was thinking about you when Choteau won the state championship a few weeks ago. That had to be special for you because I know you coached those boys.

Answer: That's a really great bunch of kids. Besides good basketball players. Just real good kids.

Q: Are you doing well these days?

A: Oh yes. I feel great. I have a partner and we have a few rental houses that I work on. I'm keeping busy, for sure.

Q: You not only knew those Choteau boys so well, but it had to be special for you because Collin Achenbach was on that team. And his mother, Patty, helped your CMR girls win a state title back in 1986.

A: (laughs) That was interestling. That team in '86 was a lot of fun. It was one of those things where we weren't favored, but boy the kids played well. They got better all the time.

Q: Not very many folks have won AA championships with both boys' and girls' teams.

A: I was fortunate. I got the chance to coach over at CMR, and it was a great bunch of kids. I was lucky I got that job and it was a lot of fun, for sure.

Q: What made you such a successful coach, Larry?

A: First of all, I was lucky to have a lot of good kids. And I had some real great administrators. In high school coaching you sure need backing from the administration, and Carol Johnson, Jim Grant and Gary Davis, they were all tremendously supportive through the highs and lows. And that's a pretty big deal.

Q: Well, there were highs and lows, right Larry? It wasn't always a smooth ride, correct?

A: No. (laughs) That's for sure. I think there are always questions. Are you doing the right thing? But you have to have a pretty solid basis and foundation of what you're doing. I think you just have to be patient and hope the kids get better. And then when the best kids come along you do your best.

Q: Who did you learn the most from?

A: I had a great high school coach in Ray Dodds. And then Don Cramer, when I helped him (with the women's program) at the College of Great Falls. I really learned a lot. I think that was the most enjoyable time I had in my life, those six years up there.

Q: Let's talk about when you grew up, Coach. Where was that?

A: Right here. I grew up in Black Eagle and went to West Junior High and Great Falls High.

Q: Played on good basketball teams, too, didn't you?

A: We won the state championship when I was a senior. That's the first time we'd won since 1944. And of course there was only one high school then and the town support was amazing. I'll never forget that parade we had coming into town (from Butte) that next morning. The cars were lined all the way past Gore Hill. That was pretty exciting.

Q: Who else was on that team?

A: We had a great bunch. Darrell Furan, he's still around. Bob Willett, who was a good friend of mine, he was a pilot and was lost in Vietnam. He was the center. Walt Jensen, Don Knutson. Tom Storm was a junior that year. Jim Tuss was also a junior on that team. Of course he went on to become a real successful football coach at Helena Capital. It was a talented bunch of kids.

Q: Some of your buddies are gone, though (Willett, Knutson, Tuss). I'm sorry about that.

A: Yes. A lot of kids stayed around Great Falls in those days and you got to know them pretty well. (pauses) But then pretty soon, things changed.

Q: Who did you guys beat for the title?

A: We beat Missoula Sentinel (then the only high school there). How about that? Mike Lewis and the gang. They were considered one of the greatest high school teams of all-time, coached by Lou Rocheleau. We were definitely the underdogs. But we beat them.

Q: So Willett went up against Lewis? He was huge, right? (Lewis was 6-8 and went on to play at Duke and then in the NBA).

A: He played big, that's for sure. Nimble and quick. He was an outstanding player. I think Lewis and Wayne Estes were the two best in the state at that time.

Q: Bob Willett really had some guts?

A: Yes he did. He was one of those guys, and we had an amazing class, but he was kind of like Terry Casey (the hockey legend). He was another friend. Those guys were just winners. They were competitors. And we had a bunch of kids like that.

Q: And Bob was lost in the Vietnam War? Boy, in those days you guys had to grow up quick, didn't you?

A: Oh yes. I remember we had a going-away party for Bob. We called him Vince. It was the night before he left and we had a lot of buddies, wondering if we should (enlist) or not. It wasn't easy.

Q: Then you played basketball on a scholarship at Montana State, right?

A: Yes. I was on the team. (laughs) I was lucky. When I coached I'd always remind the kids that to be part of a team is a pretty big deal, even if you don't get to play a lot. I liked it. And I became good friends with some of those guys. Kermit Young (Bobcat star from Fairfield) and I are still buddies and we still communicate.

Q: Did you always want to come back home to Great Falls to live?

A: Well, it's interesting. My wife (Peggy Urbanitch) and I were married and we had a chance to go to Bozeman (to teach). It was a tossup. And I remember the (Great Falls) superintendent calling me (laughing), and it was during finals. Peg answers and she says, I think he's over studying with some friends (laughs). We actually had a poker game going. But he called and said they had openings, and we decided 'Let's go back to Great Falls.' It was the right move. It was the best place academically and athletically.

Q: And it was home.

A: Yes. It still is.

Q: Do you started coaching right away?

A: Yes. I was sophomore coach for Ray Dodds in 1966. I coached, someplace, from that time on until I quit at Great Falls High (2003). And then I want to Choteau (2010).

Q: What is you've always loved about basketball?

A: It's just a great game. I've always liked it. I loved playing the game. The hardest part, I suppose of all sports, is being a parent.

Q: How did you become the CMR girls' coach?

A: Well, I'd been an assistant for years (with the Bison boys), for Dodds and then Gene Espeland. When Espeland quit, Gary Turcott got the job. Don Cramer and I both applied for it and then lo and behold Cramer gets the job at the College of Great Falls. He called and asked if I'd be an assistant and I didn't even hesitate. I said 'you bet.' And (six years later) then I went to CMR.

Q: Were there any hard feelings with the GFH administration? Was it difficult to come back and take the Bison boys' job in 1990?

A: No, it was not difficult at all. Very easy. I knew a lot of the faculty. I wanted to give the boys a shot.

Q: You led the Bison boys to two straight state titles, including a 23-0 season in 1994-95. That was the great Mike Warhank and the gang. What do you remember most about those days?

A: Wow. I remember how good they were. My son, Beez, and I talk about this once in awhile. In those days we never had the great basketball player being recruited by the D-1s. Even Mike Warhank. He had to gray-shirt (for the Montana Grizzlies) before they were finally convinced how good he was. I can remember talking to coaches and saying, 'Hey, this kid is a basketball player.' Maybe not the greatest athlete as far as running, jumping and dunking, he was something. We had a lot of good basketball players who were very coachable.

Q: What else?

A: Well, I remember coaching Tim Furan. His dad (Darrell) and I were teammates on a state championship team and then along comes his son, and he's on our state championship team. Tim, I think, was our most valuable player in the state championship game. Boy he had a good game. He didn't start, a senior who didn't start. But he hung in there, played hard and was a great teammate. He really helped us. That was fun.

Q: Of course Dallas Neil (who went on to play football for the Grizzlies) was another great player that I remember.

A: I think Dallas, in our system, was the prototypical 4 (power forward). Oh, he was a great rebounder. He took only shots that he made, and a great competitor. I remember him playing against defense against Ryan Leaf (the fantastic CMR all-around athlete) and Dallas, boy, he couldn't wait to play defense against Ryan. Just a competitor.

Q: Another of your players, Jeremy Smith, was no slouch either. I'm wondering if old Jeremy (who is now a basketball official) had much to say to the referees back then?

A: (laughs) Not much, no. When I was still coaching he'd referee some of our games. That was pretty fun.

Q: Is there one game when you were coaching that stands out in your memory?

A: Well, we had a lot of them. But when we played Helena Capital in the state tournament the year we were undefeated. It was like triple overtime. I don't know. That was one of those games where you thought we had it won, then we didn't have a chance, then we had it won again. And we were undefeated and had played them twice before. Things went right for us at the right time, and I like to think that the kids had practiced these things so much helped us play at the end. Our kids were great kids and very coachable.

Q: Your son, Beez, was a sophomore on that great team. He was a fine player, too, and it had to be special coaching your own son, right?

A: Oh, it was great.

Q: How about that 1986 girls' championship season at CMR? What stands out?

A: That first game of the state tournament we had to play Kalispell up there in their own gym. Then we played Butte, and they were ranked No. 2, and finally we played Missoula Sentinel (with superstar Karen Deden) and they were ranked No. 1. It was a good run for us.

Q: You mentioned Wayne Estes earlier, Coach. Did you play against that great athlete from Anaconda?

A: Yes. He was a year ahead of me. Oh, he was awesome. And here's Bob Willett, he'd guarded Mike Lewis and Estes. That Estes would dominate games. He had every shot, the softest touch you ever saw. It was just amazing.

Q: Did you ever guard Estes?

A: No, no, no (laughs). But he was really a good guy. I remember we played them at Montana State a week or two before he was killed, and after the game Wayne came up to said 'Hey Larry, how are you doing?' And my jaw just dropped. I thought, man, Wayne Estes remembers me and is actually talking to me. And then a little later he was gone. It was just tragic.

Q: That era of Great Falls basketball that you were a part of, with Tom Storm and Jack Gillespie, had to be about the greatest ever in own town.

A: We had some pretty good kids.

Q: It's hard to imagine the old Great Falls High gym completely full with fans. But it was in those days, right?

A: It seemed like it. I had some friends, like Pete Gilligan, who had graduated. But he'd come and watch me play, along with the Zadicks. It was standing room only (laughs). They had to use those big bullhorns because you couldn't hear the buzzer. It got so loud in there.

Q: Hot in there?

A: Oh man. Yes. And now I think about those referees, with the people right next to them. It had to be a hard place to referee (laughs).

Q: I'm sure when you look back on your career, there's a lot of satisfaction.

A: It was a great experience. And I was lucky. No matter what, you need some breaks along the way and boy, I was lucky with great kids.

Q: I guess you can count this Choteau boys' championship as a great memory, too. Isn't that right?

A: Well, they did it on their own. I feel lucky I had a chance to work with them.

Q: It has to make you feel good to know that you brought so much excitement and satisfaction to the basketball fans in your hometown, is that fair to say?

A: Yes. I always tried to help the kids get better. Obviously you don't win a championship every year. But I liked to think that by the end of the year we'd improved. And you were successful if you beat the teams you should beat, and you sometimes beat the teams you shouldn't. That was always the way I coached.

Q: You'll never move away from Great Falls, will you?

A: No. I wouldn't mind going down south, but my grandkids are here (laughs). No way my wife is leaving.

Q: You mentioned Pete Gilligan earlier. He was about one of the nicest guys ever in our town, wasn't he?

A: He sure was. We were partners for well over 25 years. He was a great guy.

Q: Thanks for sharing some memories, Larry.

A: You bet. Thank you, Scott.

Scott Mansch is Tribune Sports Columnist and has covered prep, college and pro sports for nearly 30 years in Great Falls. He covered many Lucero-coached teams, both girls and boys, over the years and can be reached at 791-1481 or smansch@greatfallstribune. Follow him on Twitter @GFTrib_SMansch