Featured image (left): At a 2005 gathering, former South Bend Central coach John Wooden (seated, center) is flanked by former players Ed Powell (left) and Jim Powers. Standing are South Bend athletic directors (from left) Teri Woodruff, Pat Mackowiak, John Berta, Nan Tulchinsky and Greg Humnicky.
Featured image (right): Greg Humnicky spent some time in Glendale, Ariz., during Purdue's NCAA Men's Final Four appearance last year.
Editor’s note: Al Lesar covered Notre Dame football and basketball and everything else in Michiana over 32 years with the “South Bend Tribune.” He gave away his snowblower and now lives near Knoxville, Tenn., but keeps his finger on the pulse of what's happening up north.
Every once in a while, Lee Nailon would try to tiptoe out of class – until he saw Greg Humnicky cruising the Clay High School halls.
The big man on the Colonials’ 1993-94 State championship basketball team, who went on to have a six-year NBA career, realized he was busted and went back to where he was supposed to be.
“I got a note from Lee not too long ago, thanking me for keeping him on the straight and narrow,” Humnicky said. “Something like that is special to me.”
Humnicky recalled the hours after the 93-88 overtime state championship win over Valparaiso High School.
“I didn’t get to sleep until about 2:30 the next morning,” Humnicky said. “We had an isolated wing on an upper level of the Adams Mark Hotel in Indianapolis.”
Humnicky and the team’s athletic trainer guarded the elevator, making sure none of the players took their celebration away from the immediate restricted area.
“We had about a half dozen try to leave, but they all stayed,” Humnicky said.
Again, another successful mission of making sure his positive influence made an impact. That influence, which he used over a career of 20 years as a coach and 26 years as an athletic director at Clay, was a big reason why he was honored recently as the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame’s Silver Medal Award winner.
It took all that time behind the scenes for Humnicky to finally find his way into the spotlight.
As a 1964 South Bend Central High School graduate, Humnicky was never a great basketball player. He spent his first two years as a fringe player, then was one of four juniors trimmed from the team early in the season by coach Jim Powers.
“I was disappointed,” he said. “The worst part was that I was late to get a season ticket. If you didn’t have a season ticket, you couldn’t get tickets to tournament games.”
The South Bend Central Bears lost to Muncie Central, 65-61, in the State championship game in 1963.
Out of sight, out of mind, basketball was now on the back burner. Humnicky went to Purdue University with the objective of becoming a social studies teacher.
His first job was at Studebaker Elementary in the 1968-69 school year. An afterthought of coaching the basketball team came along.
“That’s where I caught the coaching bug,” Humnicky said.
That bug became an obsession that captivated him for 20 years. He worked with many of South Bend’s best as freshmen or junior varsity players, preparing them for their time in the limelight.
Humnicky flirted with the opportunity to take over as head coach of a varsity basketball program a couple times, but the right job at the right time never happened.
“I wish I could have gotten my shot as a head coach, just to try it, but I have no regrets,” he said.
In fact, in the 1985-86 school year, Tom Hess left as Clay’s head coach. Humnicky, his top assistant, was in line for the elevation. However, principal Bob Million left, opening the door for Tom DeBaets, an assistant at LaSalle, to replace Hess. Humnicky stayed on DeBaets’ staff until 1988-89, when he went from working for DeBaets to being his boss as athletic director.
“Getting kicked upstairs was the best move I could have made,” Humnicky said. “After 20 years of coaching, I was getting tired. It was time to do something different.”
Humnicky was a solid leader within the South Bend Community School Corp., and also took his influence to the State level, even beyond his retirement as the athletic director in 2008.
He was always a strong supporter of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame. For eight years, the maximum term, he was on its board of directors. He now serves as a director emeritus, and continues to be one of the few voices from the northern part of the state. He works hard to make sure top players from the north get their recognition.
Those contributions were significant in being selected for the award.
“I was truly humbled,” Humnicky said. “I have to be the advocate for the north. I just didn’t expect to be the one getting the award.”