JNews: Leary, Tim [MC1968] inducted into NY Basketball HOF

http://www.fiveborosports.com/ssp/news?news_id=2128

SFP’s Leary inducted into NY Basketball Hall of Fame

St. Francis Prep coach Tim Leary has won 566 game in his 39 years at the Fresh Meadows, Queens school. Photo by Damion Reid

By Joseph Staszewski March 30, 2009

GLENS FALLS, N.Y. – One of the rewarding parts of coaching for Tim Leary is the thanks he receives from former players.

“Those are the kinds of things you’re going to get,” Leary said. “You’re not going to make a million dollars teaching and coaching.”

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Leary played at St. Francis Prep with Kent, Bob Leckie, the former St. Peter’s College and Bishop Loughlin coach, and former St. John’s University star Sonny Dove, under legendary coach Chick Keegan. He then played both basketball and baseball at Manhattan College.

“He played the game very smart,” said Kent, who nominated Leary for the Hall of Fame honor. “He played the game like a coach. He had a good feel for the game.”

After graduation, he passed the NYPD test and planned on becoming a cop like many of the members of his family, but was not called right away. He was planning on getting married to his now-wife Claudia and took a teaching and coaching job at St. Augustine HS in Brooklyn. In the spring of 1968, Leary became the varsity baseball coach at St. Francis Prep, when it was still on North 6th Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and eventually began teaching in the New York City public schools. He has recently retired. From there, he became the JV basketball coach at St. Francis Prep under Jack Prenderville and soon after took the head job.

“Even at the time that I started I thought I only was going be temporary,” Leary said.

He still considered the police force an option.

“Once I got into it,” he said. “I enjoyed it and kind of stuck with it and that was 40 years ago and it’s been a lot of fun.”

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Leary, Tim [MC1968]