Bob Hurley
Episode 340
4 AUG 2025
In 2010 he was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame — one of only three high school coaches ever to receive that honor. He began coaching at St. Anthony’s High School in Jersey City in 1972 and his teams won 28 state high school championships, had 18 undefeated seasons, won nine consecutive championships, were four-time USA Today national champions, and he was a three-time USA Today National Coach of the Year. He finished with an amazing won-lost record of 1,185 victories and just 125 defeats and produced over 150 players to Division I basketball programs and coached six first-round NBA draft picks. He is the President of the People’s Park Foundation, focused on regulation-sized athletic fields and a true community park for Jersey City, plus, in 2017 he founded the Hurley Family Foundation to continue his mission of developing children’s potential in life through the game of basketball.
Notable guest quotes:
“My parents had us all go to St. Paul’s grammar school, and then we all went to Catholic high school. I think our faith was … with us throughout our years growing up, and it helped us shape who we were.”
“When I was playing in my freshman year at St. Peter’s College, my brother Brian was in the eighth grade, and he asked me if I could go to practices – this was, again, my parish St. Paul’s – if I’d go to practice, because the basketball coach … was a fireman, and he couldn’t always get to the Friday night practices. And even though I was playing in college at the time, I was living at home, commuting to St. Peter’s. So, I’m in the neighborhood, I go to Friday night practices, but I would conduct the practice, I wouldn’t just sit there.”
“At St. Anthony’s, even though I was the varsity coach for 45 years, I was the freshman and J.V. coach for five years before that, so actually when school closed, I had been there for 50 years.”
“I never lost my connection with my parish. And I guess, lateraled my connection with Saint Paul’s parish into what was a daily lifelong attachment to Saint Anthony’s parish downtown, which spawned the high school and which became an alternate family for me.”
“Basketball players, I think, probably had more opportunities because of the tutoring program and things that I made available for as many kids as I could. Ultimately, the kids were following the lead of basketball players, and they were becoming, in a lot of cases, the first family member to attend college. And we tried as we could to send as many kids to Catholic colleges as we were able to.”
“As kids got older, kids, if they just weren’t good enough to get a varsity uniform – because you were only allowed to dress 16 – they became my managers. And they would go on to be student assistants in college. And a couple of those kids actually went to colleges and made the team and played in college.”
“All of a sudden, the job opens, and the job is going to be at Xavier, and it’s the summer of ’86. And now, as we’re looking at this, and we go visit … and my wife and I … they show us places we’re going to live. We love every part of it. And we kind of had a handshake on, we were going to do this. And we got home, and my sons were more prepared for this than any test they ever took or any paper they had to hand in. They had all these questions for us about this transition. And after we went through all the questions, I had to call the next day, and said, ‘This is not happening. My kids, they love every part of, they were going to Our Lady of Mercy Grammar School. They both wanted to go and play at St. Anthony’s. They had met so many friends from the different, big CYO program at the time here in Jersey City’.”
“We look back; we were blessed. Every decision we made about family, it was always in what’s the best interest for our children.”
“Over the years you would always say, it’s, yes, the basketball is part of who you are. But your life on a campus with the values and the religious instruction and just the tradition is going to be something that’s going to become part of you.”
“All the little Catholic schools were closing, and we weren’t happy with what was going on with grammar school kids in public schools, there wasn’t any after school programs. The kids were going home, and they were either out on the street, which wasn’t good, or they were shut-ins, which is only a little bit better. So, we opened up the gym and … indicated anybody wants come down to the gym, we’ll open the gym five days a week… and we’ll teach you how to play… we won’t charge you.”
“Even during my time coaching, I’d go to four o’clock (Mass) in the afternoon or if I had to do something on Saturday, eight o’clock in the morning on Sunday and then I’d go to practice.”
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