By Charlie Leffler
There was an evident look of sadness in his eyes as Louisville head basketball coach Rick Pitino walked into the room. He appeared to have the weight of the world on his shoulders. Or maybe it was just the weight of the World Trade Center.
On September 11, 2001, the Pitino family was struck by disaster as Joanne Pitino’s brother and Rick’s best friend, William Minardi lost his life in the terrorist attacks in New York City. Minardi worked for Cantor-Fitzgerald on the 105th floor of the North tower of the WTC. It was the first building struck by the terrorist attacks. Of the 800 employees on the job that fateful day, only one was reported to have escaped.
Now, a little over two weeks later, the coach is trying to get his mind away from the torment that his family had endured. “A week ago I didn’t know where my life was going,” Pitino said. “You didn’t know what to do, where to go. As the man of the family, me and my brother-in-law Jimmy were supposed to be strong. We got most of our strength from my brother-in-law (Billy’s) wife Stephanie, who’s considerably younger than us.” Stephanie had reassured Pitino by telling him that Billy was so happy that the coach was back in Kentucky and college basketball. “We’re just going to dedicate the season to him.”
The relationship between Minardi and Pitino had been a long and fruitful one that dates back to high school. The two young men came upon each other shortly after Rick had met Joanne. “I met Billy a few days later,” Pitino said. “He was going to the same high school I was attending. It was a good reason to marry Joanne. I was sixteen and I think Billy was going into his freshman year. He went to every high school game and he was my biggest supporter. And from that point on, from Billy being in high school to this very day we’ve been bestfriends. Since Billy was thirteen, he made every high school game, every NCAA game, every important college basketball game that I coached. Every family outing, every golfing trip, we’d spoken every day for thirty-three years.”
Through the pain that he is feeling, when Pitino speaks of Minardi the sadness if briefly lifted. It becomes evident that the light of Billy’s life still shines on through the coach’s eyes. Yet, with every warm thought Pitino’s mind eventually goes back to that tragic day and the weeks that followed. He explained that the extensive media coveragewas torture to him. “It was painful watching those planes over and over and over,” Pitino said. “And I was counting the floors. The swing of emotions because… I knew Billy was high. So, I’m counting the floors. I got a call from Brent Rice (Pitino’s attorney) and he said, ÔI remember Billy saying that he moved down because he moved from bonds to stocks. I think he’s in the thirties.’Immediately I called my son Michael and he said, 105th. I said Ôare you sure?’and he said yes.”
Rick and Joanne were so distraught that they drove to New York to gather more information. “Two days go by and they had this thing, it was called New York.com, about the conditions of the people,” Pitino said. Searching the web site they discovered the name of another missing friend. But their hopes onlyturned to despair as the account turned out to be false. Still, they did not give up.
“A day went by, and the next day we woke up at 10:41,” Pitino said. “We kept searching the computer and Billy’s name came up in the computer, Ôcritical’. And immediately we got our jackets and rushed into car, we were so excited.” But a friend tried to stop him from going. “He said, Ôdon’t go. Babe Ruth is on this computer, you don’t know. It’s not a valid list.’ But I said they wouldn’t list him as critical. There’s no way. They couldn’t say critical. It couldn’t be a mistake there, so, I said I’m going anyway. Then we checked it out throughCantor-Fitzgerald and found it wasn’t true. The swing of emotions has just been unreal. Thinking that you had a hope and a prayer. Waiting for oneCantor-Fitzgerald person to get down…”
Now Pitino searches for a way to ease the painful loss. He plans to do this through basketball. “What I have to do personally is just immerse myself into it day and night, just so I don’t think as much.” Pitino said that he wants to work so hard that he simply passes out at night. “No matter how spiritual you are, and how deep your faith is, nothing gets you over this but time,” said Pitino. “Not only did we have to lose someone so close to us, but we had to watch it over and over again. And then we had to watch so many other families suffer who we knew.”
Even though Pitino wants to make the past three weeks go away, he still retains thirty-three years of loving anecdotes to fall back on. He recalled one such story form when the pair were new to the state. “When we first came to Kentucky, we couldn’t understand the people,” Pitino said that their misunderstanding had nothing to do with the local accent. “I was playing golf with Larry Ivy and a bunch of people in a tournament. Nobody knew anybody’s name. Everything was,Ôhey podge, hey podge, hey podge.’ And Willy said to me, Ôdoesn’t that seem strange, nobody calls anybody by their names. What do you think this name Ôpodge’ means?’ I said ÔI have no idea. I think it’s a term of endearment.'”
Pitino said a friend explained that podge meant that the person was your friend.”I told Willy that. So, the next two days of the tournament we just laughed and called each other podge. The funny part about the story is that for the next four years of my life, I was never called Rick again. He would call me five thirty in the morning, late at night, Ôhey podge.’ And I called him Willy but he never called me Rick again.” Pitino said that Minardi so loved the term that he named their dog, podge as well.
“We try to laugh about Billy because he was such a funny person,” Pitino said. “He was my biggest supporter in life. There were no secrets in our life. We knew everything about each other. We knew our shortcomings. We knew our strengths. Any funny story that we encountered that day we’d get on the phone to tell each other.”
Through it all, Pitino is glad that he is back in Kentucky. The coach received over 400 cards from people around the state, but he was especially moved by the actions of one of his players. “Haj Turner sent the most beautiful card Fed Ex-ed to my wife and me in New York,” Pitino said. “He took the time to get the address, get the card, write a beautiful note. He went further, he did the same thing for Stephanie, he found her address, wrote the most beautiful note… so well written. I guess it stuck out, his wording, his feeling, very surprising for a college student athlete.”
For now many of Pitino’s memories are bittersweet. Each warm recollection only reminds him of how much Billy will be missed. “I cry almost every night thinking about this,” he said. “As you all know with your spouses you have arguments from time to time. I never had an argument with Billy in thirty-three years. I never had a disagreement for thirty-three years. That’s the most unusual thing about our relationship.”
“I think I see him in every person,” Pitino said. “I think whenever I see any of my close friends… whenever I look at my wife, I see Billy. I think in time what happens to you… what I’m hoping happens… Like Jim Valvano said in that great speech on ESPN. ÔYou’ve always got to take time to cry, to laugh, to think.’ And that’s what we have to do. We’re going to cry every night before we go to sleep about Billy. But I think the tears will turn to laughter. I think Iwas given a great gift that I got to spend so much time with him for thirty-three years.”
