Appreciation: Professorial Tex Winter provided Long Beach State basketball with instant credibility long before he changed the sport forever

Jerry Tarkanian carried a towel with him at games, and it became as ubiquitous to his persona as his deep set eyes. Chewing it was stress relief for the basketball coach who in his five seasons bought Long Beach State its first national attention.

Conversely, Tex Winter was often seen with a small book under his arm during his five seasons as Long Beach State’s head coach. Sometimes he had it with him at practice. More often than not, it sat on his desk. Little did anyone know at the time that the book which Winter wrote and kept nearby was the Manhattan Project for the NBA’s future.

Imagine Craig Dykema, Francois Wise and Craig Hodges, all standouts during Winter’s era, thinking back to those days on the bench next to the professorial-looking coach Winter, likely never once thinking that he was the coach whose blueprints in that book who helped made Michael Jordan, Phil Jackson and Kobe Bryant legends.

It’s quite an achievement that Long Beach, which hasn’t won a NCAA tournament game since 1973, has two coaches in the basketball Hall of Fame. Winter’s second team was ranked 15th in the nation one week by the AP poll. The school has had one AP poll appearance since.

Winter passed away this week at the age of 96, and most of the hosannas are about his days in the NBA, and how his “The Triple-Post Offense’’ book – the one he wrote in 1962 and carried with him – became the Triangle Offense.

But his stay at Long Beach was hardly a pit stop. His coaching career began before Long Beach State opened. He was an icon at Kansas State, where he coached the team to eight Big 8 titles and six trips to the NCAA tourney, including the Final Four twice.

He built a 49er team that won its first eight games in 1978-79, including wins over Texas, Cincinnati, Oklahoma State, Wichita State, Kansas State and Chicago Loyola. His first season also featured games against Duke, North Carolina State and Marquette, and Michigan State, Illinois, BYU, Auburn, Texas Tech, Minnesota and Mississippi would become regular opponents.

His second team went 22-12 and qualified for the NIT, where it won its first game – the only NIT win in school history. In his third season, his 49ers upset Tarkanian’s UNLV, 104-77.

There are no stories about how the 49ers ran the triangle under Winter, partly because he didn’t always have the right combination of players. No big man per se as the fulcrum.

“He used it and loved it and was proud of it,’’ said former Press-Telegram Executive Sports Editor Jim McCormack, who covered the first two years of Winter’s stay. “But he was a genius beyond the comprehension of a typical college athlete. It was hard for him to transcend his wisdom to his players.’’

McCormack did recall a game against BYU in 1979 when Winter opted to pull four 49ers to one side of the court and forced Danny Ainge to cover Craig Hodges by himself, “and Tex just let Craig rip away. I think if we had known what we had, we would have enjoyed it more.’’

Hodges personified the players Winter recruited to Long Beach. Winter had just finished his last season as coach at Northwestern – the smart kids didn’t understand his offense, either – and pulled the Chicago native Hodges aside after a high school game and asked him to come to Long Beach. He promised Hodges two thing – if he came to Long Beach, he’d leave with a degree and he’d get him a chance to play professionally. He made that promise to everyone.

He inherited Michael Wiley and Francois Wise, then added Kevin Tye, Craig Dykema, Dino Gregory, Joedy Gardner and Michael Zeno. Here’s a statistical mindbender to underscore Winter’s contributions. There were 13 49ers drafted from Tarkanian’s five teams and the one season Lute Olson coached after Tark left.

There were eight players drafted off Winter’s five teams. Four did play in the NBA, and all eight continued their careers in the NBA or other pro joints. “When we got there, we knew what we had,’’ Hodges said when asked about his days with Winter at Long Beach. “We were playing real basketball against great teams and playing well. We all felt pretty lucky to be there.’’

Hodges wasn’t invited to the NBA’s pre-draft camp after his senior year, so Winter told him to go to the event anyway and wait for someone to not show up. Sure enough, there was a spot, and he impressed the NBA enough to launch a 10-year career.

“The big thing about Tex and his system is that I was 18 when I was introduced to it, and saw what it could be,’’ Hodges said. “A shooter like me loved it. So it was terrific that Tex and I were together when I was 28 with the Bulls, and I knew exactly what he wanted from us.’’

“Michael (Jordan) and Scottie (Pippen) didn’t like it at first. Then we got off to a good start and found out what we could accomplish in it. The system made the Bulls champions and created opportunities for all of us to thrive.’’

Hodges, who was essentially blackballed by the NBA for his activist pursuits, coached for a few years and used the Triangle. The one-time Laker assistant now works with youth kids in Chicago in addition to his activist work.

All of Tex’s players have resumes that sow more than basketball was being taught. Michael Wiley became a business consultant and now is a liaison for a casino and its native American tribes. Wise became a police man with the LAPD. Gregory was a policeman in Baltimore whose son starred in basketball at Maryland. Dykema and Tye are businessmen. Gardner coaches.

“Tex gave the program some instant credibility when it needed it,’’ McCormack, who wrote a graceful testimonial to Winter on his Facebook page,’’ said. “The years after Tark, the team was on probation and (former coach) Dwight (Jones) was kind of a bull in a china shop. Tex was able to get teams to schedule Long Beach and come here to play and make the program respectable again. I’m not sure where it would have ended up without him.’’

The Bulls and Lakers would become NBA champions with Winter alongside Phil Jackson. Long Beach didn’t use the triangle to great success, but Tex was certainly the architect who helped restore the program.