The Best There's Ever Been

Bill Tierney stood in a large conference room in Philadelphia the Wednesday before Memorial Day weekend in 1992 to address the media.

He was two days away from his first time as a head coach at the NCAA Division I men's lacrosse Final Four. Could he have imagined what the future held for him? Could he have guessed his Princeton Tigers would win that one and then five more after it — and that he'd then win a seventh with Denver, a team that on that day was coming off a 3-11 season as a member of the Division II Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Lacrosse League.

On that day, Tierney said something that was so profound that it's stayed with TigerBlog all these years later. "Everyone likes me now. If I keep coming back, they won't."

He coached Princeton in that one and then nine more after it. Once he left for Denver, he came back five more times.

That's 15 appearances in Championship Weekend. TigerBlog thought back to that quote from back in 1992 when Tierney announced last week that the 2023 season will be his final one as a college head coach. 

Last first practice of a Hall of Fame career.#GoPios pic.twitter.com/hdGMYCmU9b

— Denver Men’s Lacrosse (@DU_MLAX) January 9, 2023

To TigerBlog, who was with Tierney for the last 20 of his Princeton seasons, there is no doubt that Coach T as pretty much every player called him is the greatest lacrosse coach of all time. For that matter, there aren't too many coaches in any sport who have done what Tierney has done.

Oh sure, there are coaches who have won more championships on the pro and college levels. And yes, there are other coaches whose names conjure up unimpeachable greatness: Lombardi, Auerbach, Jackson, Belichek, Saban, Wooden, Bowman, Torre.

But how many of them did what Tierney has done? For that matter, how many would have ever tried? 

Phil Jackson won six NBA championships with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen in Chicago. He won five more with Shaq and/or Kobe. Now imagine that he took over Sacramento and won six championships and then left to take over the Knicks and won again. That's what Tierney did.  

Princeton had never been to the NCAA tournament before Tierney started here in 1988. He won it all in Year 5. Denver had two NCAA tournament appearances and no wins when he took over in 2010. His first team reached the NCAA tournament; his second reached the Final Four. He won the championship in 2015.

That's not just reloading with all the advantages in the world. That's building it from the ground up, all the way to the top. 

And what about that quote from 1992? 

Tierney was right. The more he won, the more he earned the wrath of fans of teams who weren't winning, especially because of his fiery ways on the sideline (which aren't unique in sports, or even just in lacrosse).

To those people, TB says this: You couldn't be more wrong about a person. Take it from those who played for him and know him best, players like Ryan Mollett, a first-team All-American defenseman who won NCAA titles with Tierney in 1998 and 2001:

"Whatever records he sets will at some point in time be broken. What will never be surpassed are Coach Tierney's integrity and the example he has set for so many of us." 

You could pretty much do a roll call of his players, Princeton and Denver, and you'll get the same response.  

Or you can ask TigerBlog, who had a front row seat for Tierney's meteoric rise at Princeton and then everything that came after that. Tierney was so much more than a lacrosse coach during those years with the Tigers.

His greatness extended far beyond the wins and championships. He was all about the people, giving his time to the families, the fans, the opponents, everyone who came into his orbit. He'd walk around hotel parking lots on the mornings of games and pick up the trash. He never, ever, ever took credit for anything his teams accomplished.

TB could tell you so many stories of great things that Tierney did far from the spotlight, making impacts that were so important to so many people. Equipment. Time. Advice. Whatever you needed. He was there.

Back in January of 2009, Tierney came to speak on a Saturday to a group of youth coaches in Bucks County, across the river from New Jersey. TB wrote about what Tierney's message was that day:

* if you walk way from a youth game happy only because you won, then you're not doing it the right way
* if you "kick 'em in the butt," then you have to turn around and embrace them as well
* if you take a bunch of kids and let them play a game, what they'll remember most is that they had a good time doing it

What really stood out that day? It wasn't the message. It was the audience. Lower Bucks Lacrosse didn't exist before Tierney came to Princeton. Neither did so many of the other youth leagues in the Princeton area. How many kids played lacrosse because of the way Tierney grew the sport? 

TB knows two who did. His two children. He'll get back to that in a second.

From his own part, TB had seen exactly one college lacrosse game in his life before he first saw a Tierney-coached Princeton team play in 1990. TB knew nothing of the sport, of the different positions, of the rules, any of it. He learned it all from Bill Tierney. 

From that start in 1990, Bill Tierney has been there any time TigerBlog has needed anything from him. He can't remember ever asking for anything where the answer was "no." Even more, there has never been a time when TB ever questioned that Tierney would be there for him any time he called.

There aren't many people like that you can say that about whom you run across in your life. 

So where to wrap this all up? How about on a youth field in 2007?

Tierney had promised TigerBlog Jr., then a fourth-grader, that he would come to one of his games that season. Now it was April, and he hadn't been able to yet. Princeton lost at Cornell 10-6 on a Saturday afternoon in Ithaca.

TBJ had a game the next day. He asked his father if he thought Tierney would be there. TB said that it was a lot to expect, after the way the game the day before had gone. Maybe he'd come later in the year, even though there weren't many games left. And if he couldn't, TB told his son, he'd have to understand just how rough it is during the season and how little down time coaches got.

The next day, just as the game was starting, TB noticed someone on the far side of the field, setting up his lawn chair and sitting down far from anyone else. It was Tierney. TB didn't say anything to TBJ, and he wondered if he saw the coach there. 

When the game ended, the teams went through the handshake line. TBJ, as the goalie, was first in line. As soon as he shook the last hand, he turned and sprinted across the field to where Tierney was and jumped into his arms. From across the field, TB could just smile.

To those who have never met him and don't know him, Bill Tierney is someone to admire, someone to respect, someone to root for in this final season, someone to appreciate and ultimately someone to call by what his truest, most accurate legacy:

Bill Tierney is the best there's ever been.