There were vignettes everywhere, some about the man, some about the coach.
"I remember 1964," Casey said. "I was coaching at Bishop Eustace [Prep, in Pennsauken, N.J.], and through some friends Duke sent me to Minneapolis to help Chuck, who was an assistant coach, to do some scouting. I had never been on a plane. But I went. I met Chuck, and he took me on a walk through all of downtown Minneapolis, in and out of every men's store. We walked so long, I got a blister on my foot. He never bought anything."
For Daly, the Hall of Fame coach who died of pancreatic cancer on Saturday, that was a different sort of scouting trip. Over time, he would be as known for his immaculate dressing as much as his strategies and his ability managing people. But these were the early days, times his friends and colleagues still treasure.
"When he came to coach Penn, he was the one responsible for dressing up the rest of us," Casey said. "Alligator shoes? I didn't know they made shoes from alligators. Chuck got to know a guy who had a men's store in Upper Darby. Pretty soon, we all had a deal there. But that's the way he was. I don't think anyone was ever jealous because he was a big-picture guy. He was different than a lot of us, because he had a grand plan. Some coaches see their careers sort of evolve. He saw beyond that."
Casey eventually became the Temple coach, and faced some lean seasons.
"Chuck did an interview with Frank Dolson of the Inquirer," Casey recalled. "He talked about how his Penn teams always handled Princeton, but had trouble with our zone. We were having eight-, nine-win seasons, believing we were going to get better, but that column, Chuck's words, helped me. I thanked him for that, and I never forgot."
Daly, in his own way, planned for his assignment coaching the Dream Team in 1992.
