Kravchuk filed a criminal assault charge, although the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office didn't find sufficient evidence of criminal intent to pursue prosecution.
It's no surprise that this decision, bringing O'Connor back on O'Hanlon's staff in Easton, had to be approved all the way up the line at Lafayette, to the president's office, with legal and media advisers weighing in.
"For this to get done, everybody had to touch it," O'Hanlon said this week.
At Lafayette for 17 years, O'Hanlon has one of the best reputations in the game, and not just as a coach and offensive innovator. O'Hanlon's supporting anyone, including O'Connor, carries considerable weight. But it wasn't enough to get O'Connor a job at another school.
"He's applied for a number of jobs - he was right there with a number of them," O'Hanlon said of O'Connor's job search after leaving Holy Family. "At the time, he was hot," O'Hanlon said of O'Connor, meaning too hot to touch. "It's a no-brainer for me. I know who he is."
Enough higher-ups at Lafayette also knew O'Connor from his 2001-04 tenure as an O'Hanlon assistant.
"There was an easier sell [at Lafayette], where they already knew him," O'Hanlon said. "Our AD said, we're recommending him to other people, we better be able to recommend him here."
Let's assume it is easier to hire O'Connor as an assistant, since a head coach is one of the primary faces of a school, and that video can't be erased. O'Hanlon has heard from a lot of coaches who know O'Connor and are glad he's back in the game. Many of them, no doubt, can ponder how they wouldn't want their worst 15 seconds on video.
"I lived through that with him," O'Hanlon said. "I know he was very humbled and upset and just shaken by the whole thing."
O'Hanlon can see past the front door of the gym. He has a world view, and also has a circle of friends that isn't limited to coaches. One of his oldest buddies, Joseph McGettigan, is currently in the spotlight.
"I talked to Joey last night," O'Hanlon said.
McGettigan is the lead prosecutor in the Jerry Sandusky trial in Centre County. O'Hanlon, who has stayed friends with McGettigan since their days playing playground basketball as teenagers in West Philadelphia, wasn't looking for insights into the trial.
"If I wanted to be a lawyer, I would have gone to law school," O'Hanlon joked. "We talk more sports than anything."
And occasionally the old days.
"Joey was a very good basketball player, more of an undersized four-man," O'Hanlon said. "He could really jump, which has messed up his knees considerably. He always had this long blond hair down to his shoulders. And he always had to take the first shot. He couldn't make an outside shot. But he had to take the first shot, to see if he was hot or not. Then he wouldn't take another."
O'Hanlon doesn't look for legal advice from his friend. And there were no pressing legal issues in O'Hanlon's mind when he contemplated hiring O'Connor, a former Drexel assistant who had left Lafayette to take a job at Georgia Tech, installing the O'Hanlon offense there, helping the Yellow Jackets to the Final Four in 2004 before going to Holy Family as head coach.
"We've had some good assistants here, and he's as good as any of them," O'Hanlon said.
The Lafayette team just took a trip to Belgium, so players and coaches were in the gym together. The breaking-in period has already happened for O'Connor with his new team.
"Johnny O has always been very vocal," O'Hanlon said. "His first day, he was not very vocal, or the second. On the third day, he was back to being Johnny O. You could hear his voice throughout the gym."
Contact Mike Jensen at 215-854-4489 or mjensen@phillynews.com, or follow on Twitter @Jensenoffcampus. Read his "Off Campus" columns at www.philly.com/offcampus
