In 1972-73, Nancy Darsch’s senior year at Springfield College, she played for coach Jone Bush on a basketball team that went 12-4. A year later, she was coaching girls basketball, field hockey and softball at Longmeadow High School.
That merely was the first stop of an illustrious coaching career which would take her to the big-time of Division 1 basketball, the Olympic Games and later the WNBA.
In college, she served as an assistant to Hall of Famer Pat Summitt at the University of Tennessee. Moving on from there, she had a 12-year career as head coach at Ohio State. When the WNBA launched in 1997, she became coach of the New York Liberty.
Springfield College honored her in 1994 with election to its Athletic Hall of Fame.
Nancy Darsch, a native of Plymouth, passed away Monday, a victim of Parkinson’s disease at the age of 68.
“During her time in the Big Ten, on the international stage, and in the professional ranks, coach Darsch was regarded as one of the most talented and respected basketball coaches in the country. The birthplace of basketball mourns the loss of one of best ever to roam the sidelines of the hardwood,” said Craig Poisson, Springfield College’s director of athletics.
Her career included two stints as an assistant for U.S. women’s teams that won Olympic gold - in 1984, with Summit as head coach; in 1996, with Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer as head coach.
At Ohio State, she led the Buckeyes to a 234-125 record. Her teams had six 20-victory seasons in 12 years and won four Big Ten titles. In 1993, they lost 84-82 to Texas Tech in the national championship game.
In the WNBA, she also had coaching tours with the Washington Mystics, Minnesota Lynx and Seattle Storm. As a Seattle assistant in 2010, she was part of a championship team.
Between jobs in the WNBA, she served as an assistant coach at Boston College from 2005 through 2007.
“I’m saddened to learn of Nancy’s passing,” said Naomi Graves, head coach of women’s basketball at SC. “She was a great mentor and friend. She absolutely loved Springfield College and always stopped by my office to say hello whenever she was on campus. Nancy was a pioneer for women’s basketball and led the way for many of us who now are full-time coaches.”
ABOUT ANALYTICS: Baseball fans will be talking all winter about Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash, and his decision to remove ace Blake Snell in the sixth inning of World Series Game 6. At the time, Snell had a 1-0 lead and a two-hitter. Cash made the move because analytics say a pitcher shouldn’t face hitters for the third time in a game.
Of course, the Dodgers scored twice against reliever Nick Anderson and went on to win 3-1 to clinch the World Series. Baseball’s “Hot Stove League” has been raging ever since.
Wilbraham’s Mike Trombley, a former big league pitcher, questions Cash’s decision.
“You never want to take a guy out when the other side is hoping you will,” Trombley said. “I understand the value of analytics, but sometimes you can’t ignore baseball tradition, which says you want your best guy on the mound in a situation like that.”
Meanwhile, Trombley gives high marks to baseball for getting through this troubled season, and giving fans a riveting postseason.
“It was a great World Series, and I think we all needed that,” he said.
MOOKIE AND BABE: The worst deal in Red Sox history? The sale of Babe Ruth to the Yankee would have to be No. 1, but the salary-dump of Mookie Betts to the Dodgers might prove, over time, to be just as bad.
Both deals were driven by financial need, and both infuriated Red Sox fans.
The Babe was shipped to New York after the 1919 season. That not only marked the start of Yankee supremacy, it marked the dawn of two very bad decades for the Red Sox (including a 1932 club that went 43-111).
As The Babe morphed from lefty pitching ace into home run king, the Yankees won seven pennants and four World Series from 1921 to 1932.
As for Mookie, he sparked a world championship in this, his first season with the Dodgers. He has signed a 12-year contract extension, so it will be interesting to see if he has the same kind of championship impact that Ruth had with the Yankees.
DUNN AND FRIENDS: If not for the pandemic, Columbia and Harvard would be playing football on this date, at Harvard Stadium. Cancellation of that game and the Sept. 11 death of former Holyoke mayor Marty Dunn combined to bring bittersweet memories to Springfield’s Bill Christofori.
“Those Ivy League games became kind of a tradition in Holyoke because of Marty, who played football at Columbia in the 1970s. For 20 years, he organized trips, sometimes to Yale, sometimes to Brown or Dartmouth, sometimes to Harvard,” Christofori said.
"Marty would rent a Peter Pan bus for a trip that would leave from Holyoke around 9 a.m. Before the game, about 50 guys from Holyoke, and a few out-of-towners like me, would then be welcomed to the Columbia alumni tent for refreshments.
"Marty’s trips became such a tradition, those Holyoke guys would know the Columbia fight song, even if they weren’t alums.
“After the game, he would have a restaurant set up so he could feed his companions at no charge to them. Couple hours later, back on the bus and back to Purple Knights territory for a nightcap. The whole trip was paid for and organized by Marty. It was an occasion that will be dearly missed.”
TODAY’S TRIVIA: What was the highest-scoring game in NFL history? Answer: 113 points, as Washington beat the New York Giants 72-41 in November, 1966. Washington’s point total included a 60-yard pass interception TD by Brig Owens, and a 52-yard punt return TD by Ricky Harris. Highest-scoring postseason game? 96 points - Arizona 51, Green Bay 25 (OT) in a 2010 wild card game as Kurt Warner threw for five Arizona TDs. Highest--scoring Super Bowl? 75 points - San Francisco 49, San Diego 26 in 1995, a big day for QB Steve Young and elite receiver Jerry Rice.
BEST BET for the weekend: Maximum Security, in the Breeders Cup Classic at Keeneland.
Garry Brown can be reached at geebrown1918@gmail.com
Hi - Browncol for Sat Nov. 7 . . . thanks, G B
BROWNCOL FOR SAT NOV 7
In 1972-73, Nancy Darsch’s senior year at Springfield College, she played for coach Jone Bush on a basketball team that went 12-4. A year later, she was coaching girls basketball, field hockey and softball at Longmeadow High School.
That merely was the first stop of an illustrious coaching career which would take her to the big-time of Division 1 basketball, the Olympic Games and later to the WNBA.
In college, she served as an assistant to Hall of Famer Pat Summitt at the University of Tennessee. Moving on from there, she had a 12-year career as head coach at Ohio State. When the WNBA launched in 1997, she became coach of the New York Liberty.
Springfield College honored her in 1994 with election to its Athletic Hall of Fame.
Nancy Darsch, a native of Plymouth, passed away Monday, a victim of Parkinson’s disease at the age of 68.
“During her time in the Big Ten, on the international stage, and in the professional ranks, coach Darsch was regarded as one of the most talented and respected basketball coaches in the country. The birthplace of basketball mourns the loss of one of best ever to roam the sidelines of the hardwood,” said Craig Poisson, Springfield College’s director of athletics.
Her career included two stints as an assistant for U.S. women’s teams that won Olympic gold - in 1984, with Summit as head coach; in 1996, with Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer as head coach.
At Ohio State, she led the Buckeyes to a 234-125 record. Her teams had six 20-victory seasons in 12 years and won four Big Ten titles. In 1993, they lost 84-82 to Texas Tech in the national championship game.
In the WNBA, she also had coaching tours with the Washington Mystics, Minnesota Lynx and Seattle Storm. As a Seattle assistant in 2010, she was part of a championship team.
Between jobs in the WNBA, she served as an assistant coach at Boston College from 2005 through 2007.
“I’m saddened to learn of Nancy’s passing,” said Naomi Graves, head coach of women’s basketball at SC. “She was a great mentor and friend. She absolutely loved Springfield College and always stopped by my office to say hello whenever she was on campus. Nancy was a pioneer for women’s basketball and led the way for many of us who now are full-time coaches.”
ABOUT ANALYTICS: Baseball fans will be talking all winter about Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash, and his decision to remove ace Blake Snell in the sixth inning of World Series Game 6. At the time, Snell had a 1-0 lead and a two-hitter going. Cash made the move because analytics say a pitcher shouldn’t face hitters for the third time in a game.
Of course, the Dodgers scored twice against reliever Nick Anderson and went on to win 3-1 to clinch the World Series. Baseball’s “Hot Stove League” has been raging ever since.
Wilbraham’s Mike Trombley, a former big league pitcher, questions Cash’s decision.
“You never want to take a guy out when the other side is hoping you will,” Trombley said. “I understand the value of analytics, but sometimes you can’t ignore baseball tradition, which says you want your best guy on the mound in a situation like that.”
Meanwhile, Trombley gives high marks to baseball for getting through this troubled season, and giving fans a riveting postseason.
“It was a great World Series, and I think we all needed that,” he said.
MOOKIE AND BABE: The worst deal in Red Sox history? The sale of Babe Ruth to the Yankee would have to be No. 1, but the salary-dump of Mookie Betts to the Dodgers might prove, over time, to be just as bad.
Both deals were driven by financial need, and both infuriated Red Sox fans.
The Babe was shipped to New York after the 1919 season. That not only marked the start of Yankee supremacy, it marked the dawn of two very bad decades for the Red Sox (including a 1932 club that went 43-111).
As The Babe morphed from lefty pitching ace into home run king, the Yankees won seven pennants and four World Series from 1921 to 1932.
As for Mookie, he sparked a world championship in this, his first season with the Dodgers. He has signed a 12-year contract extension, so it will be interesting to see if he has the same kind of championship impact that Ruth had with the Yankees.
DUNN AND FRIENDS: If not for the pandemic, Columbia and Harvard would be playing football on this date, at Harvard Stadium.
Cancellation of that game and the Sept. 11 death of former Holyoke mayor Marty Dunn combined to bring bittersweet memories to Springfield’s Bill Christofori.
“Those Ivy League games became kind of a tradition in Holyoke because of Marty, who played football at Columbia in the 1970s. For 20 years, he organized trips, sometimes to Yale, sometimes to Brown or Dartmouth, sometimes to Harvard,” Christofori said.
"Marty would rent a Peter Pan bus for a trip that would leave from Holyoke around 9 a.m. Before the game, about 50 guys from Holyoke, and a few out-of-towners like me, would then be welcomed to the Columbia alumni tent for refreshments.
"Marty’s trips became such a tradition, those Holyoke guys would know the Columbia fight song, even if they weren’t alums.
“After the game, he would have a restaurant set up so he could feed his companions at no charge to them. Couple hours later, back on the bus and back to Purple Knights territory for a nightcap. The whole trip was paid for and organized by Marty. It was an occasion that will be dearly missed.”
TODAY’S TRIVIA: What was the highest-scoring game in NFL history?
Answer: 113 points, as Washington beat the New York Giants 73-41 in November, 1966. Washington’s point total included a 60-yard pass interception TD by Brig Owens, and a 52-yard punt return TD by Ricky Harris. Highest-scoring postseason game? 96 points - Arizona 51, Green Bay 25 (OT) in 2010 wild card game as Kurt Warner threw for five Arizona TDs. Highest--scoring Super Bowl? 75 points - San Francisco 49, San Diego 26 in 1995, a big day for QB Steve Young and elite receiver Jerry Rice.
BEST BET for the weekend: Maximum Security, in the Breeders Cup Classic at Keeneland.
Garry Brown can be reached at geebrown1918@gmail.com