UL Athlete Andrew Toney

[NewsCopy]

TROY, Mich. - (KRT) - Andrew Toney is, in a sense, coming home. Yes, he played at Southwestern Louisiana. But he spent his entire eight-season NBA career with the 76ers. And now he's coming back to them.

The Sixers have agreed in principle to add Toney, the starting shooting guard on their 1982-83 championship team, to their coaching staff. A person with knowledge of the situation, on the promise of anonymity, said Toney had not yet signed a contract but was expected to be at their practice site, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, next week to help oversee workouts of prospective draft choices.

Toney will be reuniting with new head coach Maurice Cheeks, his Sixers backcourt partner and one of his closest friends. He will be joining a staff that already includes John Kuester and Bernie Smith. The Sixers also have had a telephone conversation with Portland assistant John Loyer, but a job has not been offered.

Toney accompanied Cheeks to the predraft camp workouts in Chicago last week.

Toney, a first-round draft choice in 1980, averaged 15.9 points over a career that was cut short by severe foot problems. He was a two-time All-Star. His son, Channing, just completed his freshman season at Georgia, where he averaged 9.8 points.

The source of the story

BY PHIL JASNER

Knight Ridder Newspapers

[NewsCopy]

You will find Andrew Toney's career statistics buried in the back of the Sixers' media guide, between those of Sedale Threatt and Bernard Toone (and not far away from those of John Q. Trapp).

Toney is just an afterthought, his story a sad chapter in team history.

But now it looks like he is going to get a chance to rewrite the ending.

He was once one of the NBA's most explosive shooting guards, a guy who was as fearless as Allen Iverson but bigger, stronger, more selective and a better ballhandler.

But for different circumstances, Toney might have been a Hall of Famer.

But for different circumstances, the tide of team history might have been different, too.

But his body betrayed him, forcing him to retire on the eve of the 1988-89 season, at age 30. This in the wake of a long, bitter feud with management, which did not believe his feet were as badly injured as he let on.

He has for the most part kept his distance in the years since, returning to Philadelphia only on occasion, and never for long. But now he is reportedly coming back to the Sixers as an assistant coach under his former backcourt partner, Maurice Cheeks.

Meaning, of course, that F. Scott Fitzgerald was wrong when he said there are no second acts in American life. And that the Brothers Grimm were right in assuming there can be happy endings.

The rest of the story

gordon.jones@mcall.com

610-820-6628

[CajunRed]

How great was Andrew Toney? According to Charles Barkley... "I thought he (Toney) was the best player on the team (76ers) when I got here. We had Bobby Jones, Moses Malone, and Julius Erving, but the only one I was in awe of was Andrew."

For you younger viewers out there, particularly those of you who may currently be students at UL, you have NO way of fully appreciating how amazing this guy was... and how much in awe we all were of his abilities way back when. I feel privileged that our years at UL overlapped by a year or so and I followed Toney and the Cajuns after I graduated.

Here is a link to a very interesting article written about him that includes quotes from Pat Riley and Larry Bird who referred to Toney as the "Boston Strangler". Hope you enjoy the article...

http://nbadraft.net/maurer001.asp

[CajunProud]

Although I was not in school at UL (then USL) at the time Andrew Toney was in school, I was old enough both to go to some of the games that he played in and appreciate what I saw. He was phenomenal.

I just wish the program could get back to those days.

[Pirogue]

I was a towel boy back in Blackham in those days...
I used to have to go scrub the hardwood after players fell down.

Andrew Toney was just SOLID, every part of his game was tight... kinda like a Dwayne Mitchell.... but there was another guy on that team #15 Kevin Figaro from Lafayette High.... man could he jump high...

I used to think Michael Jordan jumped almost as high as Kevin.

Those were some great days in Blackham.

[ShowDog]

How great was Andrew Toney? According to Charles Barkley... "I thought he (Toney) was the best player on the team (76ers) when I got here. We had Bobby Jones, Moses Malone, and Julius Erving, but the only one I was in awe of was Andrew."

For you younger viewers out there, particularly those of you who may currently be students at UL, you have NO way of fully appreciating how amazing this guy was... and how much in awe we all were of his abilities way back when. I feel privileged that our years at UL overlapped by a year or so and I followed Toney and the Cajuns after I graduated.

Here is a link to a very interesting article written about him that includes quotes from Pat Riley and Larry Bird who referred to Toney as the "Boston Strangler". Hope you enjoy the article...

http://nbadraft.net/maurer001.asp

Great article about the best player ever to play at UL. Saw him many times in college and was like the rest of the people in the article, "in awe". He played like a pro in college and was a man among boys.

He was a class act also. Mr. Basketball for the state of Alabama in High School and showed his real class when he left the team on a west coast tour and while they went to play in the Great Alaskan Shootout, he walked across the stage for his diploma in only 3-1/2 years of school. I forget what he majored in but it wasn't a crip course.

One more thing. In his day he was known as the best "pure shooter" in basketball.

[BeauCajun]

He was a class act also. Mr. Basketball for the state of Alabama in High School and showed his real class when he left the team on a west coast tour and while they went to play in the Great Alaskan Shootout, he walked across the stage for his diploma in only 3-1/2 years of school. I forget what he majored in but it wasn't a crip course.

I met Andrew while we were in college. A real nice guy. He was a PE major with one of my roommates. He always sat in the front of the class and always made one of the highest grades in class. The game he missed was the Portland State game in December of 1979 not the Great Alaska Shootout.

Damn that fellow had long fingers.

[Ewhite]

I was also a ball boy during Andrew's Senior year, I'll never forget the honor of getting one sweatband from Andrew Toney and Dion Rainey every game that year. What a lot of people don't remember or know is that not only was Andrew Toney a great basketball player but he graduated in December of his Senior year in just 3 and 1/2 year as opposed to the four that most players did back then, along with Carl Jordon, Wayne Julien, and Kevin Figaro that was a team that was awesome.

[ShowDog]

I was also a ball boy during Andrew's Senior year, I'll never forget the honor of getting one sweatband from Andrew Toney and Dion Rainey every game that year. What a lot of people don't remember or know is that not only was Andrew Toney a great basketball player but he graduated in December of his Senior year in just 3 and 1/2 year as opposed to the four that most players did back then, along with Carl Jordon, Wayne Julien, and Kevin Figaro that was a team that was awesome.

Testing my feeble memory. Wasn't Bobby Paschal the coach that year???

[NCAA or BUST]

Testing my feeble memory. Wasn't Bobby Paschal the coach that year???

I think so. What I want to know is who recruited A.T. Paschal or Hatfield?