Ralph Zobell · @RalphZobell
20th Jan 2021 from TwitLonger
A #GoCougs account from a publicist for former #BYUhoops coach Tony Ingle
Because the late BYU basketball coach Tony Ingle gave me a nickname only his fellow assistant coach Charles “Tub” Bradley may recall, I resorted to calling him “Antoine.”
Tony is the first person I know who succumbed because of the Covid-19 pandemic which has ravaged our world.
“Shoot low sheriff, they’re riding Shetland ponies,” was one of the many one-liners Ingle quipped in humorous fashion.
Ingle especially loved one of the jokes I told him about a “surprise,” in exchange for the many puns he shared with me.
I was the publicist for Ingle during the disastrous 1-25 season of 1996-97. I traveled with him and the Cougars for two weeks as they toured Italy, Slovenia and France in the summer of 1995.
I think I got my turn after he finished reading the book “Powder Keg” that booster Sy Kimball brought on the long-bus ride through northern Italy en route to France. Tony’ and his wife Jeanne traversed the streets of Florence with booster Muriel Thole, Lynn and Ann Archibald, Glen Tuckett and the extended Reid family after we toured the Vatican, before we weaved around the canals of Venice or climbed the Eiffel Tower.
Tony and head coach Roger Reid were there on one of our many trips to Laramie, including one when I survived totaling a van that slid off black ice on Interstate 80.
I’d been with Tony on road trips in earlier seasons to Lubbock, Fresno, Albuquerque, the balmy Maui Classic of 1992 and the freezing Great Alaska Shootout of 1994. I was with him when the Cougars lost during his opening season of 1989-90 on a narrow last-second miss against No. 17 Clemson, 49-47, in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament at Hartford, Conn. At Fort Collins, he was on the bench and I sat on press row when Kevin Nixon launched the 54-foot shot to beat UTEP, 73-71, at the buzzer for the Western Athletic Conference Championship in 1992.
Tony taught me the difference between rib eye and sawmill gravy when we were at home in his native South with collards, grits, biscuits and gravy. That was in 1995 as the Cougars were preparing to play at No. 8 Mississippi State as we flew to nearby Memphis from Reno in rare back-to-back losses.
After his 0-19 record as an interim head coach, Ingle was passed over for a while as Chris Poulos helped schedule motivational speaking engagements for him.
I Tweeted last July that it was Coach Reid who was conditioning his fatigued cagers by inviting me shot a free throw. My aim from the charity stripe would extend or end practice as panting, praying Cougars lined the keyhole in the Marriott Center. Swish, practice ended amidst high fives from those from whom I had arrived earlier to arrange interviews. Actually, it was Ingle who threw me that ball.
Wow ‘em in heaven “Antoine,” we have fond memories of your time here.