By Scott Venci
GREEN BAY – Tony Bennett was eligible to be inducted into the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame almost two decades ago, following the criteria that a high school player must be at least 20 years removed from their playing career to be nominated.
So, why is the former Green Bay Preble star and 1988 graduate just now being inducted despite being widely considered one of the best prep players in state history?
It actually happened a long time ago.
“He was chosen the first year he was eligible,” said Dan Burreson, who is the Hall of Fame selection chair. “It’s just the time of year the banquet is being held. When he was coaching, it just wasn’t possible for him to get back.”
After Bennett stepped down as the Virginia men’s coach last October, the time finally has come to be honored by the WBCA.
Bennett will be one of several men and women enshrined Sept. 28 at the Glacier Canyon Lodge of the Wilderness Resort in Wisconsin Dells.
He’s being inducted twice, both for his prep achievements and those as a college coach.
Other local names who will be honored are former Pulaski boys basketball coach Dave Shaw, Marinette boys coach Bruce Parkovich, former Lena girls coach Kristine Young-Gabriel and longtime official Lee Kornaus of Green Bay.
Legendary University of Wisconsin-Green Bay men’s coach Dick Bennettwill be in attendance to present his son.
“I think it should be a real special weekend,” Burreson said. “Now we have the opportunity to induct him not only as a player, but also as a college coach.
“He’s made a great impact in the state in both ways, obviously along with his father.”
Teammates and opponents have fond memories of Tony Bennett
As most longtime prep basketball observers know, Tony was an outsider when he arrived at Preble in 1985.
He was a child when his father was named the UW-Stevens Point coach in 1976. He grew up there and spent his freshman year at PJ Jacobs Junior High, which was for grades 7-9.
When Dick was hired by UWGB after Tony’s freshman year in 1984-85, the youngster had no interest in moving to a new city and leaving behind teammates and friends.
But there was at least one team in Green Bay quite familiar with Tony.
Preble was coached by Keith Wall, who is a longtime friend of Dick and his family. They had gotten to know each other through coaching circles and working basketball camps.
The Walls stayed at the Bennetts’ house at times, and the Bennetts at the Walls’.
Wall had plenty of phone conversations with Dick. It wasn’t uncommon to share or discuss coaching ideas.
“Tony played on a good team at Stevens Point in junior high,” Wall said. “They had a house in Point, and Dick had already taken the job (at UWGB), and Tony wasn’t too happy about it.
“Finally, one day he was walking by and said to his dad, ‘Do you think Coach Wall needs a point guard?’”
Oh, yes, Coach Wall most definitely needed a point guard. He had lost his three-year starter after the graduation of his son, Jim, in 1985.
It was a perfect match.
There was no social media back then and AAU basketball was not as big as now.
Nobody at Preble really knew how good Tony was or had an inkling of how great he’d become, only that he was the son of a well-known coach in the state.
Wall took Tony down to a grade school in the fall before his first season and had him attempt 10 shots from the wings, corners and top of the key.
Tony would go 7-for-10 from one spot and 8-for-10 from another.
This kid was legit.
There was another new face in the program around that time after Mark Gordon transferred from Oshkosh West. The forward was a year older than Tony, but they formed a bond.
“He was just small, quiet, lefty,” Gordon said. “But he was just solid at that age. Then, slowly, just became the leader of the program. My senior year, he became the leader of the team. I always say to people that between his junior and senior year, he went to the Nike All-Star camp. Back then, all the Nike players would come in.
“When he came back from that, he was just a different player. A different person. He was confident, and he realized he could play with all the top talent out there.”
Tony scored a program record 1,340 points in three seasons with the Hornets and remains one of only four players in Preble boys history to record 1,000 career points.
He gave opposing teams fits. He often was on another level than those he played against.
“We all knew he was the best player,” said Preble boys basketball coach Rick Rosinski, a 1987 Green Bay East graduate who had the unfortunate task of attempting to guard Tony. “He was the quickest guy. He was the best shooter you’ve ever seen. He was all basketball.
“I wasn’t the greatest. Probably just good enough to be a high school player. We played a 1-3-1 zone, and I was on the bottom. They put Tony on the baseline, and I think I had three fouls in the first two minutes. He just goes right by you, and you are like, ‘Holy (expletive).’”
As good as Bennett’s first two seasons at Preble were, it was his senior year that is most remembered.
The Hornets had some solid players during the 1987-88 season, but nobody would argue that they won their first 24 games because of the star point guard.
Everyone in the state knew Tony by that point. The Preble team bus would arrive at 4:30 p.m. for a game in Sheboygan or Manitowoc on a cold, December day and there would be a line of people around the school waiting to get in.
The Preble junior varsity team wasn’t very good but played in front of packed houses at home all season because fans had to show up hours early for the opportunity to watch Tony.
Gordon was an assistant for Wall during Tony’s senior year. He had an excellent view of Tony completely taking over every aspect of the game.
“He just quietly did his job,” Gordon said. “And did it well.”
The Hornets made the WIAA state tournament during Tony’s final season and were the top-ranked team in Class A.
He averaged more than 28 points per game and was named both Mr. Basketball and The Associated Press state player of the year.
But he didn’t get a storybook ending.
Preble played Stevens Point in a state quarterfinal. The same Point team that had all of Tony’s old friends. The same Point team that knew better than any how to slow down an unstoppable force.
Tony’s future UWGB teammate, Ben Johnson, was at the top of his defensive game that day, helping hold Bennett to 17 points on 5-for-15 shooting.
Stevens Point pulled out a 45-39 upset before losing to eventual state champion Onalaska in a semifinal.
What Wall didn’t know before the game was that Tony was ill, but Tony wasn’t going to use it as an excuse and didn’t tell anybody.
Gordon remembers the same from that game.
“I don’t know if it was his allergies or a head cold,” Gordon said. “He was struggling breathing in and just wasn’t pulling in the oxygen.”
Tony continued his notable career in college, graduating as UWGB’s all-time leading scorer with 2,285 points from 1988 to 1992. His career 49.7% shooting from 3-point range remains an NCAA record.
Tony, who played three seasons for the Charlotte Hornets, entered the coaching world in the late 1990s. He got his first head coaching job at Washington State in 2006 before landing at Virginia from 2009 to 2024.
Tony Bennett has always been a reluctant star
Whether it was his time at Preble, his standout years at UWGB or a coaching career that included winning a national championship with the Cavaliers in 2019, Tony has never been someone who seeks attention.
All those stories of being humble and nice to people appear to be true.
Nobody has a bad word to say about him.
“Dick passed on great qualities to Tony,” Jim Wall said. “Tony passed them on to his players. They make the right decisions. They are great people.”
Even when he could have been the most popular kid in school at Preble, when everyone would have wanted to be his friend, Tony didn’t walk the hallways thinking he was better than anyone else.
The spotlight was not only something he didn’t crave, but something he ran away from all the time.
“Up until his senior year and his freshman year at UWGB, I worked at Royal Scot,” Gordon said. “We would go golfing. Everybody knew who he was. I would have to go out to the parking lot and pick him up from his car in the cart and we would go to the first tee. He didn’t want to come into the pro shop or anything because he just didn’t want the attention. He was so reluctant.
“He didn’t want to feel different than anyone. … I remember him asking, ‘Why are these kids asking for my autograph?’ He had no perception of how he was perceived or loved by the community, by anyone. He was kind of like, ‘I’m just playing basketball.’”
When Keith Wall and Tony speak now, it’s not often about basketball but more about their religious faith.
He was in touch with Tony a few weeks ago, and it offered the latest example of what he believes makes his former pupil so special.
“There is a lady who was at Preble, and she’s in a nursing home now,” Wall said. “Someone told my son about her being there, and I went to see her. She was tickled that I went. I went back home and texted Tony, and he called her. They talked for quite a while. I texted him and said, ‘That’s so you.’
“That he would take the time to do that and be so sincere about it, that’s the kind of person he is.”
Source: Tony Bennett, star Green Bay Preble, UWGB player and national champion coach, honored by WBCA