‘He was something, wasn’t he?’ says member of Tarkanian’s ‘Inner Circle’

On the night of Jerry Tarkanian’s death, there was only one place in Las Vegas to truly honor the man who put UNLV on the college basketball map:

Piero’s.

The Italian restaurant on Convention Center Drive just west of Paradise Road was Tarkanian’s home away from home for years. He would eat the majority of his meals there, hold court with friends, fellow coaches and reporters from across the country, all under the watchful eye of proprietor Freddie Glusman, one of his closest friends and part of Tarkanian’s “Inner Circle” that included Irwin Molasky, Mike Toney, Larry duBoef and Dick Manoogian.

Tarkanian died from respiratory and cardiac failure Wednesday morning at Valley Hospital Medical Center. He was 84.

“He was something, wasn’t he?” Glusman said Wednesday as people were visiting the shrine he had created to Tarkanian over the years. “We had so many laughs together.”

Molasky, who helped recruit Tarkanian to come to UNLV in 1973 from Long Beach State, said the coach was responsible for putting UNLV on the national map.

“(UNLV) wanted to be the Harvard of the West, and that was going to take 50 years,” Molasky said Thursday. “But with 10 great kids and a coach who could teach the game, it happened much quicker, and it turned out better than all of us expected.”

Molasky, a successful businessman with immense wealth, found a common ground with Tarkanian — basketball.

“He was a kind human being,” Molasky said. “It didn’t make any difference who we were or what we were. We put ourselves on the same level through basketball.”

Manoogian, a TV producer from Los Angeles who helped get the Rebels on the air in Southern California in the late 1970s, said he always cherished his time with Tarkanian, whether it was on the road or at the Tarkanians’ home in Las Vegas for Thanksgiving.

“It made me feel special,” Manoogian said. “He could be a really funny guy. He was a great storyteller, and he loved being part of a group that would tell stories about basketball.”

Toney, a former casino host whose friendship with Tarkanian goes back to 1955, said: “He never saw himself as a celebrity. He was the most loyal guy I ever knew. In 60 years, we never had an argument. Not one.”

Tarkanian stories? Glusman has a ton of them. Like the time he made sure then-athletic director Dennis Finfrock couldn’t gain access to the Rebels’ locker room at Barnhill Arena when they played at Arkansas in a nationally televised game on CBS in 1991.

“I arranged it with the head of the campus police that I would have control of all the locker room passes,” Glusman said. “So when Finfrock tried to get to the door at halftime, the security guards stopped him and asked him where his pass was. Well, he didn’t have a pass, because there’s no way he was getting one from me. That really pissed him off, but Tark loved it when I told him about it after the game.”

And when the Review-Journal ran the infamous “hot tub photo” in 1991 of convicted sports fixer Richard Perry with three of Tarkanian’s players, Glusman offered $25,000 to anyone who could find the person who delivered the picture to the paper.

“I upped it to $35,000, but no one ever collected the money,” Glusman said. “No one came forward.”

DuBoef’s friendship with Tarkanian goes back to his arrival in Las Vegas in 1973. They lived two blocks apart and quickly spawned a friendship that would last more than 40 years.

“He’d come over to my house and watch film, and we spent a lot of time together,” said duBoef, who used to host Tarkanian’s coach’s show on TV and radio. “We’d go on the road, and I’d see the admiration people had for him. Total strangers. Everybody loved Jerry. People would yell, ‘Hey, Tark!’ and he’d wave or smile. Or if someone asked him for an autograph, he never turned anyone down. He had such respect for everybody, and he was such a genuine person.”

DuBoef said he was amazed by how Tarkanian always knew what to say to his team.

“I was in that locker room many times over the years, before games, after games, and not once did Jerry ever use the words ‘win’ or ‘victory,’ ” duBoef said. “All he ever said was, ‘I want you guys to play hard.’ That’s all. And those kids had such great respect for him, they played hard because they didn’t want to disappoint him.”

Toney said Tarkanian was a people person and could even appreciate being the target of a barb from a total stranger.

“We’re at the Dunes, me, Tark and (former UNLV football coach) Harvey Hyde,” Toney said. “And this guy is looking at Tark for the longest time. Finally, he comes up to Tark and says, ‘Are you from Illinois?’ and Tark says, ‘No.’ The guy said, ‘Are you sure?’ and I said to the guy, ‘This is the basketball coach at UNLV,’ and the guy looks at Tark and says, ‘Now I know who you are — you’re the bandit coach!’ Tark just cracked up.”

As Tarkanian’s health began to deteriorate over the past six years, his friends were obviously concerned. They remained supportive of him right up to the end, when several of them visited him Tuesday at Valley.

“It was devastating,” duBoef said. “I saw him at his best when he was full of energy. But I understood Jerry was sick, and I was going to be there for him. He was very dear to my heart, and he knew I never wanted anything from him other than just wanting to be his friend.”

Manoogian said it was tough to see Tarkanian in that condition.

“I had seen him in the hospital before Christmas, and I knew he wasn’t doing well,” Manoogian said. “He had dropped so far so fast. It was very tough to watch.”

Molasky said: “It was hard, but I’m so glad (his wife) Susie and I got to see Jerry on Tuesday. It was very important to us. But it’s the end of a wonderful era.”

The shrine always will be part of Piero’s, and Glusman is inviting the community to come by for a free drink Monday night after Tarkanian’s funeral and toast the coach.

“I was with him all the way,” said Glusman, who turned 78 on Wednesday. “I never abandoned him, even when things were at their toughest. Isn’t that what friends are supposed to do?”

Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow him on Twitter: @stevecarprj.