'Coach K's' Early Struggles

On Jan. 5, 1983, the Duke men's basketball team hosted tiny Wagner College from Staten Island, N.Y., in a game the 5-4 Blue Devils desperately needed to win.

Duke lost that night, 84-77, and what ensued over the coming months was a firestorm of criticism and chaos directed at its third-year head coach with a funny haircut and a last name even the school’s most passionate fans struggled to pronounce.

Mike Krzyzewski, now 74, announced last week that he plans to retire at the end of this coming season — capping a remarkable career in which he’s won more than 1,000 games, five national championships and three Olympic gold medals.

Krzyzewski will be remembered by most as one of the greatest coaches in all of sports, a man who used his West Point background to instill a culture of discipline at an institution that was better known for producing CEOs than centers before he took over.

But the most relevant part of his journey for us as leaders might be those first three years when he compiled a combined 38-47 record and weathered blistering negativity.

“There were not a lot of yuks in Durham,” author John Feinstein writes in his book The Legends Club. “The team was divided. Some of the seniors were telling the freshmen they might as well transfer because there was no way Krzyzewski would be around beyond their sophomore years — if that long.“

On our leadership journeys, just about all of us will be tested, particularly early on. We believe in our philosophies, but confidence isn’t really confidence unless it’s endured criticism, strife and failure.

Despite his struggles, Krzyzewski had conviction in his beliefs. The team went 24-10 in his fourth season, 23-8 a year later and 37-3 in his sixth, winning the ACC regular season and tournament championships and reaching a Final Four.

If some boisterous fans had their way, though, he would’ve been fired in 1983. Who knows how the rest of his coaching journey would’ve panned out?

When adversity comes tomorrow, next week or next month, let’s not think about a titan of our industry whose prowess we feel we’ll never emulate.

Let’s instead imagine a lonely coach in 1980s Durham prepared to move his family out of town.