Basketball builds relationships. They are relationships that can transcend age and background. Thirty years on the relationship between Wizards head coach Eddie Jordan and assistant Tom Young is as strong and close as ever.

It almost didn’t happen. As he prepared to leave the District’s Archbishop Carroll High School Jordan probably had more football scholarships to choose from than basketball opportunities. Jordan even considered playing basketball at Loyola of Chicago, but 1973 turned out to be a very busy spring and summer for both Jordan and Young.

By 1973 Tom Young was an established fixture in Washington basketball circles. He had captained the ’58 University of Maryland team that made the NCAA Final Four. As a coach he had been a success for nine years at Catholic University and was doing well at American University. Young even spent two years as an assistant coach back at Maryland where a graduate named Gary Williams was helping out with the freshman team.

Young’s success at American was likely to continue especially if he could convince Jordan to stay at home and play his college ball with the Eagles. In six years as head coach at American Young had already broken new ground with the Eagles by guiding them to their first-ever NIT appearance with a team that featured Washington native and future NBA first round pick Kermit Washington.

So it was all set. Young would continue to build on his success at American and if Jordan, who was leaning toward playing for the Eagles joined the team, there were would be more bright nights in the dark old Fort Meyer Gym that served as the home of American University basketball. That would have been a nice plan, but Young’s success at American put an end to his days coaching basketball inside the beltway.

At the urging of his then assistant coach Tom Davis, Young decided to inquire about the opening at Rutgers University. A couple of phone calls and an interview later Young was hired by Rutgers. Basketball builds relationships. Young still wanted Jordan and at the “eleventh hour” in the recruiting process he brought Jordan to New Jersey. Jordan was sold.

So it wasn’t much of an “off-season” for either Young or Jordan in 1973. Young had built a foundation of success over 20 years as player and a coach in the Washington area but now he was moving on. Jordan who thought he might be playing at home in college was following Young as he moved on to that bigger challenge.

“From the time I recruited him as a player, Eddie was just as enjoyable to be around as a person. He was an out standing young man to coach. He carried it over to his teammates and I can’t imagine Eddie has an enemy in the world. His parents did a great job,” Young recalled.

The previous season Rutgers, coached by Dick Lloyd and assisted by some guy named Dick Vitale, made it to the NIT. It was still a big deal to be in the NIT in 1973 and Young with Jordan in tow was able to again get Rutgers to the NIT at the end of his first season the 73/74 campaign. Bigger things were ahead.

In his second season Young would lead Rutgers to its first ever NCAA Tournament appearance. Like he did at American Young had put Rutgers into uncharted territory. The 74/75 team lost to Louisville in the first round by four points, but the program now seemed to be on its way. Still, few could have expected “the unforgettable season”.

In Rutgers basketball history the 1975/76 season is known as “the unforgettable season”. With “Fast Eddie” Jordan calling the plays at the point “unforgettable” may have been an understatement. The Scarlet Knights who had just made the NCAA tournament for the first time suddenly became a national story.

Young’s team played an up-tempo, high-pressure style that was winning fans almost as quickly as it won games. Rutgers finished the regular season with a perfect 26-0 record. The team had put on a show often scoring in the nineties and topping 100 points on several occasions.

There had to be doubters. Yes, Young had done a nice job coaching Rutgers to an undefeated season but how much damage could this team really do in only its second-ever NCAA tournament appearance? Simply put, it was unforgettable.

Rutgers made it all the way to the Final Four in Philadelphia. The buzz was about a title game match-up between the two undefeated teams, Rutgers and Bobby Knight’s Indiana Hoosiers. That was the plan, but as Young and Jordan knew plans could change.

In the semi-final game against Michigan the high scoring Scarlet Knights struggled to score and lost to the Wolverines 85-70. The team that really didn’t have a bad game all year suddenly had a game when the shots just didn’t go down. Rutgers would score over 90 points in the third-place game but lost to UCLA 106-92.

So the “unforgettable season” ended with losses but with a 31-2 record for a previously unheralded Rutgers team Young was named NCAA coach-of-the-year by United Press International. There’s more. Basketball builds relationships. The Michigan team that Rutgers lost to in the semi-final game featured Wizards assistant coach Phil Hubbard.

Young would go on to coach at Rutgers until 1985. He would finish as the winningest coach in Rutgers men’s basketball history. Young led Rutgers to four NCAA Tournament appearances and five NIT’s. Eleven of the players he recruited including Jordan were drafted by the NBA and he coached 10 of Rutgers’ top 11 all-time scorers.

Before his time at Rutgers ended, Young would be joined on the Scarlet Knights bench by Jordan. After seven seasons in the NBA Jordan was ready to try coaching and he served as a volunteer assistant to Young at Rutgers and followed Young to his next coaching stop at Old Dominion University.

“I was not surprised when Eddie called me about coaching after his time in the NBA,” Young noted. With his personality I thought he would be a good recruiter. He could relate well to parents. With Eddie, he just enjoyed basketball so much. Whether he was playing with us at Rutgers or the Lakers he was just so into the game”.

At Old Dominion, like he did at American and Rutgers, Young would help to elevate the program. He guided the Monarchs to their first-ever NCAA tournament win. Young’s run at Old Dominion lasted six seasons and ended after the 90/91 season.

In 34 years as a head coach Young won 534 games. He could look back on a career filled with success that actually started in a uniform as a student at the University of Maryland. More importantly he could spend more time with his wife Nancy (they will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary this year) and their children and grandchildren.

Retirement was not all-basketball free. When Jordan got the job as head coach of the Sacramento Kings, he invited Young to help out at training camp one year. Jordan would call on Young from time-to time for advice or he would ask him to look at game tape.

“Once I got to Sacramento as a head coach I brought Tom out to work training camp,” Jordan said. “I had Tom Young there to help me on the press defense and Pete Carrill to help me on the Princeton offense. It was like having oil and vinegar out there.”

Jordan went on to New Jersey. Young went on with retirement. Then this past summer that all changed. Jordan was back in Washington. He called Young and retirement was over for now. Young couldn’t say no. The two were together again close to where it all started some thirty years ago.

“You know Tom has always had, even as a head coach at Rutgers, a very youthful outlook,” Jordan emphasized. “He is a people person. He can communicate and have great relationships with teenagers, young men in the NBA, or coaches like myself, Hubbard and (Mike) O’Koren.”

Young was originally from a small town outside Pittsburgh and Jordan from Washington, D.C. Though raised in different times, both had parents in Young’s words that believed “there was straight and narrow” path to being successful. The path was followed. The game brought them together.