Bob Hurley is a high school basketball coaching legend. He’s been the head coach of St. Anthony’s High School in Jersey City, New Jersey for the past 43 years and has won over 1,000 career games, 27 state championships, and four high school national titles.
Hurley has turned down numerous college head coaching gigs in the past to stay at the catholic high school in one of New Jersey’s toughest neighborhoods.
The school itself, fights to keep its doors open year after year as the financially challenged school holds fundraisers through out the year to avoid shutting down.
Hurley, who could probably have almost any basketball job in the country, has declined to take his $8,500 per year salary from the school. Hurley is retired who used to be a Parole Officer and member of the Jersey City Recreation department, is now St. Anthony’s President where he declines to take a salary from that position as well.
“It’s been very satisfying to find out (students) stories,” Hurley said. “For years, I only knew the 45 to 50 basketball players in my program, about a quarter of the school. I’m finding out about the rest of the kids in school, their talents, their backgrounds. I’ll be in my office on the second floor, and the kids, who are around the age of my grandchildren, come in all the time to talk about their day. It’s enjoyable. They’re much more relaxed around me than my players are.”
Hurley fights every year for the school, which can be seen in the 2010 documentary “The Street Stops Here,” a film that highlights the 2007-2008 St. Anthony’s High School Basketball Team and Hurley.
If you are not familiar with Hurley or the St. Anthony’s program I highly recommend watching the film. The Friars, led by Hurley, have been one of the top basketball programs in the country for the last 40 years despite being a school that doesn’t have much to work with.
They don’t have a gym, weight room, or top facilities like other top prep schools yet that doesn’t affect their performance on the court. What Bob Hurley does for his school is incredible and touching.
