After accepting the offer, I was asked to report to the Cage for my Orientation. In an office crammed with media guides, Orioles memorabilia, and odds and ends associated with years of Virginia Athletics, I first met Mike Colley. Mike and I talked about the job, UVa sports, and their
expectations for reliability and quality in my new job. He emphasized that it was a fast-paced gig and not suited for everyone, but that they would be with me every step of the way.
I had never used the StatCrew software that is used to enter all of the statistical events that comprise each 40 minute basketball game but Mike gave me the StatCrew manual, a practice computer, and two game tapes from the 04-05 season. That was a mostly forgettable season that started with a lot of promise but ended with a 6-10 conference record and a second round loss to Villanova in the NIT. But wouldn’t you know that the two taped games that Mike gave me to learn my craft were the wins over Georgia Tech and North Carolina, both of which were secured with last-second shots by Todd Billet. You know Mike was smiling when he picked those two out.
I practiced relentlessly at home entering stats and rewinding, entering stats and rewinding until the first game of the 2005-06 season, the second to last season at U-Hall. Mike would be calling the stats for me to enter for that first game, just as he would for almost every men’s basketball game for the next 5 years. It was just an exhibition against Lehman College but they were keeping score so it was time to get down to business. With a knowing twinkle in his eye, he asked me if I was ready to go, and I told him that I would do my best.
Off we went through hundreds of shots, rebounds, assists and turnovers. His patience was evident but I was keeping up pretty well. We printed the halftime box with no worries and hustled through the second half. I was filled with pride and relief as I had made it though the entire game
without falling behind or missing any of Mike’s calls. I realized that something had gone horribly wrong when we printed out the final box score and Mike studied it for a minute before saying “What the hell?!” It turns out that the StatCrew system is very sophisticated but does not automatically account for defensive rebounds. This little misunderstanding caused Virginia to have an entire game’s worth of rebounds, all of them offensive. It took Mike a minute to figure out what had gone wrong but he finally wrapped his brain around what I had done, much to my horror.
Now most D-1 men’s basketball coaches expect to have the postgame box in their hands in the locker room very shortly after the game ends. Thanks to my amazing ability to ignore the defensive rebound, Mike and I had to comb through the entire first and second half play-by-play and figure out which rebounds needed to be re-branded correctly. This took almost 30 minutes after the final horn to sort out, the whole time being visited by various members of the coaching staff and the sports information office. Not once did Mike Colley raise his voice in frustration to me or chastise me for my idiocy. Instead he parried off each request without laying the blame on me, where it squarely belonged. I had worked with Mike for officially 2 hours and he already was watching my back, quite probably at his own professional expense. It turns out that was not an exception.
As the beginning of that season progressed, I got better at entering the stats but would miss some things and had a few catastrophes (total program freeze, a loose ball that knocked out the laptop for a few minutes) but Mike was always right there to help get me straightened out. In those early days, word filtered to me that Coach Gillen was pissed about the stats and wanted something fixed. Mike and the rest of the media relations staff never let that be known to me but instead kept pushing me to be better and kept teaching me how to do things the right way. We got to the end of that first season relatively unscathed and Mike and I had begun to build a relationship that now leaves me heartbroken by its absence.
Inputting stats for basketball games is somewhat about the technology but it’s mostly a conversation between two people. Just like any conversation, the more you talk with someone, the more you build a comfort level. Sometimes he would call in code, sometimes he would call descriptively, but we would get it all worked out. When I got stuck entering something wrong, or by missing the fourth putback on a five rebound sequence, he would move smoothly to capturing it for us to get fixed at the next timeout. I began to figure out the flow of his pauses and we could debate about whether to reward a player with an assist to someone feeding the post, although that point was not much debated over these last few seasons.
Stat input is challenging but is very manageable with a good team of caller and inputter and lots of focus on every minute of the game in front of you. Once I got the hang of the job, frankly, my biggest distraction was Mike dropping some razor-sharp, laugh-out-loud remark about the game, the crowd, or the officials. Karl Hess and Ted Valentine were favorites of his and I am saddened by the fact that I will never hear someone describe another fumbled assist opportunity as being foiled by someone with “hands like butt cheeks.”
Mike could be prickly at times, but for good and principled reasons. He would always chide assistant coaches, both home and away, for not saying “thank you” when picking up their timeout box scores. He always wanted to get the job done right. I quit asking whether he wanted me to fix the minutes of a sub that I had left out of the game for two minutes too long. Even if it didn’t make a huge difference in the grand scheme of things, Mike always wanted to get the details right. We definitely had some fun games together, including the opening of the JPJ against Arizona and a Sean Singletary fall-away jumper to beat Duke at the buzzer. I suppose that the paid staff is supposed to leave the fan hats at home but you could never take the diehard fan out of Mike Colley. Apologies to any Gamecast viewers of that Duke game as our enthusiasm for that finish might have delayed the input of that final play for longer than was appropriate.
But I think that is what makes the loss of Mike Colley so keen for so many people. Mike Colley was a true professional at his job and made gameday for basketball, football, lacrosse, and countless other sports more fun and more enjoyable for fans and the many members of the media. His catalogue of Virginia athletics knowledge was immense and if he didn’t know the answer off the top of his head, he would bulldog that question until he did. As a colleague, he was willing to help with any sort of job, often with some creative complaints and sarcastic gems to make it more fun. And there was no bigger fan of UVa athletics and the student-athletes who make Virginia Athletics what it is. It was always fun to listen to him scan the crowd for former UVa athletic greats (and some just sort-of greats) and point them out because he knew them all along with some story or stat to go with it.
I know that much is often made of those who die too young or unexpectedly, so for those that see this all as much ado about nothing, we can agree to disagree. I am sad for what we have lost but I am also sad for that which cannot be replaced in the future. I think that I would still be typing this if Mike had died 20 years from now because that would just have been 20 more years of notable service, funny stories, and true love for the University of Virginia.
The University has lost a dedicated and exceptional employee. The media relations staff has lost a unique talent and a beloved colleague. And I have lost someone I counted as a good man and a friend. I want him to be that balding guy in the UVa shirt in the Kroger who just turned the corner, but it isn’t. I want an email from him with lawyer jokes or coaching rumors to pop into my mailbox, but it won’t. I want him to be there waiting for me with a smile when I make my way down to the scorer’s table for the first exhibition game of Coach Bennett’s new tenure, but he won’t be.
I won’t claim to have been Mike Colley’s closest friend by any stretch of the imagination. But I was lucky to have known him and to have spent so many games working side-by-side with him. Mike is gone too soon and the loss I feel is mostly selfish and personal, but it’s how I feel. I don’t know if heaven exists, but if it does, I hope that Mike is happy there and that Doyle Smith has
already greeted him at the front door with a big smile and a warm handshake.
Rest in Peace, Michael Colley.
Memorial Service for Michael Colley: A public memorial service will be held for Virginia assistant athletics media relations director Michael Colley on Friday, July 17 at 3 p.m. in John Paul Jones Arena. All are invited to attend, with informal attire suggested. Immediately following the service a reception will take place in the student-athlete dining hall at the JPJ. Parking will be available on the surface lot and in the JPJ garage. John Paul Jones Arena is located at 295 Massie Road in Charlottesville on the University of Virginia Grounds.
Donations to the Michael Colley Memorial Lacrosse Fund: In lieu of flowers the family suggests memorial contributions be sent in Michael’s name to benefit the Virginia men’s lacrosse program.
Donations may be sent to the Virginia Athletics Foundation at this address:
Michael Colley Memorial Lacrosse Fund
c/o Virginia Athletics Foundation
PO Box 400833
Charlottesville, VA 22904
