Miramonte’s Blackwood ‘larger than life’
About 30 former Miramonte male basketball players, ages 30 to 50, showed up for open gym at their alma mater in Orinda on Friday night.
They weren’t there to play hunch or relive glory days. Instead, they ran the Olympic drill, three-man weaves and the famed Miramonte muscle layup line.
After two hours, the last thing these professional sorts with impressive degrees and young families did was gather in a circle, put their hands together up high and in unison bellowed: “1-2-3 — together!”
It was just like they did as high school players, every day after school, after each practice, each timeout, each game. For their team, for their school, for each other. For their coach. Tom Blackwood coached 38 varsity seasons (1965 to 2003) and racked up six league titles, a North Coast Section crown in 1998, and 638 victories, the sixth most in state history at the time of his retirement.
He was a fiery, passionate and personable sort who wore his heart on his sweatsuit, adored his players and the game, and worked relentlessly and meticulously at his craft.
Last month, Blackwood died from complications from pneumonia following a Panama Canal spring cruise. One of the Bay Area’s most respected basketball coaches was 81.
The public is invited to pay last respects to Blackwood from 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday in a celebration for life at the Claremont Hotel. On Friday, his former players celebrated their coach and mentor at his second home — the hardwood.
“It wasn’t the prettiest basketball, but we were all there together to honor him,” said Blackwood’s oldest son, Justin, a two-time all-league player. “Most of the guys have very busy lives, so to be there meant a lot.”
Coach Blackwood meant so much to Chris Kuhner, a 1986 All-Northern California forward who is now a lawyer in Oakland.
“He loved being a coach. It was what he was born to do,” Kuhner said. “He was the best in-game coach I was ever part of. He constantly outcoached other teams. We always exceeded our limitations because of him.”
His team invariably were prepared. Justin Blackwood often would join his dad scouting teams, even against opponents the Matadors were supposed to beat handily.
“He always respected his opponent and always had us prepared,” Justin said. It was a labor of love. “He always told me how much he loved going to work,” Justin said. “It wasn’t an act. He genuinely loved to coach and teach. He never went through the motions.”
Blackwood was born and raised in San Francisco but moved to Atherton. He was a three-sport star at MenloAtherton and inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame as an athlete.
He also was inducted into Miramonte’s first Hall of Fame Class two years ago.
Besides his big personality, it was the little things that made him so successful, Kuhner said, like filling out long hand every scoresheet. “Every game, he’d total up our averages and we’d know exactly where we stood.”
He did bring on Doug Senz to be his scorekeeper in the early 1970s. Senz, a former aquatics athlete at Miramonte, knew little about basketball. “For the first couple of years, he wouldn’t let me write in the names in the book,” Senz said. “After three years, he finally let me. I knew I had finally made it in the eyes of Tom Blackwood.”
The two were inseparable over the next 30 years.
“Tom was larger than life,” Senz said. “He was everything you wanted in a coach. He cared about all his players as individuals, far away from the court. That’s a big reason why he got the best out of kids as athletes. He genuinely cared. Not just for his team, either. He worked with kids from all over.”
That was backed by coaches throughout the Bay Area.
“He was a class guy who always had a kind word or was willing to help,” said NCS assistant commissioner Pat Cruickshank, who coached at San Leandro and HeritageBrentwood.
Said former Half Moon Bay and Riordan head coach Rich Forslund: “Always gracious.”
Retirement at first was tough. Blackwood was seen at almost every big game around the Bay Area, but ultimately left that circle to travel the world with his girlfriend, Geri Owings, the last decade of his life. They were reunited at his 50th Menlo-Atherton class reunion.
“He lived life to the fullest,” Kuhner said. “He lived the life we dreamed. He was the spice of life.”