To his former players, Don Flanagan was stoic, detail-oriented, stubbornly obsessed with fundamentals and occasionally humorous — but he was unquestionably a great coach.
Former UNM point guard Amy Beggin said Flanagan was like “a little kid on the basketball court,” always smiling and enjoying every second.
During his tenure, Flanagan’s Lobos won five conference championships, posted 14-straight winning seasons and had 102 academic all-conference awards.
But UNM’s most decorated coach’s accomplishments — the postseason accolades and championship titles — are but a footnote to his legacy, said Nikki Heckroth-Lobato, a former player who is now 610 The Sports Animal’s women’s basketball color commentator.
“It’s going to be difficult to walk into The Pit and not see Flanagan standing there,” she said.
Somehow, fans and former players will grow accustomed to it.
On the basketball court, Flanagan showed little emotion and was calm and collected, said Abby Garchek-Jaramillo, who played for Flanagan from 1995-97.
“When I think about it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him yell at anyone,” she said. “In fact, I don’t think I ever heard him raise his voice. He was very strict on us those first few years because he had to be … but he was never a yeller.”
A yeller, no, but if there was one thing Flanagan was, it was a fundamentalist.
“He’s very good at teaching the basics of basketball — dribbling, passing, shooting,” said Cristal Garcia, a 2004 alumna and Pojoaque standout. “We would go two hours a practice sometimes doing nothing but the fundamentals.”
When he wanted to be, Flanagan was also a stand-up comedian.
Former UNM player Molly McKinnon, now Kansas’ assistant strength and conditioning coach, said Flanagan is known for his one-liners.
“This one time we were playing at BYU, and he made it a point to tell the team about the drop off they have going into the band pit from the court. Not five minutes into the game, I chased a ball out of bounds and fell off. After I climbed out, he looked at me and said, ‘I told you so.’”
UNM Director of Basketball Operations Jordan Adams said she’ll miss Flanagan.
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“When I was a player I would just look at him like, ‘Did he really just say that?’ not knowing whether to laugh or what to do,” she said. “Now that I work with him, I’ll just bust out laughing.”
What wasn’t a laughing matter, though, was Flanagan’s team rules. Dionne Marsh, the women’s all-time career point leader, said Flanagan’s coaching style took time to get used to.
“You appreciate Coach Flanagan more once you’re done,” she said. “Especially with all that he requires of you.”
But that didn’t mean that Flanagan didn’t show his amicable side during his 16-year career at UNM.
Wyoming assistant head coach Katie Kern, who graduated in 1999, recalled one Hawaii trip where Flanagan took to the team to a beach-side dinner.
“Being the land-locked New Mexico girls we were, we all decided to run into the water with our clothes on,” she said. ”Not only were the girls all out there, but Coach Flanagan was out there splashing around with us, too.”
Tamika Stukes-Daniel, who graduated in 1998, said she used to have to muster the courage to ask for dessert during team dinners.
“He always had the team on dietary restrictions,” she said. “We couldn’t eat this, or we had to have extra that. I was always the one on the team who was elected to ask Flanagan if we could have dessert after we won a game. You could always tell if he was happy with the team or not by his answer.”
No matter what, former UNM player Amanda Adamson said Flanagan’s legacy will live on.
“When I think of Flanagan I always think about the Dr. Seuss quote, ‘You can’t cry because it’s over; smile because it happened.”
