Bernie Fine is the Rodney Dangerfield of the Syracuse University basketball coaching staff. Hell, possibly in all of college basketball. Jim Boeheim gets all the credit for being a part of Syracuse since the Mesozoic Era but few folks outside of CNY realize that Bernie Fine has been around almost as long.
A graduate of Syracuse University ('67) who managed the basketball team (which Boeheim played on), coached at nearby Henniger High before joining Jim Boeheim as an assistant coach at SU in 1976 and being here ever since, Fine is our unsung hero, focusing on center/forward development. The list of players he's mentored includes Roosevelt Bouie, Louis Orr, Derrick Coleman, Rony Seikaly, John Wallace, Etan Thomas and Arinze Onuaku to name just a few.
Well he's about to get sung (that's can't be right). Fine has been named a member of this year's induction class for the Greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame.
In 1976, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim made Fine part of his first coaching staff. Fine owns the longest active streak of consecutive seasons at one school among assistant coaches in the NCAA's Division I.
Fine joins former Syracuse football player Chris Gedney and others in the class, which will be officially inducted during a ceremony on Oct. 17 at Drumlins.