Former Bradley assistant Tony Barone passes

[tornado]

https://dailymemphian.com/section/sp...he-early-Grizz

Tony was assistant coach at Bradley under Dick Versace. A Chicago native, he played college ball at Duke
and also coached at Chicago St. Rita & Mt. Carmel. He also was head coach of Creighton and Texas A&M.
He then worked many years as assistant coach for the Grizzlies and in the front office of the Memphis Grizzlies - even as head coach for the latter half of the 2006-07 season after Mike Fratello stepped down. Tony is also credited with scouting and signing both Pau Gasol & Mark Gasol.

https://www.espn.com/nba/news/story?id=2714006

https://www.nba.com/grizzlies/news/grizzlies-announce-changes-basketball-operations-staff-121213

[wizard1]

Tony was a great guy and an outstanding coach. He had many friends in Peoria. He and Dick Versace were a great team and brought the Bradley Basketball program out of the doldrums and into the national spotlight. Tony will be missed.
Wizard

[tornado]

Tony's "jersey" needs to be retired - and some form of lifetime recognition be hung in the rafters at Carver
..later - same for DV!!

[tornado]

Most of the memories I have of Tony are 30-40 years old now...however....

When Green Bay came here to play in the CIT in 2013 (and Brian Barone was an assistant at Green Bay under Wardle)
Tony Barone was sitting right behind the Green Bay bench (game was held at the Renaissance Coliseum)

I saw Tony from where I was sitting and at halftime, I walked over and stopped behind the bench and said hello to Tony.
I doubt he would have recalled much more than that I was a Bradley fan saying "hi", but he greeted me politely
and chatted a few minutes and seemed genuinely happy to be back in Peoria. I would suspect that might have been the final time
he was here in Peoria, and Dave Snell posted this a couple weeks ago after visiting Tony - https://twitter.com/DaveSnellKaboom/...39297609027585

http://www.mvc.org/mbb/stats/2012-13/brad33.htm

I wondered at the time why the game wasn't stopped at one point and there wasn't a PUBLIC ACKNOWLEDGEMENT of Tony - since many in the home crowd probably didn't know he was there.

https://www.bradleyfans.com/forum/sports-forums/basketball-fan-talk/22835-final-bradley-77-tulane-72?p=378075#post378075

[Da Coach]

Nice tribute article about Tony Barone written by his son Brian, who is now the head coach at SIUE-
https://brianbaronecoach.wordpress.c...hat-is-my-dad/

[Mikovio]

That’s a good read and fitting tribute.