Tad Boyle: Strong to the Hole

The CU men’s basketball coach has a fiery competitiveness that bubbles over onto the golf course.

Sam Adams

When Tad Boyle posts a score, you won’t be hardpressed to find it. Sheets of paper with “77-48” adorn the doors and walls within the University of Colorado’s men’s basketball coach’s office. They serve as a motivational reminder of the Buffaloes’ 2013-2014 season- ending NCAA tournament loss to the University of Pittsburgh.

Nothing would please the Buffs’ highly driven 51-year old head coach more than leading Colorado to a Final Four—and a national championship. Going into his fifth season, he’s already taken the Buffs to “the Dance” an unprecedented three consecutive times, and his 92-49 coaching record gives him the highest winning percentage (.648) of any coach in the program’s history. The Greeley native also has coached four seasons at the University of Northern Colorado and is 148-115 overall as a Division I coach.

Boyle is a hoops-a-holic, but he will manage to pull away from drawing offensive and defensive sets long enough to play some golf. He competes hard on the links, too. He’s a friendly player who’ll enjoy your company—preferably while walking away the winner.

“I take the game seriously and I want to play well,” Boyle says. “But my expectation level before I go out has to be realistic. You want to play well, but if you take the game too seriously it’s not fun. You want the guys you’re playing with to have a good time.

“If I’m down on the golf course, I will press to try to get back into the game. I want to be the guy who can go out with someone who shoots in the 70s and feel like I can hang with him—even though I’m not as good. But I also want to be able to play with a guy who shoots 120 and he’s going to feel comfortable too.

“I think that is the people part of golf that’s important, when you learn how to deal with different skill levels and different frustration levels and making people feel comfortable around you.”

Boyle taught himself golf while he played for basketball coaches Ted Owens and Larry Brown at the University of Kansas. “It was more of an offseason getaway. My college roommate (Jeff Dishman) and I would go out and play nine holes or hit balls. I also remember that there was a student-assistant on KU’s staff named John Calipari.

“John and I would go out with Jeff, late in the afternoon in Lawrence, Kansas at Alvamar. We’d tee it up, have a good time and . . . there may have been an occasional bet. I can’t remember. Golf has a way of bringing people together and that’s what I like about it.”

Brown owned a home on a golf course. In the summer, Boyle would house-sit his coach’s two Labradors—and sneak in a few holes before sundown.

“Back then I was in the 90s and 100s,” Boyle says. “It was just fun to hit the ball, go find it and hit it again. You make a par here or birdie there and your juices started to flow. It was more of an off-season, let’s get away thing.

“It’s one of those things like most golfers understand; once you start, you catch the bug. But I was not very good—I’m still not very good. I’ve taken maybe two or three lessons through the years. I’m at the point now where I know that it’s probably what I need to get better at the game. For me, it becomes a time issue. I just don’t put in the time.

“I always say I have the Allen Iverson approach to golf—practice is way overrated. Practice? You’re talkin’ about practice? I’m not going to the range, I’m going to the first tee. I might go to the range to loosen up, but I’m not going there to work on my game. Obviously I know that it’s not the way to get better. But I did not grow up with a golf club in my hand. I’ve acquired a love for the game and a respect for the game.”

Boyle casually confirms that he’s broken 80 twice. The first time it happened was at RiverRidge Golf Complex in Eugene, Oregon, on Aug. 23, 1996—the day before his wedding to Ann Schell. He carded another 79 during a CU golf outing at Colorado National Golf Club.

“See, he doesn’t tell us he’s broken 80,” says Mark Turgeon, men’s basketball coach at the University of Maryland. “He doesn’t tell us about breaking 80, then he tries to win the first tee and get more strokes than he deserves. He takes half of a backswing and still hits it a mile!”

Boyle has been an assistant on Turgeon’s staffs at Jacksonville State and Wichita State. Turgeon first learned of Boyle’s serious side while the two were Jayhawks teammates.

“One thing about Tad is, he’s competitive in everything—basketball, cards . . . he’s driven in everything,” Turgeon says. “But he’s really good at hiding the competitiveness. And always serious. I can remember being a college freshman, wanting to go out to eat pizza late at night and have a good time. There’s Tad, in for the night and reading books on how to make money.”

Boyle was earning a six-figure salary as a stockbroker in Boulder in 1994 when he was involved in an automobile accident. A car ran a red light and smashed head-on into Boyle’s Toyota Camry. The driver-side air bag saved Boyle’s life.

To this day Boyle doesn’t remember details about the accident. But he knows it affected his thinking. He left his job as a stockbroker to accept a $16,000 salary at the University of Oregon in 1994. The accident was his calling to college basketball coaching. “Some people are forced, and others have a choice,” Boyle says. “If I had a wife and two kids at the time, I’d never make the move. But I was single at the time.”

By 1997, Boyle was married and working at Tennessee, where he crossed paths at the athletics’ training table with Volunteers’ quarterback Peyton Manning. In ’98, Turgeon convinced Boyle to move to Jacksonville, Alabama. Two years later the two were together at Wichita State.

Boyle was more than prepared to be a head coach when the opportunity arose for him to return to Greeley in 2006, to coach at Northern Colorado. Boyle, a self-described gym rat as a teenager, was the state’s player of the year in 1981 when he led Greeley Central High to a championship. The Bears went 4-24 in his first season. Boyle didn’t post “4-24” on the walls and doors inside the basketball office. “But we put up ‘326 out of 326’” Boyle says. “There were 326 Division I teams in college basketball that year. Our RPI (Ratings Percentage Index) at the end of the year was 326th—we literally were the worst team in Division I basketball.”

Three years later Boyle coached UNC into the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history. Boyle’s passion for winning started when he was a six-year-old kid playing basketball and baseball. “I loved baseball too. Baseball probably was my favorite sport growing up, but it’s not a sport you can play on your own,” Boyle says. “But my mom never worried about me because I could entertain myself. I had an older brother that I would try to tag along with— and I wouldn’t have been the basketball player I was without him.

“So I was always playing with and against older kids, getting beat up … there were a lot of tears when I was younger because I didn’t like losing. I wouldn’t say I’m a guy who likes winning as much as I’m a guy who hates losing.”

And that “hates to lose” attitude makes it all the more enjoyable for some to beat Boyle on the golf course. “We were playing someplace in Colorado,” Turgeon recalls. “I wasn’t having a great round. But I had a 45-footer to make on the 18th hole. I made it, and he had to write me a check. I don’t believe I’ve cashed it yet.”

Boyle’s success on the basketball court has not gone unnoticed. His name comes up frequently when high-profile Division I basketball jobs become available. CU recently extended Boyle’s contract through April, 2019. On the surface, it appears Boyle is a basketball “lifer.”

“I wish I could agree with that, but I have a timetable,” he admits. “It may change, but I know how I feel right now. Obviously I want to see my three kids get through college. My youngest is 12 now. In 10 years I’ll be 61, and that’s when I’m going to sit down to re-evaluate. But I don’t see myself coaching into my mid-60s or 70s.

“One of the reasons is, I live in a great part of the country. There are a lot of golf courses in this state I haven’t played. I want to be able to kick back and enjoy life. Now, will I be involved in basketball in some capacity? Absolutely. But will it be as a head coach, with the pressures and time commitments that come with it? I’m not sure of that right now.”

One thing of which Boyle is sure: the only motivational scores the 14 handicap would like to post in the future are those related to golf, not basketball.

Colorado AvidGolfer is the state’s leading resource for golf and the lifestyle that surrounds it. It publishes eight issues annually and proudly delivers daily content via www.coloradoavidgolfer.com.