Bob Tallent

Bob Tallent | B.S. '71; men's basketball player, 1968-69; men's basketball coach, 1975-81

The GW Athletic Hall of Famer set six school records during his one season as a player in Foggy Bottom, then returned to campus in 1970 as an assistant coach. At age 28, he became one of the youngest head coaches in the nation. The Smith Center opened that winter.

"Before the Smith Center, we practiced at the Tin Tabernacle on the University Yard. The walls were the out-of-bounds markers, you couldn't stand on the sideline. It was regulation-size, I think. I left a lot of sweat and blood on that floor. During the summer, after I started coaching here, I would open it up, and everybody in the city would come down here and play—Adrian Dantley, Dave Bing, all those guys. It had a tin roof, baby—it would be 110 degrees in there.

"On Fridays during the season, we always practiced early. And I had to come over and run out all the law students—GW students would use it to play pickup games. Mark Warner, after he became governor, I saw him in Richmond, and he said, ‘Coach Tallent, you remember kicking us out of the gym?' And I said, ‘I do, but if I'd known you were going to be governor, I wouldn't have done it.'"