Florida vs. Louisville benefits families of 9/11 victims like Billy Minardi, a friend to both coaches.
By ANTONYA ENGLISH
Published December 13, 2003
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Billy Minardi was a successful stockbroker who spent his weekdays on Wall Street and the majority of his fall and winter weekends attending college basketball games in Kentucky.
He had strong ties to the game. His brother-in-law was Rick Pitino, the highly successful former Kentucky coach, now at Louisville. Florida coach Billy Donovan was a close friend.
Family, friends and college basketball were his passions.
"He had an unbelievable life," Donovan said. "He was a very, very vivacious guy, full of life, always had a great laugh, had a smile on his face all the time. He used to bring all his clients down to Kentucky to watch games. They loved it, sitting behind the bench, and he'd take them in the locker room. He was great to be around, he really was. He was always very, very good to me."
Minardi would have loved to be in Louisville today. Donovan believes he will be there in spirit.
Minardi worked for Cantor Fitzgerald and was among the thousands who died in the Sept.11 terrorist attacks in New York two years ago.
Donovan and Pitino have met four times, but when Florida (5-1) plays at Louisville (3-1) today at noon in the second annual Billy Minardi Classic, it'll be more than just a game. Proceeds will help victims of Sept.11.
"I know the purpose of myself and my team going to Louisville is in honor of his name and to help a lot of the victims of 9/11," Donovan said. "And that was my way for us to be a part of that."
Having Donovan participate in the game is special for Pitino.
"We want to try to bring in some people each year that knew Billy (Minardi) well," he said. "Billy Donovan and Ralph Willard (ex-Pitino assistant, current Holy Cross coach) knew Billy Minardi as well as any two friends that Billy had. Billy Minardi went to every NCAA Tournament that Billy played in, followed him obviously with me and was a big fan of Billy's. ... So we're very excited to have him. They happen to be the No.1 ranked team in the country as well, which is also an extra bonus."
To measure Minardi's life, you need only look at his death. When he was memorialized a few weeks after he died, there wasn't enough room to hold those who came to pay their respects.
"The church was completely packed with hundreds and hundreds of people," said Bill Donovan, Billy's father and also Minardi's close friend. "In fact, it was so full that there were hundreds more standing outside. They couldn't get in, but they wanted to be there. ... It was heartbreaking for Billy. You know, I don't think a lot of people really realized it and I don't know if he's really talked about it a whole lot, but Billy knew six or seven people well who were in the Twin Towers, friends of his. It was tough on him. And he was worried about Coach Pitino. He worried about him for a long time. Billy made sure he was there for him, like Coach had been there for Billy."
The special bond between Donovan and Pitino has been well-documented. Donovan was an undersized, out-of-shape guard at Providence when Pitino arrived and helped him become the star who led Providence to the Final Four in 1987.
Donovan briefly played in the NBA with the Knicks, whom Pitino coached. Pitino gave him his first assistant coaching job at Kentucky. It was Pitino who encouraged Donovan to take the coaching job at Marshall. And Pitino was among those who gave Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley a glowing recommendation for Donovan.
But it was Minardi who introduced Donovan to Wall Street and helped him get his first job out of college. Donovan worked for an investment banking firm for a year before joining Pitino at Kentucky.
"The ironic part of it was when I was a senior in college in the Big East tournament ... Coach Pitino made me go to Wall Street to sit down with Billy and look at what it was like working down in Wall Street," Donovan said. "And I didn't understand what it was like. It was nuts. Everything's quiet and all of a sudden they are yelling and screaming: "Buy, sell.' So I was kind of blown away. But I actually sat down with Billy there a little bit and that's how the whole thing with Wall Street started with me, through Billy."
And there are other stories, too numerous to tell, of Minardi's acts of kindness. Returning to Louisville brought another to mind for Donovan.
"We're in Louisville one year, and it was the first year the NCAA put in random drug testing," Donovan remembered. "They would pick four or five guys to test. After the game was over, I had to sit in the locker room for a long time because I didn't have enough fluids in me to get what they needed. So I sat there for a good hour, hour and a half and the team went back to the hotel and everybody else. Who came back and got me but Billy Minardi and took me back to the hotel."
This afternoon about 60 special guests of Pitino will attend, including Minardi's family and benefactors who helped raise $6-million to build Billy Minardi Hall, a student housing facility completed in August on the Louisville campus.
The game is sold out.
"It's going to be a first-class event and we're very excited to have the Gators in here," Pitino said.
