What ever happened to Tim Bowler?
One of the surprises of this blog is the people I hear from. Somehow they've tracked me down via this thing. Not sure how that works.
Today I touched bases with Tim Bowler, my old point guard from John Muir School in San Bruno. He is a teacher and the junior varsity basketball coach at Menlo-Atherton High School.
Back in '76, Bowler was 10 years old and he had a gift for shooting a basketball. I didn't teach him a thing. Kid could just flat-out shoot. We ran inbounds plays for him. One was "Rick Mount" - named after the old Purdue star.
Tim Bowler scored a million points on "Rick Mount."
Tim's dad, Eamon, worked for the San Francisco Parks Department at Kezar Stadium. Eamon got off work at 2 p.m. and helped me coach the kids after school.
Led by Tim, we were loaded. We had Joey Serafini, a tremendous - if un-focused - athletic talent. Joey grabbed a ton of rebounds, when he wasn't pulling fire alarms and throwing rocks. His little brother Dan became a major league pitcher.
Then there was red-haired, freckle-faced Sean O'Reilly. He was also a monster on the boards, with his mother Rose providing the inspiration from the stands in her thick Irish brogue.
Another standout was Mike Cochrane, whose dad Bill was a San Francisco firefighter who had a cameo in "The Towering Inferno." Bill called his son "Mickey" and pushed him hard. Mike was the toughest little kid I've ever seen.
That team went 19-0. We beat everyone ... other playground teams, Catholic schools, everybody. Tim Bowler was the main reason. He practically had 20 points in the scorebook just getting out of bed in the morning.
It was nice to reminisce with Tim and hear about his team. I'd like to watch him coach someday to see if "Rick Mount" still works.
- John Murphy
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