"The very first game I played against him, we were down at 16th and Jackson," Magee, the veteran Philadelphia University coach, said yesterday, "and he decided to throw a length-of-the-court pass through Jimmy Lynam's chest. And when the air went out of Jimmy and we picked him up, I thought, 'Who's that guy?'

"That's John Chaney."

Chaney, 76, is known nationally for the 24 seasons he coached at Temple plus his 2001 induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. But it was his life before Temple, his 10 successful seasons at Cheyney State, that earned him induction yesterday into the Small College Coaches Association Hall of Fame at the University of the Sciences.

He compiled a 225-59 record with the Wolves from 1972 through 1982. His team captured the 1978 NCAA Division II national championship.

Chaney, who was introduced by Magee, has many fond memories of his days at Cheyney, his teams, and the camaraderie he had with students and his fellow coaches, especially women's head coach C. Vivian Stringer (now at Rutgers) - with whom he conducted practices for both teams.

Chaney also was an associate professor teaching health and physical education, and said he might have stayed past 10 years had school officials made him a full professor.

"In my humble beginnings at Cheyney, I think I enjoyed that more because I was teaching," Chaney said. "I think the biggest distinction was there was a closeness that was there. Now you come to a big school [Temple] where there were 35,000 [students]. They know my name, but I don't know them.

"At Cheyney, I could call kids' names out that weren't basketball players that I knew, who hung around, both boys and girls."

Chaney's best memory was of his team's winning the national championship. He reunited with most of his players from that team last month.

"They were just great guys, sitting around telling stories," he said. "I remember when we won the national championship. We were coming back through the airport and people were saying, 'That's Cheyney.' The guys were asking each other, 'What time is it?' and pointed to their [championship] watches and said, 'It's NCAA time.' "

That team became the symbol of Chaney's no-turnover philosophy of offense, something he carried on to Temple, where he won 516 games.

"That was my pride," he said. "That's the most important thing - guys believing that your philosophy works, but you've got to make them make it work. You don't holler 'please.' You've got to be a curmudgeon, and that I am."

Chaney got a laugh from Nate Ware, the women's basketball coach at USP, who presented the veteran coach with a miniature paddle reminiscent of the days when Ware was a student in Chaney's gym class at Sayre Junior High School in West Philadelphia.

In addition to Magee, the audience members yesterday included former Widener coach C. Alan Rowe, ex-Temple assistant Jay Norman, Temple athletic director Bill Bradshaw, and Owls sports information director emeritus Al Shrier.

Chaney Reaction

   Here are some of the things former Temple and Cheyney State coach John Chaney said yesterday after being inducted into the Small College Coaches Association Hall of Fame at the University of the Sciences:

"I always thought Herbie [Philadelphia University coach Herb Magee] should have gone to Temple before I went. In my opinion, there was no better coach in this city than Herb."

"It's difficult to recruit kids [at small colleges], and then you've got to look through all of that and try to find a diamond in the rough. How many diamonds in the rough are there?"