Tom Brennan’s alarm clock rings at 4:15 a.m. Monday through Friday, rousing the 55-year-old University of Vermont basketball coach out of bed for his gig as a drive-time radio personality.
In Burlington, Vt., the “Corm and the Coach” show on 101.3 WCPV-FM, which features Steve Cormier and his high-decibel, salt-and-pepper haired sidekick Brennan, dominates the dial with never a dull moment.
“Everybody says, ‘How do you do it?’ I take naps,”‘ says Brennan, who, near his bedtime, at 7 p.m. Friday begins his 19th and final season at Vermont, kicking off his farewell tour versus No. 1-ranked Kansas University in Allen Fieldhouse.
“This day and age, everybody works out, looks fit and trim. I take naps and look like ‘Shrek.'”
Unlike some of his burned-out coaching counterparts, Brennan, because of his 5:30-9 a.m. radio co-hosting duties, does not burn the midnight oil in the Vermont basketball office.
“I go to bed at 8:30, 9 p.m.,” said Brennan, starting his 13th year in radio and 33th in coaching. “I have to miss the second half of the college basketball doubleheaders, the Kansas-Missouri games (on ESPN’s Big Monday).”
Brennan — he reads his own poetry on his show on Fridays and talks politics and pop culture as well as sports — is known to awaken a coach or two for interviews during the early morning hours.
“When somebody comes to town to play us, we’ll call the coach at 6 a.m. and put him on the show,” Brennan said. “I tell ’em, ‘You better get up and watch some tape on us, because we’re up working on you.'”
He’s slated to have KU coach Bill Self on his show today.
“It’s a little uncomfortable. What are you going to say? ‘What kind of defense are you going to play against us? How are you going to stop Coppenrath (Taylor, senior All-America candidate)?'” Brennan said. “So we’ll just talk about other things and have some fun.”
Brennan had longtime KU broadcaster Max Falkenstien on his show at 6:15 a.m. Eastern time Tuesday.
“Max said, ‘How do you do it?”‘ Brennan said with a laugh. “I asked him, ‘How do YOU do it? You’ve been at one place 59 years.'”
Falkenstien returned the quip to Brennan.
“I said, ‘I know a lot of announcers who think they’re smart enough to be coaches. I didn’t know any coaches that thought they were smart enough to be announcers,'” Falkenstien said. “He seemed to get a kick out of that. I told him Digger Phelps said last night on TV that Kansas was the most overrated team in the nation. He said, ‘I sure hope he’s right.’ The show was a lot of fun.”
Brennan, a native of Philipsburg, N.J., who has worked at Yale as a head coach and at Villanova, Seton Hall and William and Mary as assistants, has decided that after this season it’s time to hang up his whistle but not his headset.
He plans on continuing with the radio show, which in the past has overtaken East Coast icon Howard Stern in the ratings.
“My wife won’t let me give up both paychecks yet,” Brennan quipped.
As for his decision to leave coaching: “I have found peace in a transient business, a cut-throat business. We’ve taken Vermont to the top of the mountain. There’s no place higher it can go.
“I look at it like hope diamonds: There are 326 diamonds (head-coaching jobs) in the world, and I’ve had a polished one to hold in my hands for almost 20 years. It’s time to let somebody else hold one.”
He figures there’s no better place to open his farewell season than historic Allen Fieldhouse.
“I’ve always wanted to coach at Allen Fieldhouse. It’s the mecca of basketball,” Brennan said. “I been to Kansas to recruit (former Iowa State standout) Paul Shirley, but I’ve never been to Allen. I’m scared to death, but really excited about the game. I’m thankful Larry Keating made it happen.”
KU schedule-maker Keating, a former Seton Hall athletic director who has known Brennan since the early 1970s, said the coach is one of a kind.
“He’s one of the nice people in the game,” said Keating, KU’s senior associate athletic director. “Tom said before he retired he wanted to shake hands with John Wooden in Pauley Pavilion and play a game in Allen Fieldhouse. It’s one of those great games because you know it means so much to him and his kids.”
This year, Brennan has been rewarded with, on paper at least, “the best team in Vermont history.”
It features 6-9 forward Coppenrath and 5-11 guard T.J. Sorrentine, who averaged 24.1 and 14.8 points a game last season.
“We’ve been charmed,” Brennan said of the team that has won two straight America East tourney titles. “Sports Illustrated calls us the most ‘rootable’ team in the country. We’re pretty now, one of the pretty ones. Everybody’s looking at us.”
You can bet Brennan will have a lot to talk about on his radio show next week, win or lose.
“I love it. It’s gratifying for me,” the coach said of his many hours on the air. “And it’s been great getting the message out about our program.”