(Coach) Richard “Digger” Phelps – XL Performance Training

Notre Dame Hardwood. At the start of the 1983-1984 season, we were going to have to find a replacement for John Paxton at the point guard position. We had two candidates, a returning letterman and a highly recruited freshman. By Christmas break, our returning lettermen was academically ineligible for the second semester and the highly recruited freshmen had a bad case of tendinitis. I was aware of Howard out of High School because he had been one of the best players in Washington, D.C. and had been recruited by Maryland and North Carolina for basketball. At the end of his senior season in high school, he played with Patrick Ewing and against Michael Jordan in the McDonald’s Capital Classic, one of the top high school all-star games of the era.

After clearing everything with his football coach Jerry Faust, I contacted Howard in Memphis where he was preparing for the Liberty Bowl against Boston College and Heisman Trophy winner Doug Flute. After helping Notre Dame to a 19-18 win in the Liberty Bowl, he flew from Memphis to Philadelphia and practiced with us for one practice before a game with Lasalle, which I held him out of. The next game, we played Holy Cross, and we put him in a uniform that didn’t fit, as half the number was in his shorts. What an athlete! That night in Worcester, Massachusetts, he was 6 of 7 shooting, had four assists, 2 steals, and scored 14 points in a 73-61 win. Less than two weeks after playing in a bowl game, he was our best player on the floor that night. We went on to win 9 of our next 11 games, including a nationally televised victory over Villanova when he made nine free throws down the stretch. We also beat a fifth-ranked Maryland team that featured Len Bias.

The Best all-around athlete I coached in my 20 years at Notre Dame was not on a basketball Scholarship and played just half the season. Joe Howard didn’t join the 1983-1984 team until January. We finished the regular season 17-11 and he was our leader during our run to the NIT finals. We never would have reached the NIT finals without him.