Healing on Hawk Hill: Martelli reconciles with Saint Joseph’s years after firing led to bitter split

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Phil Martelli raised a clipped net in the air as he celebrated in a throwback photo on a social media post that wished the former Saint Joseph’s coach a happy birthday.

Even the new athletic director sent Martelli birthday wishes in the August post.

It seemed like a nice enough gesture toward Martelli from his former school.

What it was, to those who followed the bitter public split that ensued when Saint Joseph’s fired Martelli in 2019 after 34 seasons at the school, was the first sign of a public olive branch that perhaps the acrimonious relationship was starting to thaw.

Martelli was happy to reciprocate with social media photos this month after he made his first formal visit since the professional divorce with Saint Joseph’s.

There is a tradition at Saint Joseph’s for fans to cheer, “The Hawk Will Never Die!”

Turns out, neither did the idea that Martelli and the Hawks could find harmony again on Hawk Hill.

“Good people are involved,” Martelli said. “So I’m hopeful good things will come of that.”

The 72-year-old Martelli was never better than when he turned a tiny school in Philadelphia into the talk of college basketball in 2003-04 by leading the Hawks to a No. 1 ranking in The Associated Press poll, a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and a run to the Elite Eight.

Martelli could never duplicate that season in the spotlight, and a string of losing seasons finally caught up to the popular coach in 2019. With a new athletic director in place, Martelli was fired that March following a third straight losing season.

Getting fired is part of the game for coaches in all sports. Martelli said his stung more because after the decades of service he gave to Saint Joseph’s, he thought he deserved more of a conversation with former AD Jill Bodensteiner rather than a flat-out, blindsided dismissal.

“A conversation as opposed as to being called into a decision that I didn’t see” coming, Martelli said.

While there may have been merit in cutting ties with Martelli based on NCAA Tournament appearances, his stewardship of the program had never been called into doubt.

Bodensteiner, though, making her first major decision after months on the job, said at the news conference to announce the decision, “I think we needed a culture change, a culture shift and I think we’re going to get that with the new coach.”

Billy Lange replaced Martelli and brought neither wins — a 81-104 record and no tournament appearances in six seasons as coach — nor the so-called culture change to Hawk Hill. He quit Saint Joseph’s only weeks before last season began to take a job with the New York Knicks.

Steve Donahue replaced Lange and led the Hawks to the NIT quarterfinals.

Martelli landed at Michigan as an associate head coach under Juwan Howard from 2019 through 2024.

“I’m delighted that I did it,” Martelli said. “I didn’t really understand what ‘big’ was like. But man, did I miss home. I missed everything about Philadelphia. I miss those moments.”

Yet Martelli — who heckled a CBS broadcaster, rose from a coffin on his own TV show and picked the Eagles to win the Super Bowl at a chicken wing eating contest — remained estranged from the Jesuit school.

“It became to me a place that I worked and not a place that I lived,” Martelli said, “after having lived it for 34 years. If somebody was to say, how did they do last night? I don’t know.”

Bodensteiner left in April to become commissioner of the Horizon League. It was one step in an evolving process that led to Martelli’s return.

Martelli credited a handful of people at Saint Joseph’s that included university president Cheryl McConnell and new athletic director Ash Puri for facilitating the reconciliation.

Martelli and Puri met for breakfast and hashed out issues that needed resolution before a return trip to Hawk Hill was truly on the table.

Martelli needed to talk to his family, yes, but also to get the blessing from others associated with the university who left — forced or otherwise — when he was fired.

“I just said, hey, look, this is on the table, and I wanted you to hear about it from me and not social media or word of mouth,” Martelli said. “In a way, I wanted them to be comfortable with it. I didn’t want them to think, oh, you’re turning your back on us because they invited you.”

Martelli had returned to the campus arena only once since he was fired, for former player Rap Curry’s funeral in 2023.

Martelli says he’s retired from coaching but still tethered to the game, through his motivational podcast, broadcasting and connection to his sons at Virginia Commonwealth University. Philip Martelli is the head coach at VCU and brother Jimmy is his top assistant. The Martelli family gathered for a celebratory photo in March in Pittsburgh after Philip led the Rams to a second straight Atlantic 10 Tournament title.

Martelli’s familial ties rule out any formal relationship with Saint Joseph’s. He says there are ongoing discussions about next steps.

Perhaps naming the court in his honor?

Saint Joseph’s made a half-hearted effort at a 20th anniversary celebration of the 2004 team, but Martelli and most of the key players were absent.

Jameer Nelson, the consensus National Player of the Year that season, is now the Philadelphia 76ers’ general manager. Delonte West, the star guard who flanked Nelson and parlayed that into an eight-year NBA career, has dealt with well-documented substance abuse issues and now lives in Florida. Tyrone Barley, their lockdown defender, who served time in prison for armed robbery, posed with Martelli in the reunion picture.

Martelli said he’s ready for better days ahead with Saint Joseph’s.

“I’m happiest that I have the support of my family and those close, close, close friends,” Martelli said. “I want my grandchildren to know, in particular, I want those other people to know that all that I’ve gotten is because all that they gave me. This is part of the story. It’s a big part of the story, and it’s not over.”

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