It's @SpenceChecketts on the Life + Influence of Coach Frank Layden

Right now, though, we're going to talk to none other than the namesake of this program, Spence Check. Its joins us from places unknown, Spence. Welcome to the Drive with spence Check. Its How you doing?

You call me minister Spence as I'm preparing to officiate a wedding.

Really very centered.

Thank you, Scott, Oh, very nice. Congratulations. Good for you.

I like that, Thank you, sir. I've done this before. Man, I'm pretty nervous. Not a lot.

Well, you just say do you do and do you do? And then we all do and it's all good. So it's it's it's pretty simple. You'll do fine.

Good advice, Scott.

Oh boy.

There's some some some very interesting things happening, uh in the basketball world. Uh you've got the Summer League going on, and of course the passing of uh legendary coach and uh, you know, executive for the Utah Jazz Frank Laden.

I know that.

I'm sure you've had have a ton of stories about coach and you know, just in general your thoughts about Coach Layden kind of what he meant to this jazz organization and just kind of your personal interaction with him.

Well, I mean, you know, we talked about Frank for hours. One of the real bummers about the timing of the whole thing is that I'm out of town and I very much wanted to be on air today to talk about him and bring on guests. And I'm I'm surprising border with what I'm about to say, But I'm working on a show on Monday that we'll all be Frank. I'm hoping to have all of his children on the show, working on maybe Hub Brown, my father, other people that knew him across.

The landscape of the league.

And you know, part of it is a bit of a blessing. I think his information trickles out. People will start to learn that Frank has not been well for a number of months, if not, you know, maybe a year or two, and the last few months of his life were not comfortable for him.

So great that he's not.

Suffering, grateful that he's out of his misery and pain, but sad that a hero, a mentor almost like a second father of mine, has passed.

I will miss him.

I will miss his counsel, i will miss his smile, i will miss his advice, I'll miss his guidance, and I'll miss his zest for life. You know, I think the hardest thing for people around Frank over the final few years of his life is that zest was taken as a result of health issues. So as far as his impact in the community, I don't think it can be measured. I don't think it really can accurately be articulated by me or anybody else. It's not hyperbolic to

No Jerry Sloan.

Without Frank, there's probably no Utah Jazz, quite honestly, and that's a sliver of what he men.

To the community.

After he left the Jazz, he stayed tight with all of our local teams constantly a figure that could be seen at these games singing the you know, take me out to the ball game, seventh inning stretch, Utah Football, basketball, b y U Utah.

State, we were you name it.

You're not going to find anybody in our ecosystem, Scott that hasn't been touched in a positive way by Frank Layton.

Yeah, you know, I've I've said these things today and uh, you know, and I had a lot of interaction with coach over the years, and you know, I was I was here when the jazz showed up and and the lean years, and and just the the you know, bigger than life personality that Frank Laydon was was and just how he sold people on the Utah Jazz and just uh and we got a chance to talk to Thorow Bailey earlier, and just just he was just a tremendous

Iman.

I could just uh, you know, these interviews, I could just go on for hours and hours, and a lot of it was I think that shocked me is yes, he has a personality, and yes he's just you know, one of those top three funniest people you ever meet, if not the funniest person you've ever met. But he was really a passionate guy about basketball and really knew basketball.

And had an.

Association with so many I mean, just the people he knew in basketball and his and just how he was respected and thought of was just a very very impressive thing. I said that thorough. I said, I think it would like how hard, how hard was it to play for him? Because you know when because he was such a jokester, you know, and it's like, okay, when when is coach serious?

Now? Is this a joke? You know?

I think it would be hard to kind of figure out where that line was at time.

But I think Scott, you touched on something that we should underscore that most people probably won't.

Land on initially talking about Frank.

That is he was a brilliant basketball coach. He was a brilliant basketball coach.

I mean, you know, he.

Saw things in John and Carl and Mark Eaton and Thurrell himself and others that nobody else saw.

You know, the Mark Eaton story is great.

Mark sent Frank a VHS tape of his highlight videos and it was Mark g just swatty and everybody's shots. And later on Frank found out that was Mark against high school kids, but still but still took a shot on him. How do the UCLA? I think it was the fourth round and Mark Hall of Famer, May he rest in peace.

Defensive Player of the Year, Jersey and the Rafters.

And the system that ultimately Jerry Sloan deserved league. It's a lot of credit for was implemented by Frank so because he was such a bombastic, front facing, funny guy and you know, did dazzling dunks and basketball bloopers with Marv Albert for the old school NBA fans because he was constantly joking.

And you know that lady I don't remember, but the lady that used to be at the Forum that would run out with a low cut shirt on and she was very well endowed to leave that there and she would kiss Frank and he would faint, and he would have these funny interactions with fans, and he would have funny.

Interactions with refs and all of that.

Really, in a way, Scott.

Was to draw attension to the Utah Jazz and become this characature that people can latch onto, like, oh, you see, back in the eighties, you thought Utah Jazz. You thought Frank Layton before you thought John Carl, before you thought Jerry.

You thought Frank Layton. But all of that is what people land on first.

And so I'm glad that you and Thurrell were able to talk about. Really who he was as a coach was a brilliant basketball coach.

That was his first love.

I don't know that he ever wanted to run a business. I don't know that he ever wanted to be the president of the team. I think he just wanted to coach basketball and.

Then ultimately the other thing.

Frank needs to get a lot of flowers for, as the kids would say, because if you look back in the history of the the list might include one name, and the name might be Frank Layden, who had a good basketball team that he had built up and decided that he wanted to spend more time with his family and so walked away and handed the reins to Jerry Sloan.

Now, Frank would.

Joke later on in his life if he knew coaches were going to start being paid three four, five six million dollars.

A year, he never would have done it. But he built the team, he.

Drafted the players, he implemented the system, He hired Jerry Sloan, and then walked away.

Before that team was even close to its prime. Scott nobody does that.

So there are several things about Frank that are much more rooted in substance as opposed to his front facing comedic personality, which is what most people know him for, which is fine because that was part of his character.

As you were talking about some of those players, I couldn't help but be struck by how unique they all are. I mean Marky, like he took a shot on Mark Marky Gouden was certainly unconventional.

But he saw the value.

He saw how how Mark Mark Eaton could make a significant contribution to to the success of a team just by his mere presence, and uh and and and that was unconventional. And and in some regards you might say that's a risk, that's you know a lot of people might not have seen the value of a of a Mark Eaton or you you know, John Stockton, you know, I don't think he's the prototypical doesn't look like Michael Jordan kind of guard or or some of these you know, great guards that.

Have been in the n b A.

And and uh, you know it comes from a college, you know, I don't know many people knew where it was, what even was at the time, and and and and that was very unconventional and and these moves proved to be brilliant and and and he saw the greatness in uh these players, And I know it wasn't just him alone, but he certainly had a significant but part of that and and it and in a lot of ways, it's kind of like Utah, you know, where he saw that, hey,

Yeah, you know the other thing that should be underscored.

And as Frank, you know, Aged, I made sure to, I mean importable, will tell you.

I had him on my show as much as I.

Could, as much as he was able, and I always just wanted to give him space to tell stories. And it's Frank kind of aged a little bit. I think there was a little bit of a softening and he would share stories about the John Drews of the world. John Drew was a tremendous John Drew had more talent in his little finger than probably John N. Carl quite Frankly, yeah, or a Kerrie Scurry, you know, some of these older older jazz players that most fans don't know but had a lot of off core problems.

And I'm paraphrasing here.

I think I'll probably ask Smitty or you know, somebody else to share the story in its entirety. But for my recollection, Frank told a story about John Drew something along the lines of it, and Scott, you might be familiar with this dynamic. I don't know that this is even legal or allowed anymore, but John Drew I believe he played long enough to get a pension in the league, but some agent or some CD shady businessman struck some deal.

John needed cash.

He had a terrible drug addiction, and he signed away his pension in the name of you know, a few thousand dollars in the moment because he you know, he was just in such a bad spot with his addiction issues. And you know, as as Frank is walking me through the story and tell me how, you know, he just.

Did everything he could to help John.

You know, if you play long enough in the NFL or the NBA, you're in your pension, you should at least be able to live semi comfortable life the rest of your days, and similar stories with other players that had off court issues. You know, Frank genuinely cared about the Utah Jazz family and the Utah Jazz people and the Utah Jazz not just players, but anybody involved with the staff, PR taketing community relations, and Jerry carried this

He's such a great.

Man, and he just cares about the Utah Jazz family. And I believe cared about the Utah Jazz family throughout the course of the final days of his life. I have no frame of reference for what his relationship is with the new ownership group or front office or coaching staff.

You know.

I know he didn't know Quinn well.

You know, Quinn was kind of an interesting guy.

When Jerry passed, I actually asked Quinn to join the show, and he declined because he said he had only met him a couple of times.

So I don't know what Frank's currently.

I know Frank was very close obviously with the Millers, with Steve Starks, with the old iteration of the jazz ownership in front office. But I can't speak to his relationship with Danny Ainge or Justin zanderk.

Everybody knows Frank, but he.

Always talked about the Utah jazz family. And you would tell me you are a part of this family.

You worked over there, your dad worked over there. If you're ever a part of the jazz family, you're part of the jazz family forever.

And it's kind of like Frank was all of our patriarchs, you know, he just was.

He was that guy for anybody that's ever been a part of the jazz fabric.

You know. Yeah, it's funny you say that.

So when I was at in college at the University of Utah, I played on on the Jazz this summer basketball team or softball team, so Smitty and all those guys and and so uh so I got to know and and and and Frank was that way with me, and I I wasn't you know, I don't make any claims to be a part of the Utah Jazz or any part of it, but I had a small connection to them, uh through through that and and they were great to me. And and Frank was was great to me,

So thank you for sure.

One more thing, because I have to share this before I go. Ultimately, my career in no small part is because of the advice Frank gave me.

So real quick Scott, before I let you get back there.

Yeah, please please do show.

When I was I was twenty three years old. My first job out of college after the U I was I worked for the Olympics.

I was a venue manager for the.

Solid Ice Center, which was a great job, but it had a natural expiration date after two thousand and two. You got to find a new job, right So the game's ends, and I didn't know what I was going to do. I wanted to stay around sports. I was not a pro like you were. My career ended essentially.

At the age of Night Team.

I was not a professional basketball player. I was good enough to maybe play college. I was about it, so I thought maybe I'd look into coaching, and my high school coach taught Win that I was kind of interested in maybe exploring the space, and so he offered me the chance to be his lead assistant.

And he said, I'm retiring in two years, done everything I want to do, retiring in two years.

Come here, you'll be my lead assistant and you'll get the job in two years. So I would have been a head high school coach at twenty five. And that's young enough that you know, you work your way up.

Who knows what happens. Maybe at some point I can make a living doing it.

And I called my father for advice, and he says to me, he says, call Frank first. It's the only hit, he say, said called Frank. So I called Frank, and that great Brooklyn.

You know, pretty accent. Let's go to lunch, you know. So we met over at the Old Iggys.

With Frank love all the time. And this is when Frank had lost all that weight. He was eating very healthy salads, waters, you know, all that stuff.

And I walk him through the scenario.

I said, look, if I take this job, you know, a coach with my high school coach two years and I'll get the head job, and then who knows what happens from there.

And he sits back and I'll never forget what he said.

Don't do it, He.

Said, you know, don't do it. Don't get into coach. And he said to me, have you ever thought of broadcasting? And I hadn't.

I didn't take journalism classes in college. I didn't take broadcasting classes in college. I was a business marketing major.

He said, you have the personality, you have the delivery, you have the voice. Let's find a way to see if you can do this. And he was the first person to kind of let me know that maybe this was something I could do with my life.

And twenty years later, it's become my career in no small part because of the advice he gave me.

I'll miss him, Scott, I'll miss him badly for sure.

Well it paid off. Well, he knew what he was talking about.

So there you go, all right, enjoy your time away and we'll keep things going here while you're gone.

So thanks, thanks, good buddy, good.

Go ahead.