DICK VERSACE : Pacers Have a Renaissance Man as Their Latest Coach

He majored in American literature, with an emphasis on Poe and Hemingway.

He lived in Paris, London, and Frankfurt, West Germany, and once considered becoming an expatriate and arguing philosophy and art in sidewalk cafes.

His mother wrote “The Flying Nun.” He talks in pictures and of his team’s need for a “symbiotic relationship” and using “collective force” against an opponent.

He coached championship teams in basketball and football, the latter at Strawn-Wing High in Forrest, Wis., the town that bills itself as “The Egg Capital of America, and that’s no Yoke.” He once screamed on a Chicago street corner, “I’m going to coach one day in the NBA!”

Who is this man for all seasons? It’s Dick Versace, the head coach of the Indiana Pacers.

Three weeks ago, Versace inherited a team of classic underachievers with a 6-23 record that had worn out two coaches -- Jack Ramsay and George Irvine. But Versace, who served as an assistant to Chuck Daly in Detroit the last three seasons, was considered the perfect man to breathe new life into the Pacers.

Indiana General Manager Donnie Walsh, who interviewed several candidates, said, “They were all very astute and technically knowledgeable, but we need life and intensity for this team, and I really believe Versace can turn it around.”

But even Walsh had to be stunned when Versace, 48, reeled off victories over the Los Angeles Clippers and the Pistons at home and beat the Boston Celtics at Boston Garden.

More than anything, Versace has restored a sense of pride and a commitment to winning.

“It’s very difficult to take over a team in the middle of a season and expect positive results. A lot of these guys had severely bruised psyches,” Versace said from his hotel suite near Market Arena in Indianapolis.

“What it amounts to is my conducting a training camp on the fly. I’m seeing if we can get a little wedding of ideas, a little marriage going between me and the players.”

Versace has stressed transition defense, unselfishness and a willingness to play hard even when the scoreboard says the game is hopelessly lost.

“In Detroit, we called it ‘taking it out,’ meaning playing down to the final buzzer no matter what. You run plays, execute and call timeouts just like it’s a two-point game. It makes you think like a winner.

“It finally got through to them in a game we were losing in Miami, 116-111. The Heat started missing free throws and we tied it with a pair of three-point shots and wound up playing two overtimes. With a second left, we got a wide-open dunk and blew it, but it convinced the guys nothing is impossible.”

With a young roster, Versace, who turned a losing program at Bradley University into a team that posted a 156-88 record in his eight seasons, says it is not unreasonable to expect the Pacers to enjoy the same upward mobility as the Cleveland Cavaliers, who, in less than three years, developed from perennial losers into legitimate title contenders.

“I’m no fool,” he said, “but I believe there are a number of talented players on this team. We might need a changing of the guards, but in players like Chuck Person, Reggie Miller, Rik Smits, Herb Williams and Wayman Tisdale, there is definitely the nucleus for a winning team, given some luck in the draft or lottery.”

As a guideline for the future, Versace cites the traditional National Basketball Association powers.

“The teams thatwin consistently,” he said, “are the ones that have players you’re forced to double-team.

“When Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar) was younger, the Lakers had three guys in him, (James) Worthy and Magic Johnson. Boston had Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish. Atlanta has a couple of guys in Dominique Wilkins and Moses Malone, and the Pistons had Isiah Thomas and Adrian Dantley.

“I think we might have three of those types in Person, Tisdale and Williams. They’re a solid building block, but it’s a matter of accentuating the positive and bringing out the best in each of them. But first we have to put away all the hidden agendas and selfishness that creeps into every team.”

The thrill of victory is what steered Versace into coaching after he had considered several other careers.

“I was going to be a research scientist in plant pathology,” he said, “but I was too much of an extrovert to sequester myself in a greenhouse researching corn rust.”

Instead, he accepted the challenge of coaching the Edgewood (Wis.) High football team and posted a 7-0 record. He was then asked to help Dave Brown coach the school’s basketball team, and his life changed.

“Brown had the most inventive, creative mind I’ve ever known, way ahead of his time,” Versace told the Indianapolis News. “The team won 56 games over two years, and I was hooked on basketball, winning, the whole thing.”

But Versace also has a sense of perspective. “I always looked at coaching as a business,” he said. “I believe a coaching career is like a businessman’s graph. It’s going to have some highs, lows and even periods. That’s the way it’s going to be and that’s the way I’m going to approach it.”