Latest in a series of "Where are they now?" features on members of the Colgate athletics family. Click here for previous profiles.
HAMILTON – One former Colgate Raider can be found right in the footprint of the action at the home of the San Antonio Spurs.
Art Bayern '54 has been a member of the Spurs' game staff for the past 38 years, working front-row center for one of the NBA's model franchises. His role? Serving as a member of the team's statistical and scoring crew.
“I was coaching my son's basketball team in 1975,” Bayern recalled. “The other fellow who was the coach – there were two of us sharing responsibilities – turned out to be running a stat team for the Spurs. At that time they were still in the American Basketball Association, the old ABA, playing with a red, white and blue basketball.
“He was always looking for people to help him with the stats. He said, 'Most of the people I've got working on the stat crew are military and they keep getting transferred out, so I'm looking for local people.'”
Bayern understood his friend's dilemma. He had gone through the Air Force ROTC program at Colgate and was commissioned when he graduated. Flight training eventually led him to San Angelo, Texas – his introduction to the Lone Star State – and Bayern completed service as an instructor pilot at Ellington Air Force Base in Houston.
After spending a few years with IBM in Houston, meeting a Texas gal and then getting married, Bayern went to law school and the couple began entertaining job offers. One came from a firm in San Antonio in 1965, and away they went.
Which explains Bayern's eventual youth coaching duties in the shadow of the Alamo. But jumping at the chance to work the professional basketball circuit wasn't initially in his plans.
Fill-In to Full Time
“I said, 'Well, I've got two little boys and I'm trying to build a law practice. I really don't have time for that.' So he said, 'How about if you just came down and filled in every once in a while?' The way he sold it was he would get me tickets and buy me meals. The fill-in turned into full time, and my wife and two boys started going to the games.”
And 38 years later …
“I started doing that in 1975 and I've done every job they have on the official table, including game clock, the 24-second clock, and now I'm scoreboard operator,” Bayern said. “That's what I'll do tonight.”
Bayern grew up in the Jackson Heights section of Queens, N.Y. His neighborhood is home to such luminaries as Don Rickles, Eleanor Clift, Howard Stern and Susan Sarandon.
Although older brothers attended Columbia and Cornell, the younger Bayern wasn't impressed with the Ivy route. He was looking liberal arts, and a friend of his suggested Colgate.
Boys State at Colgate
As chance would have it, Bayern attended Boys State during the summer before his senior year of high school. The location was Colgate University.
“I was impressed with the campus, met the admissions dean, and though I applied to six or seven liberal arts schools, the best financial aid I got was from Colgate,” Bayern said. “That kind of clinched the deal.”
Bayern played tennis and also tried out for baseball, but he was a walk-on who didn't see lots of roster time for the Raiders. Instead, he participated with the school's marching and concert bands and also served as a track and field manager.
Which shows you just how far Bayern has come in athletic circles to be the proud owner today of a championship watch and multiple championship rings.
“I've got three of them,” Bayern said. “The first time we won the championship they gave us a watch, which I still wear. On the face of the watch, it has a picture of the championship trophy and the year and the name San Antonio Spurs. On the back side, they had engraved for each of us, 'With great appreciation from the San Antonio Spurs,' which is nice.”
The Spurs won that first NBA title in 1999. Additional championship seasons followed in 2003, 2005 and 2007.
“In later years, they gave us replicas of the rings the players have – without all the diamonds on them.”
Multi-Millionaire Clients
Bayern not only has a close-up view of the world's best professional basketballers at the beautiful AT&T Center – home of the Spurs – he also welcomes quite a few of those players into his own place of business.
“Several of them are my clients,” he said. “I do estate planning and probate work, and these young guys are all multi-millionaires. Their agents or their advisors tell them they need a current will and powers of attorney – all the good things people with wealth have.
“So I get referrals from their agents, generally.”
Bayern, 79, recalled one impromptu player meeting that had nothing to do with his counseling skills.
“I remember Calvin Murphy, who was with the Houston Rockets, came right over the scorer's table,” he said. “I got a footprint on my stat sheet. He had stepped on the table and then jumped right over me and somebody in the seats caught him.
“There have been many memorable moments, but that was a close call.”
'You Do Too!'
Another advantage of having the best seat in the house is being able to hear what goes on during those candid conversations that occasionally occur between coach and official.
“It was 1980 or 1981, and the coach of the Spurs was a fellow named Stan Albeck,” Bayern said. “One of the premier refs in the league was Earl Strom, who not only was a good referee but quite a showman.
“We were playing one night and the Spurs were just miserable. We could not score; it was a like a lid was on the basket.”
Bayern recalls that by the second quarter, with the Spurs already trailing some 12 to 15 points, Albeck's railing on the officials drew a technical foul from Strom. Albeck was told to sit down and shut up.
“Stan, of course, didn't listen to that at all,” Bayern said. “So we went on another four or five minutes and were playing even worse. We were down 20 or 25 by this point, and Stan starts storming out on the court and screaming at Earl again.
“Finally, Earl stops the game, comes over and meets Stan right in front of us, face to face.
“He says, 'Stan, I know what you're trying to do. You're trying to get that second technical so you can go back into the locker room and drink beer. But if I have to watch this (blank), you do too!'
“Everybody in the first few rows of the stands just erupted in laughter. And Earl never would give him that second technical. He made him sit there and watch the whole thing.”
Final Four Flavor
When not minding the store at Bayern, Aycock & Bayern – his son, Bill, joined the firm in 2001 – or staffing all 41 Spurs home games during the regular season, the ol' timekeeper mixes in an NCAA Final Four or two.
Or four. San Antonio has hosted three Men's Final Fours and one on the women's side, and Bayern has been right there at center court for each one of them.
“I do them all,” he said. “All of the regular season games for the Spurs, plus four preseason games, plus any playoff games, plus NCAA tournament games. My wife calls herself a basketball widow.”
Janice Bayern hails from Luling, a small town about 50 miles east of San Antonio. So along with Bill and his wife, Carol, and their daughter, Macy, those Spurs tickets must still come in handy.
“Oh, no, we don't get tickets anymore; they are too valuable,” Bayern said. “But I do get paid, I get a parking pass and I get a free meal.”
And every now and then, maybe a footprint or two.
