ROCORI Players Remember Bob Brink; Court Renamed Tonight

ROCORI is renaming their basketball court "Bob Brink Court". The Spartans will host Princeton tonight at 7:15 and will have a ceremony at 6:45 with former players and coaches speaking about the longtime head coach.

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The legendary coach Bob Brink was the ROCORI head boys basketball coach from 1969-2012 and amassed 936 wins, which is third all-time in the state of Minnesota. Coach Brink led the Spartans to 22 conference championships and 13 state tournament appearances including a state championship in 1988 with an undefeated season. Coach Brink is an icon in the ROCORI community as well as high school basketball across the state of Minnesota.

1988 ROCORI Boys Basketball (photo courtesy of Craig Erhlichman)

I was joined on WJON today by former players Craig Ehrlichman ('88), Dave Hinkemeyer ('81), Scott Schreiner ('94), and Jason Kron ('99) along with Bob's former assistant and current ROCORI assistant coach Nate Guetter. Ehrlichman says Bob cared about his players and would do anything for them. He said he was passionate about basketball and built a tradition of success for boys basketball at ROCORI. Craig says Brink was ahead of his time by spending time working with boys basketball at the elementary school level and all the way up. Jason Kron recalls Brink hiring former players at lower levels so the kids would learn the "box offense" long before they became varsity players.

Bob Brink and Nate Guetter (photo courtesy of Jason Kron)

Dave Hinkemeyer was a point guard on the '81 team and he remembers the importance of not turning the ball over. He says he never felt pressure from coach Brink to get the ball to the scorers but understand what Brink expected out of him. Scott Schreiner remembers at an early age wanting to play basketball at ROCORI because of the tradition that was built in the community.

ROCORI had the red and white striped warmup pants which is something Indiana basketball made popular under Bob Knight. The players say Brink was similar to Knight in a lot of ways. Guetter recalls Brink spending a lot of time watching film and game planning. All the guests today says coach Brink would have loved the new shot clock rule on defense and he would have adjusted on offense. Brink was known for stalling with minutes left to preserve leads.

Many stories with Hinkemeyer, Kron, Schriener, Guetter and Erhlichman were shared. If you'd like to listen to them they are available below.