The following interview appears in the latest issue of our magazine, which has printed and been mailed to our magazine subscribers and is on newsstands throughout the region.

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By Lou Prato

Special contributor to BWI

Russ Rose is the winningest coach in major college women’s volleyball. His seven NCAA championships, including four in a row from 2007-10, and his 1,269-205 record are the best in the sport. Now in his 40th year at Penn State, Rose is the second-longest-tenured head coach in Nittany Lion history, just behind Joe Paterno’s 45 seasons. He’s about to lead his team back into the NCAA tournament, as the Lions will play host to Howard University in a first-round match Friday night at Rec Hall.

What is there to know about Russ Rose that we don’t already know? BWI asked contributing writer Lou Prato to find out.

BWI: In reading past stories about you, you rarely talk about your background. We know you were born and raised in Chicago and went to college there, but we don’t know much about your parents, grandparents, etc.

ROSE: First off, it’s because I never want to be the story and I’m really not the story. I work at Penn State and I coach a volleyball team. I want the volleyball team to be the story. I want Penn State athletics and all the programs we have here to be the story and I want the university to be the story.

Yes, I am from Chicago. I was born in the Edgewater Hospital, right across the street from the Edgewater Beach Hotel. … My father’s name is Robert and my mother’s name is Maxine. They were divorced when I was young. My father was a printer and lived in downtown Chicago on Michigan Avenue, and I lived in the north side of Chicago through the years and then in a suburb for a little bit. I went to George Williams College in Downers Grove, Ill., and during the college years lived in the dorms. In the summer, I worked in a resort called Nippersink [in southern Wisconsin]. It was a family-style resort and it was marvelous. Think of the movie “Dirty Dancing,” and it was an accurate picture of the lifestyle of the employees who worked in that industry. It was predominantly Jewish but not exclusively.

BWI: Do you have any brothers and sisters?

ROSE: I have a brother, Richard, who is five years older than me. Unlike me, he was a terrific student and a good boy. Following him in school was an experience. In my later years, my performance preceded my attendance and they would look at me because they wanted to put a name and face with trouble. My brother is very bright and analytical. He went to the University of Illinois and earned a degree in electrical engineering and computer science when that program was first starting. He worked for Motorola his entire career. I was more about having street smarts.

BWI: How did you wind up going to college?

ROSE: Typical of a lot of families, my father wanted to keep his printing business in the family. My brother was already immersed in his engineering career. The company had a lot of clients. I didn’t think that was what I wanted to do, partially because I didn’t want to wear a tie every day, and I saw my father wear a tie every day. As I said, I enjoyed the resort business. My father said, “If you’re not going to go into my business, you really need to go to college.” He asked me what I wanted to do and what I liked. I said, “I like gambling, sports and girls.” As a 17-year-old Jewish kid, that probably kept me in the 95th percentile of my peers. I thought I liked sports and coaching. I asked my phys ed teacher what was a good phys ed school, and he recommended a small college called George Williams College. It was very, very late in the admission process and it was unlikely I would be applying to a lot of schools. I had taken the SAT and ACT, but my grades wouldn’t have gained me admission to the University of Illinois where my brother attended. We met with the person in charge of admissions at George Williams, and after a contribution to the school, I was admitted. Early lesson learned in life that money talks.

BWI: When you started college, what did you think you would be doing after graduation?

ROSE: I went there thinking I was going to be a basketball or football coach. While I was there, I became an Illinois high school official for basketball, baseball and football. I was certified in all those sports. The college didn’t have a football team. That wasn’t a train of thought for me. I thought I was going to play baseball, but it was the ’70s and I had long hair. The baseball coach wanted me to cut my hair, and I didn’t think there was a correlation for playing baseball so I played on the golf team.

I also took a volleyball class my first year. I played golf my first two years of college and volleyball the last two. I figured I was going to be a phys ed teacher and coach in high school and maybe college. Our basketball coach, Norm Sonju, went on to be an NBA part-owner and general manager in Dallas, so I had someone to mentor and guide my early interests. But I really became involved in volleyball through taking a class and then interacting with my instructor, Dr. Jim Coleman, who was the former USA Olympic and national team coach.

I then took another coaching volleyball class from Taras Liskevych, who went on to coach the USA women in three Olympics. Volleyball was very popular at the school at that time and has produced a number of coaches.

BWI: You were member of the George Williams team that won the NAIA championship in 1974 and were the captain of the 1975 team. You graduated in 1975 and stayed on at George Williams for two years as a part-time coach for the women’s and men’s volleyball teams.

ROSE: To be accurate, I was a seldom-used sub on the George Williams ’74 championship team and captain of the ’75 team where I did start and played all the time. Coach Coleman retired after the ’74 season, and Jerry Angle, who has become a lifelong friend, took over the team. I played for Jerry in ’75 and then coached with him as an assistant coach for both women’s and men’s teams.

Unlike today’s career paths in coaching, I worked a myriad of jobs from substitute teacher in multiple school districts, paying me $25 a day, in addition to being a maintenance worker for a construction company. I also worked part-time for a cleaning service that cleaned out restaurants at midnight. I also continued officiating high school sports during the day to subsidize my interest in getting into coaching. I think I was paid a total of $400 to help coach both women’s and men’s college teams. I donated the money to buy gasoline when we qualified for the national championships in Pocatello, Idaho, and I had to drive one of the two vans there, vans that I also hustled to get donated for the trip.

BWI: You got your master’s degree at Nebraska and coached defense for its women’s volleyball team for two years. In 1979, you were hired by Penn State to coach its then-two-year-old women’s volleyball team. How did that come about?

ROSE: When I graduated from George Williams and wanted to get into coaching I was passed over because of a lack of experience. At that time, schools wanted coaches to have multiple responsibilities at a number of schools. I also didn’t have an advanced degree. So I looked to try and get both. I actually was already admitted into Nebraska’s grad school the year before to get my master’s after taking a year leave to coach a professional men’s team in Puerto Rico. Nebraska said I could attend the following year, and they had a teaching graduate assistantship available. When I arrived, the head coach had just left for another school, and they asked if I wanted to be the coach. I could have taken the job but I said I would work with whoever they hired, as I was there to get my master’s degree.

I completed my master’s in sport psychology, and after the second season at Nebraska I was looking to get a coaching position. I was looking at various schools and had actually agreed in principle to accept a teaching assistantship at BYU at the recommendation of Coach Coleman to pursue a doctorate, and then the Penn State position opened up.

I was hired primarily to teach. One- third of my appointment was activity classes and one-third was teaching elementary physical education. The last third of the appointment was as the head volleyball coach. I don’t think the coaches coming to Penn State or entering the profession now could even fathom what that was like to teach a class 8 to 8:50 and then 9:05 to 10:10. Then 10:15 to 11:05 and then another from 11:15 to 12:05. We would teach four classes before noon. Then, you would go to your office and take off your teaching hat and prepare to be the coach for the remainder of the day. So, you would teach three to four classes on a Monday-Wednesday- Friday [schedule] and maybe something on a Tuesday-Thursday.

BWI: You’re the last of the varsity coaches who still teaches. For nearly 75 years until the mid-1980s, that was part of each coach’s assignments. What do you teach, and why do you continue to do it?

ROSE: I only teach in the fall semester, and I teach an ethics in coaching class that meets two days a week at 8 a.m. The reason is twofold. As I said, when I came in ’79 my contract was two-thirds teaching and one-third coaching. I understand that I don’t have to continue to teach, but it is what I signed up for, and that’s what I was trained for as an undergraduate and graduate student. It’s probably why I’ve read hundreds and hundreds of books, and I still enjoy the connection I have teaching that class. I don’t think I would have the same interest if they said, “Hey, we’re going to give you the opportunity to teach 18 activity classes again.” Trust me when I say that some of the best times that I’ve had here were co-teaching classes with other coaches. It provided great opportunities for a young coach to learn from veteran coaches about their experiences not just at Penn State but in the profession itself.

BWI: Let’s talk about your personality. Where did your personality come from? Your mother? Your dad?

ROSE: I think it comes from my upbringing and is similar to [comedian] Larry David. I don’t know. It’s like everything else. It’s an acquired taste. I’ve always been my own person. I don’t spend much time talking about others and, in return, I don’t worry much about what others think of me. I try to do the best I can and treat people the right way. I try to get my players and my children understanding the importance of being a good person and doing things the right way.

I’ve changed in a lot of ways, and in certain areas I’ve remained the same. My concern and care for the players has always been foremost, and I’m always willing to try and make them better people. Sometimes, that’s something people don’t want to have happen, whether it’s the players and their family or whatever the case may be. There are a number of players I used to butt heads with, and there are some I don’t hear from. Yet we played at Rutgers earlier this season and there were six or seven alums who showed up and the first thing they said was “Sorry I couldn’t make it back for the 40-year thing.” And I’m like, “the 40-year celebration is over. To me it was about the four years you were here that mattered, that you care enough to watch us play, the fact that it’s important for me to meet your children, that’s what’s important.”

BWI: Have you ever looked back and wondered what would have happened if you had concentrated on basketball instead of volleyball?

ROSE: I would have made a lot more money.

BWI: Do you think you would have been as successful in basketball as you have been in volleyball?

ROSE: I think success is based on how hard you work and your ability to lead others. Certainly, I wouldn’t say the sports are the same, but I don’t see why I wouldn’t have predicted a level of success. Certainly, the compensation is many times different.

BWI: Do you have any professional regrets?

ROSE: Not really. I look forward. I don’t look back. You have to coach the players you have, not the ones you don’t have. Sometimes you can win on will, and it’s not always about skill. That’s the part of coaching that I like, when you have some group of individuals who are willing to work. Not everybody wants to work and not everybody works hard.

I’m in the office every day. I come here early Sundays and there’s nobody here. I’m sending emails at 3 to 4 in the morning, and a lot of times I don’t expect a response. But I know who’s awake. I tell people all the time, I’m an acquired taste. I get it. But you can’t ask others to do things if you’re not going to work hard. I’m not the smartest guy in the room. I’m not the fittest guy in the room anymore, but I can still work hard. And I can still tell people the truth. That’s enough for me.