Hoop journeyman Duncan a go-to guy on Obama's team

Arne Duncan, known for his old-school work ethic at Harvard in the 1980s, is Barack Obama's pick for secretary of education. (Jeff Haynes/Reuters)

Frank McLaughlin says there was a tear in his eye as he watched the introductory press conference.

Peter Roby practically needs rocks in his pockets to keep his feet on the floor these days.

Many thousands of miles away, Brian Goorjian says that for the last three days, the Australian basketball community has talked of nothing else.

When's the last time the newly appointed secretary of education took office with his own full-fledged international fan club?

Arne Duncan has been the CEO of Chicago Public Schools since 2001. This is the same Arne Duncan who played for McLaughlin and Roby at Harvard, where he was the cocaptain in 1986-87; the same Arne Duncan who played four years in Australia's National Basketball League, where he answers to the nickname, "The Cobra"; and the same Arne Duncan who has played many a lunchtime pickup basketball game with President-Elect Barack Obama.

It is also the same Arne Duncan everyone assumed back then was headed for great things, and that it would most likely involve young people.

"You could see he really had a soft spot for kids," reports Goorjian, a Californian who migrated to Austral ia in the late '70s and never left. "We had a school program that Arne practically ran for us. There was a glow of energy about him. If he was doing a clinic, he would do it right."

Though not easily categorized as a player, just accept that he was a 6-foot-4-inch southpaw guard with modest raw skill, an active brain, and a very big heart.

"He was not very highly recruited," recalls McLaughlin, the Crimson mentor from 1977-85 before becoming the athletic director at Fordham, where he remains. "Just a gangly, lefthanded kid from Chicago. As a freshman, I put him on the JVs (for whom he scored 39 points against Boston College), and he came to see me, asking why he wasn't on the varsity. I told him if he really wanted to play he should consider transferring, but to remember he was getting a Harvard education. He flat-out proved me wrong."

"We just didn't know what to make of him," admits Roby, now the Northeastern AD but then a McLaughlin lieutenant who would succeed his boss as Harvard head coach. "He had a funky game. But I'd look at him on the JV team and say, 'You know, I really don't think he belongs here.' "

By virtue of a legendary work ethic, Duncan made his way to the varsity, averaging 11.3, 11.7, and 16.9 points per game in a career interrupted by a year taken off from school between his junior and senior campaigns to work on what was described in the 1986-87 Harvard basketball media guide as "an involved senior thesis," the gist of which was "studying how and why some underprivileged youths can escape inner-city ghetto life while others cannot."

The thesis, entitled, "The Values, Aspirations, and Opportunities of the Urban Underclass," though not officially published, has been frequently cited by other authors.

Despite his hiatus, he joined his friend and fellow gym rat, Keith Webster, as cocaptain for that delayed senior year, and current Celtics associate head coach Tom Thibodeau, who had just joined Roby's staff, found out why. "I didn't know him, but I had heard about this kid. Everyone talked about him," Thibodeau says. "I had never seen any player with such great leadership qualities. And he has the ability to make tough decisions. He took that year off, and that is not an easy thing to do. It was a tough decision, but he felt it was the right decision."

Those leadership qualities were easily transferable to another culture.

"He was the most intelligent player I've ever had," says Goorjian, "truly a coach on the floor. He was a dynamic, powerful leader, a player with unbelievable charisma." That unofficial "coach on the floor" was actually an untitled assistant coach. "He was heavily involved with my game planning," Goorjian explains. "When imports would come over, I would have them stay at my house until they got their own flat. Arne and I stayed up talking basketball all night on many occasions."

Goorjian agrees with Messrs. McLaughlin and Roby that Duncan didn't really have a lot to work with. "He was not gifted," Goorjian maintains. "Pigeon-toed, kinda big-butted. But he made the most of what God gave him. I remember the very first game we played, down in Tasmania. I'm watching him and thinking I'd never seen any player that slow. But we won the game and when I looked at the stat sheet he had something like 26 and 7."

Suffice it to say, Arne Duncan was not your typical import. The typical import makes it known that he really doesn't belong here and cannot wait to return home.

"Not Arne," explains Goorjian. "He was totally involved. You never heard him say, 'When I get back home.' "

If Arne Duncan had a specific life plan, he never let on. "He was very much of the moment," Goorjian says. "Totally committed to what we were doing. When he got here, our group felt this kid from Harvard was tightly wound. During the course of his time here, he really opened up. I think he liked the Australian culture. It's just different, far more relaxed."

But this son of a University of Chicago professor father and educational activist mother probably was destined to get involved in the field of education. He probably just wanted to get the basketball competition thing out of his system first. No one who knew the young Arne Duncan is remotely surprised he is, at age 44, being asked to assume control of America's troubled public school program.

"No," says Thibodeau, "he was clearly passionate about two things: basketball and education."

What he will bring to the job is a rare combination of confidence, fearlessness, and, yes, passion. Maintains Roby, "If you watched him the last few years, he never did anything that showed he was worried about losing his job. He has strong beliefs and is not easily dissuaded. He is not a career educator. He came there to do a job with no agenda other than to do what was best for the city of Chicago. His decisions have been based on what he thought was right, and nothing else."

"I am a conservative Republican," declares McLaughlin. "But I am just thrilled, because Arne is a born leader. I am happy for the country."

Though gone from Australia for nearly two decades, his memory lingers. "I knew he was special at the time," Goorjian says, "but as time has gone on I now realize how special. I've coached imports such as Adonis Jordan, Billy McCaffrey, and Milt Newton, but there was never anyone like Arne. Americans come and go, but he is remembered. I often hear someone say, 'How's Arne doing?' I can tell you that the last three days have been really crazy down here.

"It is the talk of the basketball community. There have been many phone calls."

Now, the president-elect says the fact that he and Arne are hoop buds has nothing to do with Duncan's cabinet appointment. C'mon, Prez, you really expect us to believe that?

"Obama just wanted to fill out his team with someone who would defend and pass the ball," reasons Roby.

And maybe get someone who could double up as the ambassador to Australia in his spare time.

Bob Ryan is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at ryan@globe.com.