Joe O'Brien passes on, days after receiving lifetime achievement award

[Snoopy the Celtics Beagle <snoopy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Associated Press

BOSTON -- Joe O'Brien, a former president and chief executive of the 
Basketball Hall of Fame, died days after receiving the hall's lifetime 
achievement award. He was 68.

O'Brien, the longtime coach at Assumption College, died Thursday in 
Worcester after a long illness, Hall of Fame spokesman Howie Davis said.

"Aside from being a wonderful person, mentor and coach, Joe's relentless 
lifelong dedication to the sport he so dearly loved will always be 
remembered by the basketball community in general and the Hall of Fame in 
particular," current president and chief executive John Doleva said Friday.

O'Brien compiled a 321-173 coaching record at Assumption. He became 
executive director of the Hall of Fame in Springfield in 1985, when the 
hall moved from its original 1968 building to its second location.

O'Brien became president and chief executive of the hall in 1993. He 
oversaw improvements in the exhibits, and played a key role in the hall's 
third incarnation, a $35 million spherical building that opened last fall 
as part of an approximate $100 million riverfront expansion.

Last Tuesday he was honored with the John Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award 
-- the hall's second-highest honor after induction.