In the process, he missed his team’s first nine games.
And that’s how it’s going to be Saturday when the Rams (10-3) travel to Dunbar (9-5), the program Pullen led to four state titles, six trips to the Final Four and 289 overall victories — 398, if you add in his success there as the girls’ coach, too — before he was unceremoniously ‘’dismissed” (his word) after the 2016-17 season.
Back then, Dunbar was embroiled in a football scandal — the use of an illegible player, claims the athletic director of Dayton Public Schools, Mark Baker, gave the OK on the ineligible player and then in midgame told the Wolverines to intentionally lose to Belmont, who they were leading by 20 points — and there was serious fallout when it all came to light.
Baker, who denied the accusations, was out as the DPS athletics director. Football coach Darran Powell was reprimanded and the Ohio High School Athletic Association put the DPS athletics programs on a three-year probation and levied a $10,000 fine.
In early November of 2016, Pullen, who was the Dunbar athletics director, resigned that post. He remained the basketball coach and led the Wolverines to a 24-4 record and the regional final.
Early that summer, the school board — citing no reasons — voted not to renew Pullen’s basketball contract.
“They told me they were going in a different direction,” he said after the Rams practice a couple evenings ago. “It didn’t break my heart as much as it just (ticked) me off. I wish I could have ended it on my terms.”
Reflecting on all those years and so many good seasons and all the kids he guided — from future NBA players like Daequan Cook and Norris Cole to current Dunbar coaches Tony Dixon and Aaron Pogue and two of his Trotwood assistants, Andre Yates and Gary Akbar — he said:
“I just hated how it ended. But that’s water under the bridge now. I have a lot more good memories from there than I do bad.”
His success at Dunbar led to his enshrinement in the Ohio High School Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2019.
And now comes what surely will be another good memory.
Pullen hasn’t been back to Dunbar since he left and several of his former Wolverine players want to make sure he gets a warm welcome.
“A lot of ex-players are coming back to support him,” said Albert Powell, Pullens’ longtime assistant at Dunbar and now Trotwood and, as he put it “the yin to (Pete’s) yang.”
“They tried to keep it from him, but it’s the worst kept secret in the city,” Powell said. “It was on social media, so everybody knows. Players from all around the city are coming and some from other parts of the country are coming, too.”
Pullen smiled and nodded: “Yeah, Latrice Bagley, she lives in Miami (Florida) now, she called me.
“She played for me her last two years I believe and before that for Mont (Tom Montgomery) when he had the program. She said, ‘Coach, can you get me a ticket to your game at Dunbar? I’m coming up for it.’”
Powell said it’s all about respect:
“The way they put it to me, he deserves to be shown some appreciation for what he did for all of them. Because of the way he was separated, the players all want to make a statement. It’s an outpouring of love and affection.”
Powell said he sees some of that same thing going on now with their Trotwood players.
When Pullen went into the hospital on Nov. 29 with a worsening infection in his foot — among other problems — his players sent cards and flowers and wished him well on various social media platforms.
Powell took over the coaching duties — which included as trip to Huntsville. Alabama, for a three-game Christmas tournament against that state’s top talent — and Pullen did his best to watch the streamed games on his laptop in the hospital.
The Rams went 6-3 in Pullen’s absence and two of the losses were in Alabama, one by two points and one in overtime after Trotwood missed four straight free throws in the final nine seconds of regulation.
“The players wanted to win for him when he was gone and, now that he’s back, they look out for him,” Powell said.
Pullen wears a protective boot on his left foot, and he’s supposed to be coaching from the sideline while sitting in a special chair.,
“It’s a big, ol’ chair,” Powell said. “It’s elaborate. It looks like the Star Wars chair. It’s got all caster wheels and he can spin 360.
“His wife (Shawn) made it my job to keep him in that chair during games — they don’t want him walking around — and I thought I was doing a pretty good job until I saw the game films. He’s up moving around on the floor and there I sit watching the game. I’m so involved I don’t even notice him.”
So far, they’ve avoided any serious incidents though there was one close call.
Pullen laughed and nodded: “The ref came by and stepped on my foot the other night! I just used my arm and pushed him away.”
Sports over music
Pullen was raised in Nashville, where his dad was a well-known Julliard-trained musician who did everything from direct a local junior high band to arrange music for Count Basie and Aretha Franklin and tour with his own jazz and R & B group.
Pete was better at sports than music — he once told me he broke his clarinet against the wall — and ended up playing basketball at Florida Southern, an NCAA Division II college in Lakeland, Florida.
After graduation, he coached various sports at a few schools back in Nashville and then came to Dayton. Eventually he landed a job as the girls basketball coach at Belmont.
He did an impressive job and Dunbar hired him as its girls coach when the fabled Tom Montgomery retired.
Pullen went 109-29 in six seasons, then then took over the boys program and won Division II state titles in 2006, 2007, 2010, and 2012, when they were a perfect 28-0.
Three months after he left Dunbar, Pullen was called by Middletown coach Darnell Hoskins – who had starred at Chaminade Julienne and then Wisconsin and the University of Dayton – and was offered an assistant’s job.
Pullen is grateful for that and said it renewed his spirit and energy and made him realize he still had something to offer. He still wanted to help kids.
He spent four years with Hoskins there and then followed him to Northmont for two more seasons.
Then came the call from Jonas Smith, the Trotwood athletics director who had been the DPS athletics director for 11 years and knew Pullen well.
“His first question was ‘How’s your health?’” Pullen said.
“Then he told me his basketball job was about to open. He said Rocky (Rockhold) was retiring.
“He wanted to know if I’d be interested in taking over.”
Together again at Trotwood-Madison
Pullen said he had to talk to his wife and she in turn told him to talk to Powell to see if he would join him again.
After that 2017 season, Powell had started his own business — a hazard abatement and demolition company — and he said he first had to consult with his wife, Darlene, as well.
“We know the rule,” Pullen said. “Happy wife, happy life.”
Pullen is now 69 and Powell is 65 and they knew they needed some younger guys assisting them.
They brought on two players from that 2012 team: Yates had gone on to play at Creighton and Cleveland State; and Akbar played at Kent State and Texas-Permian Basin.
Last year was Pullen’s first at Trotwood and the team went 9-14. He missed the last game — a two-point tournament loss to Northmont — because he was hospitalized for the initial surgery on his left foot.
“I didn’t have our team as prepared as I should have last season and I was upset at myself.” he admitted. “Coming in here I tried to please too many people instead of just being myself.”
This year’s team is loaded with talent — starting with highly-recruited Rams quarterback Tim Carpenter — and has won all four games since Pullen’s return.
Now comes the trip to Dunbar .
“I’m looking forward to it,” Pullen said. “It will be nice to see everybody again, especially the older people. I’ve got a lot of memories there.”
One remembrance that’s remained there was the sartorial splendor he and his assistant coaches were known for on the sideline.
They used to wear flashy matching suits, sort of a hoops’ version of the Temptations or the O’Jays and they would be the talk of the state tournament.
“Coach Powell and I talked about walking into Dunbar wearing black suits,” Pullen laughed.
“But we decided to let that tradition stay at Dunbar,” Powell nodded. “Some things aren’t meant to be replicated.”
“And I know are young guys don’t have suits like that,” Pullen grinned. “I got to think of them.”
Sometimes Coach P. takes care of you.
Credit: Dayton Daily News archive photo by Ron Alvey
Credit: Dayton Daily News archive photo by Ron Alvey
About the Author