Coach Rowe was the most genuine person you could ever find in today's world full of "image is everything" thinking.
We got to know him in the mid-80's during the campaign to raise the money to build Gampel. He was always gracious, remembered everything and everyone, and always made people feel special because he could remind you of things that happened from years ago related to you personally.
He loved UConn and was thrilled with how far the programs have come since his time as coach, and so proud of Gampel and the Werth Center, but you never heard him say a thing about his role in so many of the important events that made UConn sports what they are today.
We had only spoken a few times over about ten years after I moved a thousand miles away, but over the last four years I've had business that brought me back to CT in early November (good timing because it worked out every year to be the first week of the season) and when I called in 2016 to see if he might like to get together for lunch he readily accepted and asked me to pick him. He didn't tell me until later that he did that so he could give me a tour of the Werth Center and to a men's team practice after lunch when I took him back to his office.
No sign of Chief, but I could feel his presence.
We always went to Geno's for lunch because he said it was favorite restaurant. At lunch that first year we talked about how UConn became a national power and I reminded him of something that happened in the mid-80's that showed just how far we'd come. It was the morning after the Wednesday night play-in game at the Big East tournament (the dreaded, at that time, eight versus nine game). The athletic development department hosted a breakfast at the hotel across the street from the Garden (not sure what name they were using at the time) and we went. The room was the size of a ballroom, probably seating 250 or more, and we thought we were in the wrong place. We entered at one end and there were five people at one table at the other end. Five. And those five were two other couples and Dee Rowe. We joked about it a bit as we had lost the game the night before and most people bailed out, but we went for the whole tournament every year to get a flavor for how it would feel one day to be there and win it. No matter, Dee carried on with the six of us as if we were important people for the future of UConn. He made everyone feel important.
Geno's closed earlier in 2020 and last Fall I wondered where we would go for lunch, but with the start of the season delayed and my trip cancelled, there would be no 2020 lunch. Just a reminder to everyone to live life to the fullest as Dee did to the end.
