Former Michigan Coach Bill Frieder Fitting In With A New Crowd

Even though Bill Frieder had success coaching college basketball ( he led Michigan and Arizona State to six NCAA tournaments and was a monster recruiter), he'll always be known for ditching the Wolverines for Arizona State on the eve of the 1989 tournament. I have my own thoughts about Frieder but that's another topic for another day. 

Frieder has stayed around the game since retiring doing color commentary on NCAA games for Westwood One radio. Nowdays, Frieder has a new gig. He helps the Maloof brothers, Joe and Gavin, the owners of the Sacramento Kings, run the Maloof Money Cup, a skatebording contest with four different events, the first being held in New York City and a total prize potentially paying more than $2 million.

Now Frieder doesn't commentate or pick the skaters. He handles the money, makes sure things run smoothly during the contests, and with the Maloofs and general manager Tim McFerran - a former hoops player at Willamette University - helps make business decisions, including on expanding the contests domestically and internationally.

The surprise is that Frieder seems to be a big hit with the skating community and Frieder likes being involved with the event.

Frieder has become friends with many of the skaters who live in the San Diego area, including Pierre-Luc Gagnon, a two-time winner of the Maloof Money Cup Orange County vert title, and Jake Brown, who is best known for his spectacular 40-foot fall during the 2007 X Games.


"When I got into this I knew who Jake Brown was because I saw his fall on ESPN," Frieder said. "I knew who Sheckler was. We had a Ryan Sheckler night our first year up at Sacramento. There was a line all the way around the arena and out the door to get his autograph. It was incredible."

The skaters also seemed to have some kind of special kinship with the old coach.

"Bill Frieder's an amazing guy," Brown said. "He comes from a history of sports, with basketball and stuff, and he's just a great all-around dude."

"He knows sports," said Maloof, who's been a game-changer in pro skateboarding. "Frieder's been around sports his whole life. He understands young people, athletes. The people 40-70 know who he is, but it's the young people that are attracted to Frieder. He just knows how to relate to young people, like he did his whole career, like recruiting basketball players. Skaters trust him."

It's kind of strange that Frieder would be involved in skateboarding with all the young athletes involved, since he never went back into coaching. But he's played the stock market and poker, so anything isn't out of the ordinary for Frieder. 



 

Tony Hawk Does A Heelflip Into Arms Of Best Friend's Wife

Filthy rich skateboarding star Tony Hawk, who filed for divorce from his third wife Lhotse Merriam in Feb., has done a 360 and skated into the arms of his best friend and business partner's wife.

According to the New York Post, Hawk--who dumped Merriam, his former publicist--is now Mongo-Footing with Matt Goodman's wife Cathy.  Hawk and Goodman are childhood friends as well.

The report said Merriam found out about her celebrity skate-boarder husband's secret relationship in December after she found a plane ticket for Cathy that Hawk had booked for her to join him in San Francisco.  Talk about a Poser doing a Noseslide.

Hawk filed for divorce from Merriam in San Diego on Feb. 11.  They have one daughter together.  Hawk has three sons from previous marriages.

The 44 year-old legendary skater seems to like his work, but love his employees and business associates wives even more.  He married Merriam, who was employed by Hawk, in 2006 two years after divorcing his second wife, Erin, his former nanny.

The Goodmans were married for nearly twenty years and have two children.  Sources say they have now separated.

Goodman and Hawk had been friends since childhood.  Goodman stood as a groomsman at each of Hawk's three weddings.  Looks like that streak could end.

Hawk, who was credited with being the first boarder to land "The 900" has been praised with turning skateboarding into the popular extreme sport it is today.  He is a millionaire many times over  from his Tony Hawk Pro-Skater video games--15 versions in all--and personal appearances.

Together, Goodman and Hawk founded the action-sports movie production company 900 Films.

The report said Hawk and Cathy were recently spotted together in New York City.

Neither Merriam or Goodman had a comment.  A representative for Hawk said, " We do not comment on the personal lives of our clients."