City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@jsantoliquito)
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You know them. Everyone seems to know them. To those who do not know them, you see them everywhere and may not know exactly who they are—but they jog the memory. They are a Norman Rockwell painting sprung to life sitting courtside in canvas folding chairs, a living piece of hoops Americana.

You may not know Marianne and Paul Funston by name; you certainly would know the affable, omnipresent couple by their faces, if you are ever seated courtside at Cardinal O’Hara, or Bonner-Prendie, or the Palestra, or every night at the Donofrio Classic, or at a summer weekend game at Spooky Nook, in Manheim, Pennsylvania, or a half-a-million other places where area basketball is being played.

Marianne and Paul have biologically two sons, Shane and Kevin, the former Bonner-Prendie head coach, and five grandchildren. Their basketball family extends far beyond that, stretching to the NBA, major and local college basketball, and to conceivably to every high school gym in the area over the last 40 years.

Marianne and Paul shared a mutual love—basketball. Their first dates were to basketball games. They have been going to games together for close to five decades, since before their 46-year marriage. They are a beautiful couple who complete each other’s sentences. Marianne is the talker. Paul is the nodding listener. Together, they are like a warm blanket on a cold December night. They seem to embrace the basketball world.

Everyone knows married couples who can’t stand being in the same room together. The Funstons, who live in Lansdowne, Delaware County, can’t stand being away from a basketball game.

“We have been at this for a long time,” says Marianne, who always yearned to be an honorary Chester cheerleader. “It comes from a love of the game. We have no horses in the race. We love the game. We have got to see great players and great coaches through the years. I think what keeps us going is the passion for the game. We have gotten to see all these kids and all these coaches throughout the years. These kids are great; the coaches are great. You make relationships through the years. Even today, you make bonds with these kids and coaches. People think I’m nuts because I still love the high school kids. They still believe they can change the world. They’re not cynical. In high school, you still believe in yourself and believe in your dreams.”

Marianne, 70, grew up in the Overbrook section of Philadelphia as one of nine kids (three girls and six boys). After dinner, her father used to take the children out to Tustin playground, where Wilt Chamberlain used to play. She and her brother Rob DeLuca, a longtime assistant under legendary O’Hara coach Linus McGinty and Archbishop Carroll’s Barry Kirsch, would steal away from Saturday morning chores out of their West Philly twin to sneak on the back of the No. 10 trolley, then slide through unseen through the backdoor of the Palestra to watch college doubleheaders in the late-1960s and early-1970s.

Paul, 73, who played for North Catholic, would play all day as a kid, as long he was back home for dinner by five. After dinner, he was back out again playing on the local playground. He was with a bunch of older kids who took him in and would take him to Big Five games. As a sophomore, Paul was on the 1967 North Catholic team that won the Catholic League over Monsignor Bonner in double overtime and Philadelphia City Championship, thanks to Hank Siemiontkowski, who went on to Villanova.

For Kevin, 36, growing up as a child every January Friday night and March Madness was like Christmas Eve. Kevin coached at Bonner-Prendie from 2011-2023 with his father. He initially served as an assistant under head coach Jack Concannon, from 2013-2018, until he took over as head coach of the Friars from May 2018 to 2022. Kevin played under Speedy Morris at St. Joseph’s Prep, alongside Reggie Redding, then went on to Pitt, where he was the Panthers’ team manager for four years under Jamie Dixon, now TCU’s head coach.

Marianne would post a calendar on the basement door and highlight the week’s prime games the family would attend. Kevin knew to do his homework immediately after he came home from school to be ready for that night’s game. After dinner, the family would pile into the car and head off to the game mom color coded.

Each March Madness, Marianne and Paul would take Kevin out of middle school and head to R.P. McMurphy’s on MacDade Boulevard in Holmes, Delaware County. The Funstons would hand over their license to the bartender so young Kevin could channel hop, feasting on chicken fingers seated in a booth to watch as many NCAA Tournament games as they could.

As a kid, he went to O’Hara and Carroll girls’ games. He would watch O’Hara star Kristen “Ace” Clement play, or Carroll’s Cherrise Graham, when his Uncle Rob was an assistant coach at those respective schools, then bring his little basketball out to shoot at halftime. The Funstons made sure Kevin was courtside at the Palestra on Dec. 22, 2002, to see a tall, lean kid out of St. Vincent-St. Mary, in Akron, Ohio, named LeBron James battle Strawberry Mansion’s scoring machine, Maureece Rice.

Paul and Marianne Funston watch a game during the Philly Live sessions in June at the Alan Horwitz "Sixth Man" Center in Philadelphia. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

“My parents are special. They’re genuine,” said Kevin, the father of two boys, three and two. “They’re the best. In a selfish way, everything that I have been able to do associated with basketball came through them. Their sacrifices, their commitment paved the way. They both came up around the game. They’re addicted. They love the history of the game. They love the rivalries. I still get calls from my dad at courtside with a picture of the scoreboard at halftime.

“My wife, Lauren, loves basketball, too. Thank God, she is not as sick in the head as we are (laughs). She is normal (laughs). She will still go with us to games, though she’s not as addicted as we are. That was the coolest thing for me being able to coach with my dad on staff at Bonner. I love coaching. I had to give coaching up, for now, because my younger son was born. As a kid for me, personally, it was great. I was going to games with my parents when I was five. I have a lot of great memories. My parents would always do these really cool things. They were some of my most unbelievable memories I have as a kid.”

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Around late-May, early-June 2021, Paul began finding bruises on his legs. A blood test revealed he had prostate cancer that had spread to his bones. It was a scary time. He found an answer at Penn Medicine, undergoing chemo and other treatments, seeing doctors on a three-month rotation.

For a time, he had to quarantine himself from Marianne and his grandchildren for two weeks for their protection. Marianne would prepare meals and Paul was forced to sit by himself and eat.

It was a trying time. There was a point when his hemoglobin was at a five. The normal Hb level for males is 14 to 18 g/dl; that for females is 12 to 16 g/dl.

Gradually, the PET scans and MRIs began showing progress.

“It is important that I am here and will take advantage of the time I have, but everything is under control,” said Paul, as he was on his way to the gym. “Penn Medicine I can say saved my life. They are tremendous people. I’m lucky, very lucky to be here this long. I don’t want to be treated any differently by people, I don’t want people to feel sorry for me.

“What keeps me going is watching my grandchildren, Kevin’s three- and two-year-olds two days a week, and Shane’s children. It’s what I look forward to and something I really enjoy it. It is pleasure to be around kids, and basketball provides that outlet, seeing coaches that I have known through these years, seeing the kids of the kids I saw coming up.”

And there is one other motivating factor: Sitting with Marianne courtside.

“It’s a big part of what keeps me going, too,” Paul said. “Basketball in this area is such a bonding force. It’s bonded me and my wife, and my boys. I know there are a lot of people I love seeing at games. I have been fortunate to make a lot of friends watching a lot of games, and through coaching. It’s been a lot of years that formed those friendships.”

Marianne and Paul have some incredible memories. Some of the greatest players they saw are in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, like Kobe Bryant, and a number are heading there, like James.

They also share some resonating stories—like the time Marianne scared the great Larry Bird in his prime during a visit to Philadelphia.   

The Funstons had a scheduled trip and went to center city Philadelphia to pick up the tickets. It was the spring of 1981 and the 76ers were playing the Boston Celtics in the playoffs. Marianne’s all-time favorite player was Bird.

As the Funstons were waiting for their tickets at the downtown Mariott, Bird and Kevin McHale came walking through the front door. Marianne, seven months pregnant with Shane at the time, leaped up and yelled, “It’s Larry Bird!”

The lobby went silent.

All eyes turned to her—including Bird and McHale.

Once Bird and McHale saw Marianne, they ran out the door.

“Marianne sat down next to me and her face was beet red,” recalled Paul, laughing hysterically. “I could see the blood running out of Bird’s face. Bird and McHale may have run a mile down City Line Avenue before they stopped, thinking Bird was facing a paternity suit. I’ll never forget Marianne sitting next to me and saying, ‘That was probably a bad idea that I did that.’”

Some years later, Marianne got a chance to catch up with Bird and got his autograph. She did not bring up the chance meeting in the hotel lobby.

“I am a huge fan, and I remember being so excited to see him, but I didn’t realize what I must have looked like to him,” said Marianne, laughing. “When I did get to meet Bird later in his career, he was such a gentleman. Bird was a winner. That’s what I liked.”

The Funstons are planning their 2024 schedule.

Kevin is not ruling out the possibility of coaching again when his boys get older. If he does, his first call will be to his dad.

“I could not do it without him,” Kevin said. “Right now, I don’t know how I would fit it in, because coaching is such a fulltime type of job. It would always be nice if he would be on the sideline again coaching. I tease some of the coaches that I am still in touch with that my mom would be a good recruiter, because she can talk to anyone. That’s my parents.”

So, this coming season, if you happen to bump into an older couple sitting there in the stands together, you know who they are: They’re the Funstons.

Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter based in the Philadelphia area who began writing for CoBL in 2021 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on Twitter here.