After Mr. Al Nuness, Supervisory Paraprofessional, heard of the death of famous musician Prince, he was flooded with memories.

Nuness taught and coached at Minneapolis Central High School where Prince also attended. Prince’s brother, Duane Nelson, and friends, would sneak into the gym to try and play basketball. As head basketball coach, Nuness noticed Prince’s love for basketball.

“I think basketball was his first love,” Nuness said. “He wasn’t very tall, but he knew the game and played it well.”

Once Prince reached ninth grade, Nuness brought him and his crew to play for the tenth grade team. The team never lost a game, and two of the players on the team went on to play professionally.

“I was like a father to those kids, and my wife was like a mother. They would come over to our house and do whatever they wanted as if they lived there,” Nuness said.

Prince’s basketball career ended when he found a love for music.

“The interesting thing about Prince was that he couldn’t read music, but he definitely could play,” Nuness said.

Prince didn’t let his lack of musical education stop him from making it big.

“Prince’s success is equal to winning the lottery,” Nuness said. “He grew up in hard times, as shown in his film “Purple Rain.”

Prince would continue on to sell over 100 million records worldwide, win multiple Grammy awards, and and won an Oscar for Best Musical Sound Score in 1984.

Nuness’ fondest memory with Prince was when he went to one of his concerts in Texas and proved to his work clients that he knew him.

“I was living in Dallas, Texas and Prince was putting on a concert there. I went to it with my clients, and they didn’t believe that I knew Prince. So, we went backstage and asked to see Prince,” Nuness said.

When Nuness asked to see Prince, his security guard immediately blew him off.

“I said, ‘Tell Prince that coach Nuness is here.’ When the guard came back, he apologized and we went in to see Prince,” Nuness said.

To Nuness, Prince was a man who never lost sight of his roots and didn’t stray away from his goals.

“As famous as he had become, he still remembered his roots. Prince never left Minnesota; this was his home,” Nuness said.