CLEMMONS, N.C. - Chris Paul, the point guard Skip Prosser said he wouldn’t trade for anyone, couldn’t hold back the tears last night as he eulogized his former Wake Forest coach.

Looking at the closed coffin from the lectern, Paul addressed Prosser in a voice that cracked with sorrow.

"Thank you for everything you did for me, for my family, for everybody," Paul, the New Orleans Hornets point guard, said during an emotional, two-hour ceremony at Holy Family Catholic Church near Winston-Salem, N.C.

George E. "Skip" Prosser died Thursday of a heart attack on campus, sending the Wake Forest community into mourning. About 600 people attended the funeral yesterday. Others gathered at Wait Chapel on the Wake Forest campus to watch a simulcast of the funeral.

Earlier yesterday, a private viewing was held for coaches to pay respects to a colleague beloved in their tight fraternity. Shortly before entering the church, North Carolina State Coach Sidney Lowe gratefully recalled Prosser’s encouragement after Lowe was hired a year ago.

Lowe had spent his entire career in the NBA and said Prosser was kind enough to explain how the ACC worked. Prosser told him to coach the way he knows how to coach, because he wasn’t a rookie.

Coaches returned for the 6 p.m. ceremony, which featured seven ministers and was held at Holy Family because the church could accommodate a larger crowd than the Prossers’ parish at St. Leo the Great in Winston-Salem.

Current and former Notre Dame coaches Mike Brey and Digger Phelps got out of a stretch limousine at the same time Mike and wife Mickie Krzyzewski arrived with Duke assistant Steve Wojciechowski close behind.

Big Ten rivals Tom Izzo of Michigan State and Kelvin Sampson of Indiana walked in side by side. The ACC head coaches sat together as Wake Forest’s current players proceeded hand in hand together to their seats. Paul hid his eyes and cried as he entered along with the former Wake Forest players.

Wake Forest associate head coach Dino Gaudio looked at the coaches in the pews as he joked during his eulogy. Yesterday was the last day of the summer recruiting evaluation period, and Gaudio told the coaches that Prosser had made sure that if he couldn’t be out recruiting, his rivals wouldn’t be out recruiting.

"My guy was competitive," Gaudio said.

The speakers at the mass tried to make sense of losing Prosser at the age of 56. In his homily, Wake Forest Catholic campus minister Jude D’Angelo said Prosser’s death would be difficult to accept. He addressed Prosser’s mother, Jo, saying a mother shouldn’t have to bury a child.

D’Angelo spoke to Prosser’s widow, Nancy.

"A husband and a wife are supposed to grow old together," D’Angelo said sadly.

The mourners tried to laugh as they remembered Prosser. Gaudio recalled Prosser stepping into the shower as a high school coach in West Virginia, soaking his shoes and pants to holler at players blaming a loss on the referees.

Wake Forest Athletic Director Ron Wellman remembered being concerned as he watched Prosser on the football sideline, inching toward Wake Forest Coach Jim Grobe during a close game. Wellman knew what Prosser’s advice would be if he got close enough.

"When in doubt, throw it deep," Wellman said.

But after the coffin left the church for a burial service Saturday in Cincinnati, the faces that normally are animated on the basketball court were ashen.

Wake Forest center David Weaver put his arm around point guard Ish Smith, whose emotion poured out as he walked out the door.

Gaudio tried to rationalize, saying sports are in chaos with Michael Vick’s dogfighting troubles, Barry Bonds’ possibly tainted home run chase and the investigation of possible point shaving by referee Tim Donaghy in the NBA.

Maybe, Gaudio said, the boss of all those priests on the altar needed a coach with him in heaven.

"He took the best one he could find," Gaudio whispered.

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