• "Don't Undress Until You Die: The Wit and Wisdom of Al McGuire," will be performed at the Helfaer Theatre on May 16 and 17.
• Dick Enberg, a long-time sportscaster, wrote the play about McGuire after his death in 2001.
• The one-man, one-act play features actor Cotter Smith and is directed by his wife, Heidi.

"The most incredible character I've ever met. The most unique person. Complex. Street genius. Clever," Dick Enberg said of Al McGuire.

Enberg, the longtime sportscaster and 2009 Marquette commencement speaker, sought to epitomize these qualities of his one-time broadcast partner when he wrote a play about the legendary Marquette basketball coach in 2001.

The one-man, one-act play with actor Cotter Smith is coming back to Marquette's campus on commencement weekend. "Don't Undress Until You Die: The Wit and Wisdom of Al McGuire," will run May 15 and 16 at the Helfaer Theatre.

After McGuire's death in 2001, Enberg was asked by the McGuire family to speak at the memorial program. While Enberg originally did not know what to say about McGuire, he realized that McGuire had a language of his own.

Enberg wrote down things he learned from McGuire in the hopes of one day sharing them with someone. The ideas then materialized into the play, Enberg said.

"He taught me to look at life from a different angle," Enberg said.

The play took six months to write throughout 2001. While sometimes it was difficult to write, "some nights the words jumped off your fingertips," he said.

Enberg said the play's script made its way to University President the Rev. Robert A. Wild's desk in 2004. Wild showed interest in the play being produced at Marquette. Phylis Ravel, chair of the Department of Performing Arts at the time and a current adjunct associate professor, read the play and sent it to Smith.

"I read it and loved it," Smith said.

Smith and Enberg met in fall 2004. Smith said he knew right away they were going to be a good team.

"To be able to sit in the audience and watch him become Al has been great," Enberg said.

Smith and Enberg worked to produce the play under the direction of Smith's wife, Heidi. After eight months of research and practice, the play was performed at Marquette in June 2005.

"Growing up in Milwaukee in the '70s, Al McGuire and the Marquette Warriors were like heroes to us," Heidi Smith said in an e-mail.

"Getting the chance to work with Dick and Cotter to shape this piece and give us all a chance to revisit those times has been a thrill," Heidi said.

The Friday and Saturday shows at Marquette are both selling out, said Stephen Hudson-Mairet, chair of the Department of Performing Arts. A portion of the proceeds will go to the department's scholarship fund.

Before its showing at Marquette, the play will run at the Greenhouse Theater Center in Chicago May 13 and 14.

"The play obviously has legs. It's just a matter of how far Al can run," Enberg said.

Enberg said the play isn't just about a basketball coach, but about a "very unique, incredible individual who had this wit and wisdom that so few are blessed (with). It's about his way of looking at life that makes this a theatrical experience."