Don Zech could spot basketball talent and earned a reputation early in his career as an astute recruiter while he was an assistant at the University of Washington. When he got a chance to lead a college team, he proved to be a pretty good head coach, too.
Don Zech could spot basketball talent and earned a reputation early in his career as an astute recruiter while he was an assistant at the University of Washington.
When he got a chance to lead a college team, he proved to be a pretty good head coach, too.
During a 21-year career at the University of Puget Sound, Zech recruited 10 players to the tiny Division II college in Tacoma who later played in the NBA.
He also won more games than anyone in school history including the 1976 D-II national title.
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The UPS Hall of Fame coach died Tuesday morning of liver failure in Chandler, Ariz. He was 83.
“Puget Sound has lost one of its legends,” said Puget Sound Director of Athletics Amy Hackett in a statement released by the school. “He leaves an enduring legacy of the Logger spirit.”
Before joining the Huskies, Zech led the Blanchet High boys’ basketball team to an undefeated season en route to the 1963 Class 4A state title.
He then spent the next six years at UW before taking the job at UPS in 1969.
Zech amassed a record of 405-196 (.674), including 11 seasons when the Loggers won at least 20 games and advanced to the postseason.
“He was one of the most respected coaches ever in the northwest,” said Doug McArthur, UPS’ former athletic director from 1969-78. “Don’s real strength was as a recruiter. He was taking Division I players away from Division I schools I that era.”
Zech became one of pillars in the state’s basketball coaching fraternity that included Marv Harshman at Washington, Les Habegger at Seattle Pacific and Dean and Leo Nicholson at Central Washington.
“We were a NCAA Division II program at that time, but we played Division I schools,” McArthur said. “Where Gonzaga is today, we were probably there in the ’70s.”
Zech’s greatest achievement occurred in the 1975-76 season.
The previous season, the Loggers lost in the NCAA tournament West Regional final and they returned many of their stars, including 7-foot center Curt “The Peak” Peterson, Rick Walker and Tim Evans.
“At the start of the season, Don predicted a national championship,” McArthur said. “It was pretty obvious all year that was their goal.”
At a time when dunking was against the rules, the Loggers averaged 79.7 points and held opponents to 67.6.
“We were not a fast-breaking team and we were not a pressing team,” said Matt McCully, a reserve guard from 1974-78. “We were just a very disciplined team. We played a matchup zone defense. We would run an offense where we would pass it, pass it and pass it until we got an open shot. He recruited players who could make an open shot.
“We led the nation in free-throw percentage and part of that was due to Coach Zech. We shot at least 50 free throws every practice. And that paid off.”
The Loggers finished the 1975-76 season with a 27-7 record – still the most wins in school history – which included a 5-6 mark against D-I opponents.
Puget Sound was the underdog in its final three games in the NCAA tournament. UPS beat North Dakota 80-77 in the quarterfinal and upset defending national champion Old Dominion, 83-78, in the semifinal.
In the championship game, the heavily-favored Tennessee-Chattanooga players were t-shirts during warmups that read: “Beat the Puny Sound.”
The Loggers won 83-74 in front of 5,000 at Roberts Stadium in Evansville, Ind.
“There wasn’t anything puny about a team that was 6-8, 6-5, 7-foot, 6-6 and 6-4,” McArthur said.
Peterson, a 7-foot center, was named the tournament’s most outstanding player.
Before concluding his career in 1990, Zech won four West Coast Coach of the Year awards, two GNC Coach of the Year honors and was named the NABC National Coach of the Year in 1976.
He was inducted in the UPS Hall of Fame in 1991.
Zech, who was born Nov. 29, 1932 in Tacoma, was three-sport standout at Sumner High and he attended the University of Notre Dame.
He is survived by his wife, Carol: daughters Caron and Linda, and sons Don Jr., Mike and Steve.
Memorial services will be held in Arizona and Tacoma.
Bing Dahl dead at 93
Longtime Evergreen basketball coach Bing Dahl, 93, died Tuesday at Judson Park health center in Des Moines, where he had resided since breaking his right hip in October.
Dahl’s best team, in 1968, finished third at the big-school tournament and set a four-game record (later broken) by scoring 281 points.
Dahl played basketball at Washington and Washington State before launching his coaching career at Colville and Kent-Meridian for three years each before moving to Evergreen, where he was a coach and counselor for 30 years.
World War II cut short his college days in Seattle and he spent 37 months in the U.S. Army in England and at Camp Lee, Va., where he was commissioned as a second lieutenant. After the war, Dahl wanted to be closer to his native Spokane, so he transferred to Washington State, where he played basketball and baseball in his last two college years.
A memorial service will take place Wednesday at 2 p.m. at John Knox Presbyterian Church, 109 S.W. Normandy Road in Normandy Park.