MARV HARSHMAN : Washington Coach’s Last Hurrah Has Been More Like a Whimper

A legend is passing at U-Dub, the local designation for the University of Washington and home for the last 14 seasons of Marv Harshman, No. 1 in victories among active coaches in your NCAA record book, No. 7 all-time in a list that comes straight off the wall of the basketball Hall of Fame:

1. Adolph Rupp, 2. Phog Allen, 3. Henry Iba, 4. Ed Diddle, 5. Ray Meyer, 6. John Wooden.

7. Marvelous Marv.

Harshman is 67 and going out a winner, the Cary Grant of his profession, distinguished-looking, full of life, still calling down the thunder from the skies on his longtime adversaries, the officials, the Bruins, whomever.

Legends should all be fortunate enough to exit as well. If that was as much as needed to be said about Harshman’s last season, this would be a happy story, indeed.

But it isn’t.

His Huskies at UW--that’s where U-Dub comes from--are a major disappointment.

Harshman says he’s done a bad job with them.

Harshman’s star, Detlef Schrempf, has been caught between role changes and injuries, and isn’t doing a great job, himself.

Harshman’s friends say that leaving wasn’t his idea, but rather the UW administration’s, specifically President William Gerberding’s.

A friend said: “Harsh would like to coach another five years.”

Harshman’s friends believe that the administration was ready to push him out the door a year ago, but let him return for one last season to avoid a public stink. One local theory: Gerberding, an ex-Bruin (Dept. of Political Science, 1961-70; chairman, ‘71-72; campus executive vice chancellor), didn’t like to hear Harshman mouthing off about UCLA.

Harshman acknowledges that there is some distance between him and Gerberding.

Harshman also says he’s been told not to sign any recruits. He has complied, meaning that Washington has blown an entire recruiting class.

“I asked Mike Lude (athletic director) and he told me that (the recruiting freeze) is the administration’s decision,” Harshman says. “Supposedly they’ve talked to some coaches about the position and they all said they’d like to have the scholarships left open.

“But every coach I’ve ever spoken to . . . I ask them, ‘If you were going to have a job and the coach before you was to sign the guys we consider the best players in our state . . . ‘ And I’ve never had a coach tell me he wouldn’t want that . . .

“My thought is they’ve got somebody who says he’ll take the job, and he’s already got a backlog of people he’s going to bring in.”

In this case, Harshman’s thought appears to be wrong. Lude was in Los Angeles two weeks ago, interviewing ex-Laker Coach Paul Westhead, and is reported to have made no commitment. The Seattle press has been full of the names of other men reported to be candidates: Larry Farmer, Terry Holland, Gene Bartow, Don Monson, Boyd Grant, Bob Boyd.

The only thing to be learned from this is that Harshman, the architect of whatever Washington has in basketball, is being kept a long arm’s length away from decisions governing the program’s future. Thanks for the memories, see you later.

How could such circumstances have arisen?

By several accounts, Harshman is a wonderful man. He is described as dead honest, warm. “A hell of a guy,” said a friend.

He is generally regarded as a good X-and-O man, if an indifferent recruiter. His record suggests he’s pretty good indeed: A 620-438 record before this season. One losing season in his 13 at UW. Five winning seasons in his last six at Washington State. Winning seasons in his last 11 at Pacific Lutheran.

Everyone around him, and Harshman, too, will admit to one failing on his part: lack of discretion. He’s an old-line stand-up guy. If he thinks it, he’s likely to say it.

And he thinks a lot of things:

--The referees are out to get him. Last season, he waved his wallet at the refs during a loss at Stanford. Afterward, he made several pointed references to the betting spread on the game.

Some of this, apparently, rubs off. After the Huskies’ loss to USC last week, the Seattle Times led its sports section with a four-color picture of fans yelling at a referee. The Post-Intelligencer ran a column, excoriating Pac-10 officiating. And the local ABC-TV affiliate ran a similar feature that included flashing the name and address of Frank McIntyre, the Pac-10 supervisor of officials.

--UCLA is trying to intimidate everyone with a lot of cheap shots. “That’s kind of what they’re saying around the league,” Harshman said last week after beating the Bruins.

Replied Walt Hazzard: “I guess Reggie (Miller) is awesome when he flexes. . . . Marv Harshman had a lot to say. I couldn’t tell if he won or lost.”

That’s part of the charm. Harshman has a lot to say, period.

“I have been cautioned about that,” Harshman says. “I’m too outspoken about officials. But I think that goes with a coach’s job, protecting his players. I was told by Mike Lude. We’re very chain-of-command here. But I was told that one (caution) came from the vice president (James Collier), one came from the president (Gerberding). . . .

“I just don’t know the person (Gerberding). I’ve met him. I’ve been with him at functions, but we’ve never had a conversation about the job I was doing, whether he liked it. Other people have come to that conclusion (that Gerberding was unhappy) more than I.”

This all came to a head a year ago, as Seattle mobilized to play host to the Final Four, and Harshman, who had put in 13 seasons at Pacific Lutheran and 13 more in Pullman, began his 13th at UW.

Washington officials were suggesting that 13-13-13 had a nice ring to it and ol’ Harsh would probably be hanging them up. Instead, ol’ Harsh wrote Gerberding and the university regents a letter, stating his desire to return for one more season.

He mailed it before Christmas. By February, he hadn’t gotten a reply and was ready to admit his impatience.

The Huskies were then 17-4. Residents had started dreaming the impossible dream--a local representative in the Final Four. When the suggestion that the Huskies were trying to ease out Harshman hit the newspapers, Seattle blew up. Harshman was rehired two weeks later.

“I said then I hoped I could coach one more year,” Harshman says. “One reason was that this was Schrempf’s last season. It would be a natural break. (Chris) Welp and (Paul) Fortier would still be here so they’d have something to build on.”

If he’d wanted to stay on?

“It would have been a dogfight, I feel” Harshman says. “Mike Lude would have had to fight for me. If the president wanted a new coach. . . .

“Neither he (Gerberding) nor anyone from his office has ever talked to me about it. It always made me wonder, who are these mythical people saying these things?”

A call is placed to Gerberding’s office. It is returned by James Collier, the vice president for university relations:

Is Gerberding unhappy with Harshman?

“You’d have to talk to Dr. Gerberding,” Collier says. “But I know he doesn’t want to discuss the matter. That’s all on that one, I’m afraid.”

And the recruiting freeze?

“That was Mike Lude’s decision.”

Harshman says that Lude told him it was an administration decision.

“Mike bounces a lot of things off me. He reports to me. I have oversight responsibility for collegiate athletics. . . . He did talk to me about it. We did discuss it. I thought it was good idea.”

Hasn’t the school given up a recruiting year?

“You didn’t have to be a mental giant to know there were going to be transition problems from one coach to another. But the coach we’re trying to hire is probably working, probably coaching his own team. And we didn’t want to disrupt his program. And the guy will inherit a pretty good squad. Detlef Schrempf is the only senior (starter) we’ll lose.”

Has Harshman been warned by the administration against being so outspoken?

“That’s not true.”

Harshman says he’s been warned.

“We have some guidelines in the athletic department that say the representative of a department will not publicly criticize, for example, officials, other coaches. Whatever guidelines there are are well stated in the guidelines of the Pac-10 conference. Mike (Lude) has told certain people that they are not to make certain statements.”

Has the administration been misrepresented by these stories?

“Marv is free to say what he wants to say,” Collier says. “I don’t know why it’s coming up now.”

Whoever the mythical people were, Harshman returned for his last hurrah, with four starters from a 24-7 team that reached the Western Regional semifinals, the Pac-10’s best showing in four seasons. They were picked to overwhelm the conference and ranked a consensus No. 9 nationally.

Something hasn’t happened.

After USC handled them last week, in Hec Edmundson Pavilion, Harshman was seen in the dressing room, head bowed, being consoled by Lude. A man who saw them said it appeared that Harshman had tears in his eyes.

“This season is really eating me up,” Harshman said a few days later. “There have been so many demands on my time. I feel I’m not doing a good coaching job. A lot of times I just don’t have time to concentrate.

“This team has been so many places since the beginning of the year--Fresno, Hawaii, Texas, Duke. And every place, because you’re old and you’ve been around a long time, someone wants to do a story.

“But I have enjoyed it. Even the SC game, after it was over. I enjoy every practice, every game. I don’t think about it being the last one, the last time I’ll play UCLA. My biggest worry is Arizona State Monday night.”

Harshman beat John Wooden in the last game they coached against one another, 103-81. Of course, Wooden had beat him in the 18 before that. Harshman, though, won his last game against UCLA last Saturday. His Huskies took out Arizona State last Monday night but was upset by Oregon Thursday night.

He has 634 victories, 33 behind the No. 6 man on the list, The Wiz, himself. Unless Harshman gets a reprieve from the governor, he won’t be overhauling him, but one step behind John Wooden isn’t a bad place to finish.

And, believe it, Harshman is enjoying himself. If he weren’t, he’d say so.

Off he goes, marvelous to the end.