Former Head Coach Hired as Assistant for Titan Basketball

Bob Hofman, who resigned as head basketball coach at Eastern Washington University May 3 after an in-house investigation of his program, has accepted a job as an assistant to Cal State Fullerton Coach John Sneed.

Hofman, a former football and basketball player at Pasadena High School and a basketball player at the University of Colorado, was named Big Sky Conference coach of the year this past season.

Eastern Washington went 6-21 and 8-22 in Hofman’s first two seasons, but improved to 18-11 and a second-place conference finish in 1989-90. The Eagles came up short of an NCAA tournament bid, losing to Idaho on a last-second, three-point shot in the conference-tournament championship game.

According to The Spokane Spokesman-Review, the Eastern Washington athletic department found a minor NCAA violation of the 48-hour recruit rule and some irregular handling of player meal money.

Hofman told the Spokesman-Review that a recruit remained on campus longer than the allotted 48 hours because of a miscommunication of flight times, and admitted giving his players a little extra meal money during some road trips.

“I didn’t see anything there,” Sneed said. “That kind of thing happens all across the country, when you’re dealing with flights and possible delays because of bad weather.

“It wasn’t enough for me to worry about. When you accomplish so much with so little, as Bob did, it’s obvious he did an outstanding job.”

When Hofman resigned, he was on a school committee that was trying to develop a better policy on meal money.

Hofman got his first job as a head coach in 1983 at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colo. He remained there for four seasons and had a 68-47 record before moving to Eastern Washington in 1987.

He will fill the vacancy created when Keith Starr resigned during the 1989-90 season.