Colleagues laud Tarkanian for his dedication

Victoria Sun and Steve Guiremand

Friday, March 15, 2002 | 10:55 a.m.

College basketball loses a coaching legend when former UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian calls it quits today after a controversial career that spanned several decades.

As college hoops expert and ESPN analyst Dick Vitale will attest, Tarkanian was one of a kind.

"He's pure and pure a coach," Vitale said from ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Conn. "He just loved being in the gym. He loved teaching, motivating kids and working in the gym at practice.

"He loves the game of basketball. He could never get enough. Every time I talked to him, he just wanted to talk about basketball, participate in terms of teaching and motivating players. That was his life."

Tarkanian was known for taking risks on players and some of his teams, including his last one at Fresno State, were surrounded by controversy whether it was battles against the NCAA or myriad problems off the court.

Through it all, Tarkanian thrived, drawing him high praise from Vitale and others.

"He did a phenomenal job," Vitale said. "When you look at all of the adversity he's gone through, the numbers are mind boggling.

"Anytime you lose a true legend in the coaching profession, it's always disappointing."

Vitale lauded Tarkanian for his ability to get the most out of the players he recruited.

"That's the thing that impressed me about him," Vitale said. "He was able to get kids to play unselfish.

"Even when you look at his 1990 championship team at UNLV, all those kids had great individual talent, but he had a special way of blending them as a unit, of getting them to give up individual goals for the interest of the team."

Brad Rothermel, who was athletic director at UNLV from Jan. 1, 1981 to December, 1990 presided over Tarkanian's reign in Southern Nevada.

"He was an incredible coach. He won 330 games during his last 11 seasons at UNLV. I don't think any other coach in history averaged 30 wins a season for that long in their career," Rothermel said.

"I think basketball at UNLV during that time was one of those rare circumstances where the visibility of the basketball program also pulled up the visibility of the school's academics. I think men's basketball bonded the community like I've never seen before, from the rich to the dregs of society. Everyone in this town wanted to be a Rebel basketball fan back then."

Rothermel said he had many fond memories of Tarkanian.

"One that I remember concerns the chair to the right of Jerry on the bench. He always kept it open. We called it the ghost chair," Rothermel said.

"Before his last game here in 1992, he called me and told me he wanted me to sit on the bench with him. I told him, 'Where? We already have all our bench seats filled.' And he told me he wanted me to sit in the ghost chair.

"Well, we were playing Utah State and we were winning but we were struggling. Finally, with about seven or eight minutes to go in the game, Jerry leaned over and said, 'Brad, go get another chair.'

"Jerry was very, very superstitious which I don't think very many people know. Well, I got another seat and we began to play better after that and we won the game. We finished 26-2 that year."

UNLV senior associate athletic director Jerry Koloskie, who came to UNLV in 1982 from Iowa State to become head basketball trainer for the Rebels, has fond memories of Tarkanian's days as head coach of UNLV.

"I had the utmost respect for him as a basketball coach," he said. "For me, it was just an unbelieveable experience to work for him for 10 years.

"The thing I liked about him is that he let you do your job. He also kept everything simple. He never worried about the little things. The players and those of us who worked for him during that environment knew what he expected. He allowed us to do our job, but demanded that you work hard. He also demanded excellence."

Koloskie said Tarkanian enjoyed rock star-like status near the end of his UNLV coaching days.

"He was huge ... in this town, out of town, wherever we went," Koloskie said. "After the Final Four in 1987, I often wondered how he kept up the way he did with all the distractions around him.

"He was a real icon. We'd go to Southern California for a game and he'd be off to do the Roy Firestone show. Then we'd go to the hotel and people would be waiting in the lobby for his autograph.

"Out of town visitors would stop by his office here just to shake his hand or take a picture with him. And he'd never turn anybody down. I think UNLV's licensing and merchandise was No. 2 or No. 3 in the country. It seemed wherever we went you'd see kids wearing UNLV hats and shirts."

Koloskie said Tarkanian rarely kept up on world events and mainly just read the sports page each day.

"I remember when when the Grenada incident was going on and someone came up to him on the plane and asked him, 'What do you think about the Grenada incident?' And he was like, 'Is that where the Nike convention is this year?' "

Rothermel said Tarkanian had tunnel vision for basketball. "When we'd go to a newsstand, he'd go get the paper, take out the sports section, and then throw the rest of it away. Then he'd check to see if it had any basketball stories. If it didn't, he throw that away, too."

Koloskie believes that Tarkanian will be a frequent visitor at UNLV games and practices now that he has retired.

"He told me before that when he retired he wanted to become a fan," Koloskie said. "He told me to tell Coach (John) Robinson that he'll be coming to a lot of our games.

"And I know he has a lot of respect for Coach (Charlie) Spoonhour. I'm sure he'll be stopping by our practices. Basketball has just been such a big part of his life that I know he'll want to stay around the game as much as he can."

Former Texas Christian University coach Billy Tubbs coached against Tarkanian when UNLV was part of the Western Athletic Conference.

Although they were competitors, Tubbs considers Tarkanian to be a good friend and admired him for his work ethic and courage.

"Tark's made a great contribution to basketball," Tubbs said. "He made Vegas a national caliber program. It's not as easy a job as a lot of people assume it is.

"I admire him because he stood up to people that nobody else would stand up to. You have to admire him because he's the only guy that stood up to the NCAA and beat them.

"But it cost him dearly in the long fight. When you're accused of something, even though you might be innocent, that never comes out on the front page. Tark will be missed."