Jerry Tarkanian honored for the 20-year anniversary of UNLV’s championship

By Case Keefer (contact)

Thursday, March 18, 2010 | 2 a.m.

It felt like 1990 all over again.

Here was former UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian walking down the red carpet and into a room full of roaring applause and speakers blaring the Jaws theme song with legendary Rebel Larry Johnson not far behind.

It was all part of a 20-year anniversary celebration of UNLV’s national championship at the Celebration Lounge in the Tropicana.

“Some places, it might be St. Patrick’s Day,” said Tom McCartney, president of the Tropicana. “Here, it’s Tark the Shark Day.”

The city of Las Vegas and Clark County even officially proclaimed March 17 as Tark the Shark Day and presented Tarkanian with a plaque.

Tarkanian then reminisced with fans and answered questions for more than hour about the 1990 National Championship season and other topics.

“Vegas was the perfect place,” Tarkanian said. “When I took the job here, I told my wife that we could capture this whole town because there was so much interest in the university and the program. But I never thought it would be like it was. There was a time when getting a Rebel ticket was the hardest thing in town to get. It was harder than a Frank Sinatra show.”

Tarkanian went on to tell some of his favorite stories from those years that Rebels fans still treasure.

Tarkanian talked about Sinatra’s interest in the program, the famed Gucci Row, the way ESPN aired every UNLV game it could and the pre-game light show.

“We set a lot of trends,” Tarkanian said. “I didn’t have anything to do with any of that. The only thing I did was coach.”

Although it was officially Tarkanian’s day, Johnson received just as much attention. Tarkanian called Johnson “the greatest player in UNLV history” and said he cared more about winning than any player he had ever coached.

Johnson and Tarkanian both laughed as they recalled the summer the coach spent recruiting the 6-foot-7 forward in Dallas.

Johnson, who transferred to UNLV from Odessa College, said one thing impressed him the most about Tarkanian — the white Rolls-Royce he drove that summer.

“I lived in the hood in Dallas,” Johnson said. “When I saw a white Rolls-Royce, I said, 'Whoever this is, I’m going to school there.'”

“All these other coaches drove up in Ford Tauruses,” Johnson said, laughing.

Joking aside, both Tarkanian and Johnson said they were excited to watch UNLV’s first-round NCAA Tournament game tomorrow against Northern Iowa.

Tarkanian predicted it would be the best game of the day and sees UNLV emerging as the winner.

“Northern Iowa doesn’t have the athletes UNLV has,” Tarkanian said. “I think it’s going to be a lot like UNLV’s game against BYU, where BYU had the experience but UNLV had all the athletes.”

Tarkanian and Johnson said they hope the Rebels enjoy the experience. There was nothing better than their 1990 run through the NCAA Tournament, they said.

“I never thought my two years at UNLV would be the highlight of my career,” Johnson said. “But it was. To come here and play with the guys, it meant so much.”