Everett, Wash.
Published: Sunday, August 3, 2008

Marv Harshman: A true teacher

Marv Harshman was once a star football player. But he found his true love coaching basketball.

By Scott M. Johnson
Herald Writer

 Anyone looking for a source to talk about the differences between being a star athlete and being a star coach could certainly do worse than Marv Harshman.

The 90-year-old Lake Stevens native, who now lives in Bothell, was inducted into Pacific Lutheran University's Hall of Fame as a football player and later went on to become a Hall of Fame college basketball coach.

Harshman is also the only person who made both of The Herald's recent lists of top athletes and coaches from the area. He recently finished second behind Terry Ennis in the poll of "Snohomish County's Most Successful Coaches of All Time," and three years ago Harshman was No. 11 on our list of the county's all-time best athletes.

So Harshman knows a thing or two about sports.

But if you feel the need to ask the former University of Washington basketball coach about the game he coached, it may be wise to pick a free afternoon.

And maybe even part of the night.

"I once took a class from him at the U-Dub," said Mark Albertine, a UW graduate and current athletic director at Snohomish High School. "He talked about the bounce pass for 45 minutes, and I didn't lose interest.

"And he could have kept going."

Harshman, who was a football star before he went on to coach basketball at Pacific Luthern College (now known as PLU), Washington State and UW, can't stop talking about the game he loves.

The only topic on which he is more long-winded may well be the coaching profession.

"The big problem in coaching nowadays is that recruiting is the only thing they feel will cause success," he said during a phone conversation earlier this summer. "There aren't any teachers anymore; just a lot of promoters and good talkers.

"They know the game because they've been around it enough, but they don't know how to teach it."

Harshman was one of the true teachers, so much so that his advice is still valuable today.

"He's been out of it for 20 years, but not forgotten," Snohomish High School boys basketball coach Len Bone said. "I love being able to listen to Coach Harshman whenever I get the chance.

"He's not as active as he once was, but he was a guy that loved to get out and share what he knew with other coaches."

Ask Harshman about the game, or the profession, and he'd be just as happy as ever to talk.
© 2009The Daily Herald Co., Everett, WA