Taking The Time To Enjoy Monson Stops, Smells Roses At Induction To Hall Of Fame

Four years ago, Don Monson might have regarded his induction into the Inland Northwest Sports Hall of Fame as little more than a welcomed chance to kill a few idle hours during another endless autumn afternoon.

That was back when Monson was less than a year removed from his last basketball coaching job - a brief stint in Australia - and still struggling to cope with the tranquillity of retirement.

But Wednesday, when he and six other 1997 inductees were honored at a luncheon at the Ridpath Hotel, the 64-year-old former Idaho coach admitted he has reached a point in his life where he is able to sit back and fully appreciate the honor bestowed upon him by the Hall’s selection committee.

“I feel that this is probably the most meaningful induction or recognition I’ve had,” said Monson, who led Idaho to two Big Sky Conference titles and three postseason appearances that included a berth in the NCAA’s Sweet 16 in 1982 when the Vandals finished 27-3.

“You get recognition along the way as you’re coaching and as you’re playing, but a lot of times you don’t get to enjoy it because of how busy you are at the time. This (award) at this time gives me time to sit back, reminisce a little and take time to enjoy the honor.”

Prior to the luncheon, however, Monson admitted he hasn’t always had such a stop-and-smell-the-roses approach to retirement - especially after he was fired after nine seasons as the head coach at Oregon in 1992. He said he and Jud Heathcote, his close friend and coaching colleague who retired at Michigan State after the 1995 season, both experienced stir-crazy symptoms after getting out of basketball and settling in Spokane.

“When you’ve gone 35 years, where during the season you find out each week whether you win or lose, you miss the competition,” explained Monson, who coached high school basketball at Cheney and Pasco before joining Heath cote for a couple of seasons as his assistant at Michigan State. “You can go out and play golf and do some other things, but the competition is never quite the same - although golfing with Jud is close.”

That might sound like someone still contemplating a return to coaching, but Monson insists that is not the case.

He said he recently turned down a request from Donnie Newman to help him at Arizona State. Newman, one of Monson’s former Idaho players, inherited the Sun Devils job on an interim basis when Bill Frieder resigned this fall.

“I thought it over a couple of days and then decided fairly quickly that it takes a lot of energy and drive that I don’t have anymore,” Monson explained.

Monson, a Coeur d’Alene native who spends his summers at his other home on Priest Lake, was joined in this year’s Hall of Fame induction class by former Washington State distance runner Henry Rono, former Gonzaga Prep and Shadle Park basketball coach Dave Robertson, former Idaho football and boxing standout Bill Williams, former Shadle Park gymnastics and wrestling coach Lyle Pugh, Spokane Youth Sports Association founder and director Dwight Merkel and former Spokane football and basketball official John Presley.

Spokane amateur tennis champion Les Patten and former Spokane Chronicle columnist Charlie Van Sickel were named to the Scroll of Honor.

All six of the living honorees - Monson, Rono, Robertson, Williams, Pugh and Patten - were on hand for Wednesday’s induction ceremonies and luncheon, along with 23 other Hall and Scroll of Honor members.

Rono, who won three NCAA cross country titles and four Pac-10 track titles at WSU and later set four world distance records within three months, made the trip from his home in Albuquerque despite a bout with the flu.

“It was a special something for me to be inducted,” said the 45-year-old Kenyan, who still runs competitively while coaching and teaching in the Albuquerque school system. “So when I had the opportunity to come, I had to make it.”

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