The passing of a GU legend

Dan Fitzgerald, described by his former assistant coach Dan Monson as the “founding father” of Gonzaga basketball, died Tuesday night at the age of 67. Fitzgerald, GU’s coach from 1978-97 (taking four years off to concentrate on his A.D. duties from 1981-85) apparently suffered a heart attack at an Airway Heights restaurant and was pronounced dead 40 minutes later at Deaconess Medical Center.

Fitzgerald was as charismatic as they come. I covered several Gonzaga-Idaho games in the 1990s and remember Fitz and/or his post-game comments as much as the games. After a blowout loss in Moscow, Fitz was asked if he saw any positives. He heard one: “I thought the band was outstanding,” he quipped.

Reflecting on UI’s Orlando Lightfoot, who lit up Gonzaga for 50 points in a losing cause at the Kennel, Fitzgerald said: “That was truly unbelievable. I think when we’re old men, we’ll get that tape out to watch it for fun; I’ve never seen a guy that hot. Our guys were just shaking their heads. One of them said, `Hey, I shut him down, he only got 14 when I was guarding him’.”

Nobody in the media knew Fitzgerald better than S-R columnist John Blanchette, who filed this story on Fitzgerald’s passing.