Pool succumbs to cancer
Dwight Pool stayed true to the crew cut, the Wing-T and wringing the most out of the many football players who suited up for him over the course of 23 years of coaching.
One of the Inland Northwest’s most prominent football figures, Pool died Saturday at his Gig Harbor home at the age of 77 after a long fight with lung cancer.
In Spokane, his renown was mostly for launching the football program at Spokane Falls Community College, where he would coach for eight years and win three Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges championships – including an 8-0 mark in 1968 in just the second year of the program’s existence. He later was the head coach at Mead High School and guided the Panthers during their transition from the Border League to Greater Spokane League competition.
His impact, like all good coaches, was more at the personal level, however.
“I strongly suspect he did more good for more young guys who didn’t realize it at the time, necessarily,” said Mike Macaulay, who served as one of Pool’s assistants at Spokane Falls. “But so many of them did later.”
His was an old-school, no-nonsense approach. Well, maybe a little nonsense – another Falls assistant, Les Rurey, recalled Pool once showing up at a Halloween-week practice in a mask with his trademark crew cut covered with a long, bushy wig.
“But he was best guy I’ve ever seen in terms of getting along with kids and still disciplining them,” Rurey said.
Born in Spokane, Pool lettered in football, basketball and baseball for three years at Walla Walla High School. He took his talents to Washington State University where he played a season of basketball for Jack Friel and three years of football, sharing the backfield with notable Cougars Bud Roffler, Ray Hobbs and Byron Bailey in Forest Evashevski’s Wing-T offense.
One of his better games came in 1950 against USC, where he scored a touchdown and had several long runs to help the Cougars to a 20-0 lead. The Trojans resorted to a backup quarterback in the fourth quarter – fellow by the name of Frank Gifford – and rallied to salvage a tie with 80 seconds remaining.
“We were at the old SWABs banquet one year (1975) when Gifford was one of the speakers,” said Macaulay, “and he went out of his way to come by our table and seek out Dwight.”
Of course, not every game against USC was a highlight.
“At one point he held the school record for kickoff return yardage,” remembered his son, David. “He joked that USC beat them so bad, it was just one kickoff after another.”
After graduation, Pool coached and taught at Highland and Pasco high schools. He then coached at Columbia Basin College for five years, interrupted by a brief foray into school administration. His CBC teams were NWAACC champs his last four years and in 1962 played in the Junior Rose Bowl, falling to Santa Ana College.
In 1966, he returned to Spokane – to start the Spokane Falls program and be closer to the family’s retreat at Priest Lake. His initial team in 1967 went 3-6, but never had a losing season thereafter and won the NWAACC in 1968, 1973 and 1974. He left to take over the program at Mead, where he also added the athletic director duties before taking retirement in 1982.
His record in 23 years as a head coach was 143-55-3 – 92-24-3 in 13 college seasons. He was a member of NWAACC, Inland Northwest and Washington coaches halls of fame.
“His principles were so well-founded that he just didn’t waver,” said Macaulay. “As a result, he was sometimes seen by others as maybe being inflexible and not hip, but he knew what worked and kids responded.”
Pool is survived by Nancy, his wife of 54 years, and their five children and spouses – Terri (Terry) Reilly, Diane (Gary) Everson, Joanne (Rick) Levesque, David (Teri) Pool and Matt (Shannon) Pool – as well as 15 grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held on Thursday at 3 p.m. at St. Nicolas Church in Gig Harbor. The family is planning a celebration of his life next summer at Priest Lake. Donations to Franciscan Hospice in Tacoma are requested in lieu of flowers.