St. John, Eastern basketball legend Irv Leifer dies

Irv Leifer, who was one of the all-time great basketball players for St. John High School and Eastern Washington University before going on to coach Renton High School to multiple state championships, died Friday. He was 93.

Leifer earned All-State honors at Pine City in 1940 and St. John in 1941. At the end of that season, Irv and his brother, Bob Leifer, almost led the St. John to a “Hoosiers” moment in the state title game.

At the time, all Washington high schools competed without size classifications in a single state tournament. Despite that, little St. John advanced to the title game against Bremerton before falling 30-29.

The 1952 state program described Irv Leifer’s effort in the 1941 title game as “the greatest all-around one-man performance in tourney history.”

Leifer then attended Eastern Washington in 1941. But he interrupted his playing career and fought with the U.S. Marines in the battle of Iwo Jima in World War II, according to The Seattle Times.

After returning home, Leifer again played for the team that was led by legendary coach Red Reese. Eastern appeared in five NAIA Tournaments in the school’s history and Leifer played in four of them, according to his EWU biography.

Although the NAIA did not select All-Americans until 1951, Leifer in 1987 was named to the NAIA’s 50th anniversary team. In 2012, Leifer was named to the NAIA’s 75th anniversary team.

At Eastern, Leifer scored 1,550 points, which still ranks as third-best in school history behind Ron Cox, (1,741) and Tyler Harvey (1,564). Leifer later joined Reese in the first class to be inducted into Eastern’s Hall of Fame.

After playing for the Eagles, Leifer became coach at Renton High School and was the first coach in state history to win four state titles. In addition to Eastern’s hall, Leifer became a charter member of the NAIA Hall of Fame in 1952. In 1983, he was inducted into the Inland Empire Sports Hall of Fame.

Leifer, who coached 30 years at Renton and had a career record of 481-202, also was inducted into the halls of fame of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Assocation and the Washington Interscholastic Basketball Coaches Association.