‘Owe my whole career to them.’ Gonzaga’s Mark Few pays homage to Monson family during Hooptown Hall of Fame induction

Thirty-five years later, Mark Few could probably recite a few-dozen transformative moments that helped shape and guide the Gonzaga coach through a Hall of Fame-caliber career.

Any chronological list begins with a summer camp in 1989 at the University of Oregon, where Few, then a 27-year-old assistant at nearby Sheldon High, volunteered to help Ducks coach Don Monson and subsequently met son Dan Monson, who’d offer Few his first college job at Gonzaga that same fall.

Don Monson, now 92 , was sitting front and center at Riverfront Park, a handful of rows in front of Dan, as Few retold the story during a Hooptown Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Wednesday evening.

“My career basically started working Don Monson’s camp in Eugene, where I met Dan Monson and Dan Monson basically hired me and brought me up to Gonzaga and stay in his apartment for free, and I think I made a whopping $1,500 a year at Gonzaga those first two years,” Few said. “It was as good a time as you could have in your life. I basically owe my whole career to the Monson family for getting me started in this.”

Few, one of the most accomplished college basketball coaches in the country with 742 career wins at Gonzaga, and the 1981-82 Idaho Vandals men’s team coached by Don Monson – a group that made the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 – were among the people/groups recognized during Wednesday’s ceremony in downtown Spokane.

Gonzaga’s coach, coming up on his 27th season at the helm of the Zags program, spoke for roughly three minutes after top assistant Brian Michaelson introduced Few in a pretaped video message.

Putting the program’s 30-year transformation into context, Few shared a recent memory from his trip to Indianapolis to watch Game 4 of the NBA Finals, featuring former Gonzaga teammates Andrew Nembhard (Indiana Pacers) and Chet Holmgren (Oklahoma City Thunder).

“I’m sure you guys were all watching the NBA Finals … there was a minute left in Game 4 I was at and Chet was guarding Andrew in a two-point game in the NBA Finals,” Few said. “That’s usually (Michael) Jordan versus Isiah (Thomas), (Larry) Bird versus Magic (Johnson). How cool is that? That’s Spokane and this community.”

With his father and a close coaching confidant being recognized, Wednesday’s Hall of Fame ceremony was a priority event on Dan Monson’s calendar.

Monson’s departure from Gonzaga to Minnesota in 1999 opened the door for Few to take the school’s head coaching vacancy.

Now entering his second season as Eastern Washington’s coach after a long stint at Long Beach State, Dan moved into a home “a couple-hundred yards” from Few’s upon returning to the region last year and still communicates with Gonzaga’s coach on a weekly – if not daily – basis.

Few is often credited for his decision to stay at Gonzaga, particularly in the early years of his tenure when high-major schools with deeper pockets routinely reached out to the coach about their coaching vacancies.

“I kind of take credit for that too, because when I went to Minnesota and I’d call back every day and tell him, ‘Hey, these bigger schools are not where it is,’ ” Monson said. “I think it made him pause and think, ‘Hey, I’ve got it pretty good here,’ and it fits his personality to stay here.”

Dan Monson was a student at Idaho when his father led the 1981-82 Vandals to a 25-win regular season and unlikely run to the Sweet 16. Don’s Idaho teams won 35 straight home games, spanning two seasons, and the 1981-82 group became the first to win a game in the NCAA Tournament.

“In a season like that, you want to be a fly on the wall and I got to be that,” Dan said. “I got to live vicariously through him, as he’s done with my career, and I wouldn’t be coaching if it weren’t for that experience with my dad of idolizing him and watching that season. You say a season like that is once in a lifetime. It really was.”

Two members of Idaho’s 1981-82 team, Brian Kellerman and Pete Prigge, attended Wednesday’s ceremony. Both players took a moment to recognize Phil Hopson, a standout guard on the team, who’s in critical condition after a hit-and-run accident in Phoenix last weekend.

Don Monson said the opportunity to coach in Moscow as a longtime Coeur d’Alene resident was meaningful. From 1980-83, Monson’s teams were a combined 62-16 before the coach accepted the job at Oregon.“This was Idaho that was beating Washington, Washington State and Oregon State on occasions,” Don said. “For me, that was special.”

Wednesday’s inductees included women’s basketball standouts – former Gonzaga and Lewis and Clark High forward Heather Bowman and Angie Bjorklund, who starred at University High before going to play for coach Pat Summitt at Tennessee.

Bjorklund, who’s coaching youth basketball in Spain, wasn’t able to attend the ceremony.

JR Camel, a Spokane Hoopfest icon and former University of Montana standout, was also recognized as part of the five-person class.