By Ryan McCrary,
Gonzaga Class of 1996 & 98

The other day, my dad came home from a walk on a wet and windy morning wearing a blue, fleece Nike hat with earflaps. He asked me if I gave it to him. I could not recall, but seeing the hat again brought back a ton of memories associated with it. See that hat – now more than 25 years old – is an artifact from one of the most remarkable times in my young life.

The year is 1997 and I am a second-year graduate student working in the sports information office at Gonzaga University. At the time, its basketball history, such as it was, consisted of four postseason tournaments. Its biggest claim to fame was producing NBA Hall of Fame guard John Stockton long before he “did his own research”.

In the middle of an otherwise unremarkable November day my boss at the time, longtime SID Oliver Pierce, called me into his office and closed the door. I did not take this to be an encouraging sign. He informed me I was going to be making a road trip with Gonzaga men’s basketball to the Top of the World Classic in Fairbanks Alaska. My first response probably was something along the lines of “sounds cold”.

Over the summer, longtime head coach Dan Firtzgerald had retired and gave the keys to his top assistant Dan Monson and this was to be his first road trip as head coach. The tournament field was completely stacked. Tulsa was the first round opponent coached by Bill Self, followed by a Mississippi State team which reached the Final Four the year before. The final game was against a Clemson squad coached by Rick Barnes. Self and Barnes… not sure whatever happened to those two guys…

I remember walking into the press conference room before Coach Monson took his first questions. I have no doubt I did a wonderful job preparing him, but he said the following anyway… “We’re just gonna roll right through this thing.” 

Right… It was at that moment I suffered my first of many heart palpitations triggered by head coaches in front of a microphone. 

It was also the first time he instructed the media on how to pronounce Gonzaga. “It’s ‘zag’ as in ‘bag’”. More than 20 years later I would be repeating the same phonetic instructions to another generation of broadcasters who insisted on Gon-ZOG-uh.

Before I regale you with more tales of Zag exploits within a short dog sled ride of the North Pole, it’s time to check in on that old blue Nike hat. That therma-fit hat represented our swag for the program. It was something our Nike representative gave to each member of the travel team before playing in a high profile tournament. 

I still remember seeing eventual conference player of the year Bakari Hendrix wearing one while encountering snow for the first time in his life. The NorCal native was not exactly impressed.

Swag has come a long way since those days and as a national basketball power Gonzaga receives much more than just a Nike hat with earflaps before going to play in the Maui Invitational. But I was proud to wear it with a group of young men who helped put the Bulldogs on the basketball map by conquering all challengers in Alaska.

It turns out Coach Monson was something of a roundball prophet. In game one we destroyed Tulsa. They managed 10 points in the first half. Ten. The defense was stifling and the perimeter game for GU was terrific on the way to a 78-40 triumph. Mississippi State was up next and Gonzaga held on for a wild 70-68 victory and a berth in the championship game against No. 5 Clemson. 

It was a frigid Fairbanks night at tipoff, but Gonzaga was sizzling from deep, connecting on 14-of-19 3-pointers and the Tigers had no answers. Matt Santangelo’s 19 points led the Bulldogs to their first ever win against a top-10 opponent, 84-71.

Now back to that old blue Nike hat… it came in handy. As anyone who has worked in a support role in athletics can tell you, coaches usually do a pretty good job of counting their players, but don’t always remember anybody else before telling the bus driver to “head back to the hotel”. 

I was “bus left” twice on that trip, once after a shootaround practice (a balmy 28 degrees) and after the Mississippi State win (maybe 10 degrees). I was Jack London cold, but that hat kept my head and ears warm.

After the semifinals win I walked back to the hotel with the TV broadcasters. I cannot conjure the name of the play-by-play guy, but the analyst was former NBA player Reggie Theus, who to this day still can’t pronounce Gonzaga correctly. So help me, I tried. 

Coach Monson was dismayed with my lack of progress teaching the former Sacramento Kings All-Star and he told me so. At least he didn’t take my hat away.

Following the win against the Tigers in the title game, the entire traveling party took a team photo around the Gonzaga logo ice sculpture. I still have the photo somewhere. I remember it well. I was wearing my hat.