Marvel Keith Harshman (October 4, 1917 – April 12, 2013) was a

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

coach, a head coach for forty years in the state of

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

Pacific Lutheran University Pacific Lutheran University (PLU) is a private Lutheran university in Parkland, Washington. It was founded by Norwegian Lutheran immigrants in 1890. PLU is sponsored by the 580 congregations of Region I of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ame ...

Washington State University Washington State University (Washington State, WSU, or informally Wazzu) is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant uni ...

, and the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattl ...

Early years

Born in

Eau Claire, Wisconsin Eau Claire (; ) (French for "clear water") is a city mostly located in Eau Claire County, Wisconsin, of which it is the county seat, and with a small portion in Chippewa County, Wisconsin. It had a population of 69,421 in 2020, making it the stat ...

, Harshman moved to the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Tho ...

as a child and graduated from Lake Stevens High School in

Lake Stevens, Washington Lake Stevens is a city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States, that is named for the lake it surrounds. It is located east of Everett and borders the cities of Marysville to the northwest and Snohomish to the south. The city's popula ...

, north of

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

. He attended

in Parkland, where he lettered thirteen times in four sports and graduated in 1942. Harshman served three years in the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, then returned to PLU to coach. he was selected by the

Chicago Cardinals The professional American football team now known as the Arizona Cardinals previously played in Chicago, Illinois, as the Chicago Cardinals from 1898 to 1959 before relocating to St. Louis, Missouri, for the 1960 through 1987 seasons. Roots ...

in the fifteenth round (134th overall) of the

1942 NFL Draft The 1942 National Football League Draft was held on December 22, 1941, at the Palmer House Hotel in Chicago. Two members of the draft class have been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Bill Dudley, the first overall selection by the P ...

Collegiate career

While at his alma mater (1945–58), Harshman was also the head football coach from 1951 to 1957, compiling a record, and also led the baseball team for the last five seasons. He moved east to

in Pullman in 1958 to succeed Jack Friel and coached the

Cougars The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large cat native to the Americas. Its range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere. ...

for 13 seasons. When

Husky Husky is a general term for a dog used in the polar regions, primarily and specifically for work as sled dogs. It refers to a traditional northern type, notable for its cold-weather tolerance and overall hardiness. Modern racing huskies that mai ...

head coach

Tex Winter Morice Fredrick "Tex" Winter (February 25, 1922 – October 10, 2018) was an American basketball coach and innovator of the triangle offense. He was a head coach in college basketball for 30 years before becoming an assistant coach in the National ...

left for the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

(NBA) in 1971, Harshman moved across the state to the

in Seattle. He compiled a overall record. Pressured by the university administration to step down, Harshman involuntarily retired from coaching at age 67 in 1985, following consecutive conference titles and NCAA tournament appearances.

Honors

Harshman was named Pac-10 Coach of the Year (1982, 1984) and

NABC Coach of the Year The NABC Coach of the Year Award has been presented by the National Association of Basketball Coaches since . A longtime sponsor of the award was Kodak; it is currently sponsored by the UPS Store The UPS Store (formerly Mail Boxes Etc.) is a s ...

for Division I basketball (1984). He was the coach of the gold-medal-winning U.S. team at the 1975 Pan American Games in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...

, and served on the U.S. Olympic Committee from 1975 to 1981. Harshman was enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in April 1985 and was a member of the founding class of the

National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame The National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, located in Kansas City, Missouri, is a hall of fame and museum dedicated to men's college basketball. The museum is an integral portion of the College Basketball Experience created by the National ...

in 2006.

Head coaching record

Basketball

Football

References

External links

*
Sports Reference
– Marv Harshman

– Marv Harshman
''Seattle Times'' obituary

Sports Press Northwest obituary
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Harshman, Marv 1917 births 2013 deaths American football fullbacks American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from Wisconsin Basketball players from Wisconsin College men's basketball head coaches in the United States College men's track and field athletes in the United States College track and field coaches in the United States Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees Pacific Lutheran Lutes athletic directors Pacific Lutheran Lutes baseball coaches Pacific Lutheran Lutes baseball players Pacific Lutheran Lutes football coaches Pacific Lutheran Lutes football players Pacific Lutheran Lutes men's basketball coaches Pacific Lutheran Lutes men's basketball players Sportspeople from Eau Claire, Wisconsin Washington Huskies men's basketball coaches Washington State Cougars men's basketball coaches United States Navy personnel of World War II