Long Beach State remembers the Jerry Tarkanian era

While everyone remembers Jerry Tarkanian's glory years in Las Vegas with the Final Fours and the NCAA Championship, it all started in a tiny, hot, campus gym in Long Beach.

Fans showed up to the Gold Mine Gymnasium hours before time and packed the stands all the way up to the top. The temperature and decibel level both rose steadily. It was a tremendous home-court advantage.

"It was a steam bath in there," said Long Beach State alum Angel Perea. "It was like a mini thunderdome. You couldn't find a seat, you were sitting in the aisles... I don't know how many people they let in there but it was amazing."

Thursday night at the Walter Pyramid, the venue that his since replaced the Gold Mine, thousands of fans clustered in bleacher seats once again. It was hardly the sweatbox that many remembered from the 1970s, but many of those same fans, Parea and his buddies included, came out to remember the legendary head coach, who passed away earlier this week. 

The glory years might have been in Las Vegas, but Tarkanian's son, Danny, says the golden years were the five years from 1968-1973 in Long Beach as the head coach of the Long Beach State 49ers. Tarkanian's first Division I coaching job, it laid the foundation for the rest of his Hall of Fame coaching career and in many ways, it laid the foundation for the Long Beach State program. 

"Look at this place," he says, arms wide, surveying the gold-and-black clad crowd. "It was a small school with very little resources, a stepsister of those bigger programs and they were taking those programs to the brink, if not beating them. It was wonderful."

The Long Beach State years tend to be the forgotten years in Tarkanian's career, but they're far from forgotten in the community. For five seasons, Tarkanian was undefeated in the city of Long Beach. Be it at the Gold Mine Gym or the roomier Long Beach Arena, under Tark, the 49ers never lost a home game. 

"We were playing so well, that it didn't matter where you put us," said former Long Beach State and NBA forward Ed Ratleff. "We were playing together."

They won so much that Danny didn't know what it was ever like to lose. 

"I was a ball boy running around and I was having the time of my life," he said. "I didn't know any better, I just thought this was how it always was, winning so much. And it was always at home, it was a always a good time."

In fact, they won so much under Tarkanian that longtime UCLA coach John Wooden famously refused to schedule them. But the NCAA, never a friend of Tarkanian's, and the tournament selection committee made sure that the two regional powers played one another three-straight years in the NCAA Tournament. 

Ask any local, and they'll tell you exactly where they were during the 1971 West Regional Final. They'll tell you exactly how they felt when Sidney Wicks' free throw hemmed and hawed and bounced and bobbled until it finally went through the net to give UCLA a 57-55 win. 

"The only team that beat him was UCLA," Perea said. "And UCLA won the NCAA both of those years, so what does that tell you?"

Ratleff still thinks about what it was like to be the underdogs that were going shot-for-shot with the top dogs. had fouled out on Sidney Wicks. He can still recall his feelings at the end of the game when he fouled out, delivering that last foul on Wicks.

"We weren't supposed to be there, because we were a young school and they were the school of the United States, winning national championships," Ratleff said. "The year we lost 57-55, Tarkanian out-coached Coach Wooden."

Tarkanian was special because he wasn't just any pioneer, he was the first. 

He was the first that dared to take on the NCAA, the first play black players and junior college transfers. He bucked conventional wisdom for the good of the team and the good of the individuals on the team. Where many might have seen a cheater, others saw a compassionate coach trying to give kids a way out. 

Not to mention, he fielded entertaining teams. A stifling defense with an up-tempo, high-scoring offense.

Long Beach is more than just a city - it's an identity and community that you have to experience to fully understand. Tarkanian embraced it fully, and it still embraces him. Danny might have played for his dad at UNLV but bring up Long Beach State and he lights up with an ear-to-ear grin.

"The people of Long Beach have been phenomenal," he said. "Incredible excitement and thrills and all of these wonderful guys that I idolized as a young boy. More than any of the other schools, Long Beach is special to me."

Tarkanian found a home and trophies in Las Vegas, but he left some of his heart in Long Beach.