USD Magazine Summer 2009

[ l e g e n d a r y ]

BASKETBALLHERO B i c k e r s t a f f r e c e i v e s W C C H o n o r by Ryan T. Blystone

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staff served as an assistant and ultimately replaced as head coach. He was a senior captain and most valuable player in 1966, leading the Toreros in rebounding that season. As USD’s coach, Bickerstaff posted a 55-49 record, capped by a 19-9 record in 1972-73. He’s been an NBA head coach with Seattle, Denver and Wash- ington, and has 415 victories under his belt. In 2004, Bicker- staff was hired as the first coach and general manager of the expansion Charlotte Bobcats. He was inducted into USD’s Chet and Marguerite Pagni Family Athletics Hall of Fame in 1994. “Bernie Bickerstaff represents the best of our student-athletes, coaches and alumni of the Uni- versity of San Diego athletics,” says Ky Snyder, USD’s executive director of athletics. “As a stu- dent-athlete he was a leader and top achiever. As a coach, he elevated our program. As an alumnus he has supported his alma mater and has con- nected other alumni to their careers in the NBA.”

ernie Bickerstaff has a wife, five children and six grandchildren. But his devotion to basketball is fervent enough to make the sport an honorary member of the family. The 1968 University of San Diego graduate — a Toreros point guard from 1964 to 1966 and head coach from 1969 to 1973 —maintains his passion for the game by working as an assis- tant coach with the Chicago Bulls. He helped first-year head coach Vinny Del Negro and the team earn an Eastern Conference playoff spot. Bickerstaff’s new position is yet another chapter in his 35-year affiliation with the NBA. But Bickerstaff hasn’t forgot- ten his college roots. He was recently selected as USD’s repre- sentative for the inaugural class of the West Coast Conference’s Hall of Honor, and was inducted during March’s WCC Men’s Bas- ketball Tournament in Las Vegas. The Toreros were an NCAA Divi- sion II program when Bickerstaff played and were coached by Phil Woolpert, for whom Bicker-

BROCK SCOTT

[ f a r e w e l l ]

REST IN PEACE Me n ’ s t e n n i s c o a c h p a s s e s awa y

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“The highs initially were so simple,” he said. “Like just driving the car with the windows down, listening to Dave Matthews. It was so simple yet so euphoric. Even those little things felt so unbelievable to me.”Over the past year, Hagedorn dedicated himself to the cause of fighting leukemia. In October 2008, he walked with family, friends and more than 150 USD athletes, coaches and staff in a “Light the Night” event to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. A “Celebration of Life” gather- ing to honor him was held for all who knew him at Eagan Plaza in front of the Jenny Craig Pavilion on March 25. T he Hagedorn family asks that those who’d like to honor Tom’s memory with a gift make a dona- tion to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of San Diego or to the USD Athletics Department.

hen we got the diagno- sis, everything stopped,” Tom Hagedorn said in

an interview a fewmonths ago. “It’s like somebody presses a but- ton and your entire life is put on hold. Whatever’s happening with your Blackberry suddenly doesn’t seem quite so important.” Sadly, after fighting a valiant 18-month battle with leukemia, Hagedorn passed away on March 21, 2009. Head coach of the USD men’s tennis team for 12 years, he had been focused on getting his Tore- ros back to the NCAA Tourna- ment after a streak of four straight appearances — and 10 straight winning seasons — had ended in 2006. He needed plenty of stamina for the grueling round of treatments he underwent, but said that getting through the hardships also corresponded with a renewed appreciation for life’s little pleasures.

RON HOSKINS

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