Monday, August 20, 2012

BELLINGHAM, Wash. - Brad Jackson, head men’s basketball coach at Western Washington University for the past 27 seasons, has resigned his position effective Monday to become an assistant coach at the University of Washington.

Jackson, 60, who led the Vikings to a NCAA Division II National Championship last March, the school’s first in the sport, leaves WWU as the winningest coach in school history with 518 victories.  He was the 2011-12 National Association of Basketball Coaches and DII Bulletin National DII Coach of the Year.

“The position is really a great fit and the timing is right,” said Jackson, a long-time friend of UW head coach Lorenzo Romar. “But we’ve worked very hard to establish something here and it’s hard to leave that. A lot of great young men have played here and I take a lot of pride in what’s been accomplished.”

Jackson’s longtime assistant Tony Dominguez, who has been the associate head coach the last two years and an assistant at WWU for 19 seasons overall, will serve as the Vikings’ interim head coach.

 “I am thrilled that Brad has been given such a wonderful opportunity, and wish him nothing but success at Washington,” said WWU Director of Athletics Lynda Goodrich. “He has been a great asset to our athletic program, to the university, and to the community in ways that go well beyond his outstanding success on the court.  He will be missed, but he leaves having established a legacy of one of the top programs in all of Division II.”

“Tony (Dominguez) has been an integral part of the success of the program for nearly two decades,” Goodrich continued. “We have absolute confidence that he can take over without missing a beat.”

Jackson leaves WWU ranked 44th in NCAA II in career victories, and would have entered the season No.13 among active coaches in victories and No.40 in winning percentage (.650). He holds a career record of 518-279.

A 1975 graduate of Washington State, where he played both basketball and baseball, Jackson led the Pac-8 in assists as a senior. He served five years as an assistant coach at Seattle Pacific and five years as a high school head coach prior to coming to WWU in 1985.

Jackson directed WWU to 19 national post-season appearances, winning the NCAA II national title in 2012 and reaching the national semifinals in 2001.

The Vikings had 12 20-win seasons during Jackson’s tenure, including a school-record four straight in the late 1980s.

Jackson ranks third among the winningest collegiate basketball coaches in state of Washington history with 518 victories, and is one of just five to reach the 500 mark. Jackson was recruited to WSU by the leader in that category Marv Harshman (637), who later headed the UW program. Jackson also coached against the No.2 person on the list, Central Washington’s Dean Nicholson (620).

Jackson’s father-in-law, Roland Halle, was a member of Washington’s national semifinal team in 1953. 

The Vikings are scheduled to face UW in a preseason contest on Oct. 24, and go to Duke University for another exhibition contest Oct. 27.

Jackson begins his new duties Monday and will be going with the UW team on a trip to Europe and Africa that begins Aug. 25. The Huskies won the Pac-12 title last season.