Sharkey Nelson

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Former Viking Basketball Coach, Sharkey Nelson, Passes Away

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Former Portland State Basketball Coach and Athletics Hall of Famer Loyal "Sharkey" Nelson has passed away at the age of 96.

Nelson passed away in Seal Beach, CA on Aug 22 following partial hip replacement surgery.

Nelson coached the Viking men's basketball program from 1953-65 and his 12 seasons make him the longest tenured men's basketball coach in Portland State history. Nelson compiled a 162-156 record, including 113-77 as a member of the NAIA-level Oregon Collegiate Conference. Nelson led the team to conference titles in 1954-55, 1955-56 and 1958-59. His '54-'55 and '55-'56 teams each reached the NAIA playoffs. The '55-'56 team held the PSU mark for most wins in a season (21-8) until the past two years when the Vikings had successive 23-10 marks at the NCAA I level.

Nelson returned to coach a fledging PSU women's basketball program in 1975-76 and led the team to a 19-13 record. The women advanced to the AIAW playoffs for the first time.

Nelson was selected to the Portland State Athletics Hall of Fame for his achievements in 2001.

In recent years, Sharkey - a resident of southern California - had the pleasure of watching and meeting the NCAA Tournament participant 2007-08 men's basketball team when it played at UCLA, and the women's team of '07-'08 and '08-'09 when it played at USC and Long Beach State.

Sharkey's son, John, was a star player for the Vikings from 1962-66. He ranks second all-time in scoring at PSU with 2,123 points, and was inducted into the PSU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2002, one year after his father.

Colleagues, former players and friends will hold a celebration of his life in Portland in late October or November 2009.

 

[VikThunder1]

PSU should honor Sharkey by renaming the basketball court in the Stott Center after him.

 

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Sharkey Nelson Remembered By Former Players

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They’re older now, those young men who played for (then) Portland State College coach Sharkey Nelson during his 12-season career as head basketball coach of the Vikings (1953-65). Many are retired. Some have died.

But, they all contributed to Nelson’s 162-154 overall record (when early schedules might include Oregon College of Education, Oregon Technical Institute, Southern Oregon College of Education, Lewis and Clark, Clark College and the dental and medical school teams) and 113-77 record as a member of the old Oregon Collegiate Conference (OCC). Those years included three conference titles and two appearances in the NAIA playoffs in Kansas City.

Nelson’s ’55-’56 team held the PSU mark for most wins in a season (21-8) until the past two years when the Vikings had successive 23-10 marks on their way to appearances in the national NCAA tournament.

Loyal “Sharkey” Nelson died in Seal Beach, CA last Aug. 22, at the age of 96.

His memory was honored by his old players and others in early December at the Eastern Washington-Viking game (a 98-75 PSU win). Former player (and retired Jefferson and Wilson basketball coach) Jack Bertell helped PSU Associate Athletic Director Zack Wallace pull the commemoration together.

And, while time may have taken its toll on the hairlines and appearances of the 10 players who were able to make the pre-game reception and half-time ceremony, their memories of Nelson and their days playing were vivid. They represented nearly all Nelson’s teams and four—John McIntyre, Jack Viskov, Jim Perkin and Fred Robertson-- were from the 1955-56 NAIA tournament team. And the stories they told…some for publication, some not.

There was the time in Kansas City at the NAIA tournament when Sharkey moved his entire team to a different hotel.

Team captain that year was Fletcher Frazier, an African American whose play had been instrumental in the Vikings’ only win in four tries that season against the University of Portland—coincidentally the game which sent PSC to the Kansas City NAIA tournament.

“Kansas City still had segregation. When we arrived at our hotel, they told us that Fletcher would have to stay somewhere else. Sharkey was having none of that and he moved the entire team to another hotel,” remembered Viskov, a retired residential builder.

Then there were stories from the team’s 18-game Asia trip (some, best not remembered on paper) which gave the team an 18-game leg up on the season, an advantage that helped the team to its’ first OCC championship and first trip to the NAIA tourney.

“I remember we were practicing in a dreary place in Singapore, running formations. We didn’t even have a basket. Sharkey said to me ‘shoot’, and I said ‘Sharkey, there’s no basket.’ ‘Shoot anyway,’ he said,” recalled McIntyre who was sales manager and partner with Portland’s Rodda Paint prior to his retirement.

They were supposed to play in Saigon, but the game was cancelled “because the country was kicking the French out and there was too much turmoil,” McIntyre said.

Everyone seemed to agree that that about the only thing Sharkey Nelson cared about in the world was basketball.

“Sharkey was all basketball. All he talked about was basketball. He’d wake up in the middle of the night with an idea for a formation, go to the kitchen and work it out with salt and pepper shakers,” said McIntyre, who, with other members of that team, continued to play AAU basketball for years. With help from former Trailblazers, the group won some AAU Master’s tournaments.

Perkin, who was named Oregon basketball coach of the year during his years at Molalla and Oregon City high schools, described Nelson as “an amazing x’s and o’s coach. He was all basketball. When we went to Ashland or Eastern Oregon, we’d all fight to not sit next to him so we wouldn’t have to talk basketball the whole way.”

“Sharkey’s wife knew more about basketball than most coaches,” added Robinson.

Nelson was a perfectionist and Bertell, (’59-’61) remembered a game against Eastern Oregon when he went 8/9 from the field and 4/4 at the free throw line. “The next morning over breakfast, Sharkey held up the stat sheet and ‘Bertell, why did you miss that one shot.’ He was kidding, but you could never be sure.”

Over Nelson’s career, he mentored six players who became coaches themselves and Bertell credits his experience under Nelson specifically with pushing him that direction.

“I was a math major and hadn’t considered coaching,” he said. But a leg operation ended his playing career a year early and he acted as a student assistant with assistant coach Bob Scruggs. “Between Sharkey’s emphasis on fundamentals and the finer points of the game and that experience helping to coach, I changed directions,” Bertell said.

That year also saw the beginning of the end of PSC’s dominance in OCC basketball as three players Nelson was counting on to repeat his OCC championship (including Bertell), didn’t return for one reason or another.

It also was the beginning of play for Nelson’s son, John, who played for his dad from 1962-1966.

“In retrospect, playing for him was wonderful. Being a coach’s son can be difficult, but looking back, it was wonderful. I was there to play and there were no extra breaks because I was the coach’s son,” John Nelson said.

Just about everyone agreed with Nelson that Sharkey Nelson was a great coach.

According to an early press book: “The PSU coach is probably the most defense-minded coach in the northwest. He picked up his basketball savvy while in college at Oklahoma in Edmund, but not in the usual way.

“Sharkey first ran into the flexible attack while playing against Oklahoma A & M and became so intrigured that he decided to obtain his Master’s degree from A & M and learn the offense from coach Hank Iba.”

It’s a testimony to “Sharkey’s love of the game and his emphasis on fundamentals and game’s finer points that so many of his alumni went into coaching. I think it’s fair to say that Sharkey Nelson was a coaches coach,” said Bertell.

Besides the four members of the 1954-55 team, Bertell and Nelson, other former players in attendance included Bob Grant, Loren Remy, Ron Simonson and Marv Wollmuth.