Eric Hays
Encyclopedia
Eric Hays is a former University of Montana basketball
player who served as head basketball coach of at Hellgate High School
in Missoula, Mont.
, for 25 years. He was a mathematics
teacher there until his retirement in 2009.
Hays is best remembered for his outstanding performance at the 1975 NCAA tournament
against the powerhouse UCLA Bruins
in the Sweet 16. He scored a game-high 32 points on 13-of-16 shooting, grabbed seven rebounds and dished out six assists in the Grizzlies
' 67-64 loss to the eventual national champions, who had six players that went on to play in the NBA.
, a farming community roughly 15 miles from Eugene and 25 miles from Corvallis. Hays lived there for the first 18 years of his life and attended Junction City High School
where he was a two-year starter on the basketball team as well as the football team's quarterback for one season before injuring the growth plate in his shoulder during his sophomore year. His high school consisted of 450 students throughout three grades.
Hays believed he would eventually raise a family in a similar community-oriented environment with a small school.
in Pullman, Wash.
Originally, he planned on being an accountant, but changed his aspirations toward coaching after observing one of his brother's high school games, in which he thought the coaching was "unfair" to the players. Hays then declared his major as math education and pursued his goals of becoming a high school teacher and basketball coach.
Hays also pursued basketball at WSU because the Cougars allowed players to "walk-on," meaning non-recruited students could try out for the team. Hays defied the odds and made the freshman team of 20. Before the season began, he rose to the position of "sixth man
," the first player off the bench during games. By the fourth game that season, Hays was one of the starting five and never relinquished the role. The Junction City native ended the season second in both scoring and rebounding on a team that finished with an outstanding record of 20-2. Midway through his freshman year, Hays was awarded a full-ride scholarship by the university due to his excellence on the court.
To his surprise, he was cut by the new head coach after only two days of tryouts his sophomore year of 1971. Head coach Marv Harshman
had abruptly left to coach the University of Washington
in July of that year. Hays then followed Washington State's former assistant coach, the legendary Jud Heathcote
, and transferred to the University of Montana in January of 1972. He again made the team as a walk-on the following year.
Hays' high school dream was realized in his final year as a collegiate basketball player. He had always wanted to play at the Memorial Coliseum
in Portland, Ore.
At the twilight of his senior year, he was given the opportunity, and he didn't put it to waste. Entering the 1975 season, the Montana Grizzlies had never won an NCAA tournament game. This year would prove to be different as Hays and company posted a record of 21-8, including a 13-1 conference record en route to winning the Big Sky Conference championship, which earned them a bid to the tournament.
The Grizzlies defeated Utah State
69-63 in the first round, sending them to Portland and the Memorial Coliseum to face off against the mighty UCLA Bruins. The Bruins were led by coaching legend John Wooden
and eventual NBA star Marques Johnson
. Hays had the game of his life against a team that went on to win its 10th national championship in 12 years. In the final game of his college career, the 6-foot-3 Hays racked up a game- and career-high 32 points, almost singlehandedly willing his team to stay right with UCLA. Despite his efforts, Montana fell short 67-64, but the game continues to be talked about and Hays still is asked if he's "Eric Hays, the basketball player."
In college, Hays married his high school sweetheart, Deb, in 1973.
He graduated from UM with a degree in math education in the spring of 1975.
by the Milwaukee Bucks
, but failed to make the team.
Eric and Deb Hays moved to Sheridan, Ore
., 75 miles north of Junction City, after his brief stint in Milwaukee. Hays took a job as the lone faculty member that made up the entire mathematics department at Sheridan High School, which consisted of 200 students in four grades. In addition to his teaching duties, he accepted positions as the assistant football coach, the junior varsity basketball coach and the head baseball coach at the high school.
Hays heard from a student that Heathcote was awarded the head basketball coaching job at Michigan State University
. Again, he followed his former coach and helped out as a graduate assistant. He coached the JV team, went to the varsity practices, and helped recruit high school talent. Among those recruited were eventual NBA players Jay Vincent
and Earvin "Magic" Johnson
, a superstar member of the Basketball Hall of Fame
.
The Montana Grizzly standout obtained his Master's degree in mathematics in one year at MSU and was drawn back to Missoula by job openings in the math department as well as the head boys basketball coaching position at Hellgate High School. Along with newly-born twin daughters, Kelly and Kristy, the Hayses moved back to Missoula in 1977. Their son, Jeff, was born in 1983, and another set of twin girls, Molly and Mandy, was born in 1985.
According to Hays, the 1993 team stood out as the most talented team he had coached. The team went undefeated at 23-0 in a season that featured a regular season-ending game against then undefeated Billings West. Hellgate prevailed and went on to close out the season without a loss, defeating Billings West again in the championship, this time 71-68 in double overtime. It was the first time in 20 years that a team had gone undefeated. Hays' 1993 team was led by eventual Montana Grizzly starter J.R. Camel.
In 1985, Hays' boys took down crosstown rival Big Sky 52-47 for the first of Hays' three championships. The team finished 18-6.
The 1990 Knights again finished 18-6 en route to Hays' second championship as Hellgate downed the Butte Bulldogs
57-51.
Hays came close an undefeated season in 1988 as his team had a spotless record until it lost to Bozeman 50-42 in the championship game.
for a brief stint at Sheridan High School as the only mathematics teacher at the school stretching from 1975-1976.
Upon finishing graduate school, he fulfilled two dreams at once, by becoming a mathematics teacher as well as the head boys' basketball coach at Hellgate High School in Missoula. He continued teaching math for 32 years from 1977-2009.
) to lead the 1975 Grizzlies on their historic journey to the NCAA tournament.
Hays is currently working as a volunteer assistant coach alongside his son, Jeff, who is following in his father's footsteps and has recently accepted the head coaching position at Hellgate.
In addition to his volunteer coaching role, Hays is also working as a financial investor and retirement planner. He is currently working with SII (Service, Innovation, Integrity) investments in Missoula.
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
player who served as head basketball coach of at Hellgate High School
Hellgate High School
Hellgate High School is located in Missoula, Montana. It is the largest high school in the Missoula County Public School's District of Montana in terms of student body population...
in Missoula, Mont.
Missoula, Montana
Missoula is a city located in western Montana and is the county seat of Missoula County. The 2010 Census put the population of Missoula at 66,788 and the population of Missoula County at 109,299. Missoula is the principal city of the Missoula Metropolitan Area...
, for 25 years. He was a mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
teacher there until his retirement in 2009.
Hays is best remembered for his outstanding performance at the 1975 NCAA tournament
NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship
The NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship is a single-elimination tournament held each spring in the United States, featuring 68 college basketball teams, to determine the national championship in the top tier of college basketball...
against the powerhouse UCLA Bruins
UCLA Bruins
The UCLA Bruins are the sports teams for University of California, Los Angeles . The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Pacific-12 Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation . For football, they are in the Football Bowl Subdivision of Division I...
in the Sweet 16. He scored a game-high 32 points on 13-of-16 shooting, grabbed seven rebounds and dished out six assists in the Grizzlies
Montana Grizzlies
Montana Grizzlies is the nickname given to the athletic teams of the University of Montana. The women's basketball team, however, uses the moniker Lady Griz...
' 67-64 loss to the eventual national champions, who had six players that went on to play in the NBA.
Early life
Eric Hays was born July 4, 1952, in Junction City, Ore.Junction City, Oregon
Junction City is a city in Lane County, Oregon, United States. The population was 5,392 at the 2010 census.- History :In the 1870s, Junction City was named by railroad magnate Ben Holladay, who decided this would be where the rail line on the east side of the Willamette Valley would meet the rail...
, a farming community roughly 15 miles from Eugene and 25 miles from Corvallis. Hays lived there for the first 18 years of his life and attended Junction City High School
Junction City High School (Oregon)
Junction City High School is a public high school in Junction City, Oregon, United States.-Academics:In 2008, 88% of the school's seniors received their high school diploma. Of 177 students, 155 graduated, 14 dropped out, 2 received a modified diploma, and 6 are still in high school.-Notable...
where he was a two-year starter on the basketball team as well as the football team's quarterback for one season before injuring the growth plate in his shoulder during his sophomore year. His high school consisted of 450 students throughout three grades.
Hays believed he would eventually raise a family in a similar community-oriented environment with a small school.
College career
Hays attended Washington State UniversityWashington State University
Washington State University is a public research university based in Pullman, Washington, in the Palouse region of the Pacific Northwest. Founded in 1890, WSU is the state's original and largest land-grant university...
in Pullman, Wash.
Pullman, Washington
Pullman is the largest city in Whitman County, Washington, United States. The population was 24,675 at the 2000 census and 29,799 according to the 2010 census...
Originally, he planned on being an accountant, but changed his aspirations toward coaching after observing one of his brother's high school games, in which he thought the coaching was "unfair" to the players. Hays then declared his major as math education and pursued his goals of becoming a high school teacher and basketball coach.
Hays also pursued basketball at WSU because the Cougars allowed players to "walk-on," meaning non-recruited students could try out for the team. Hays defied the odds and made the freshman team of 20. Before the season began, he rose to the position of "sixth man
Sixth man
The sixth man in basketball is a player who is not a starter but comes off the bench much more often than other reserves, often being the first player to be substituted in. The sixth man often plays minutes equal to or exceeding some of the starters and posts similar statistics. He is often a...
," the first player off the bench during games. By the fourth game that season, Hays was one of the starting five and never relinquished the role. The Junction City native ended the season second in both scoring and rebounding on a team that finished with an outstanding record of 20-2. Midway through his freshman year, Hays was awarded a full-ride scholarship by the university due to his excellence on the court.
To his surprise, he was cut by the new head coach after only two days of tryouts his sophomore year of 1971. Head coach Marv Harshman
Marv Harshman
Marv K. Harshman is a former college men's basketball coach native to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, USA.-Collegiate career:Harshman started coaching at his alma mater of Pacific Lutheran University , where he also was the head football coach from 1951 to 1957, compiling a 27-26-2 record...
had abruptly left to coach the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
in July of that year. Hays then followed Washington State's former assistant coach, the legendary Jud Heathcote
Jud Heathcote
George Melvin "Jud" Heathcote is a former college basketball coach. He was a head coach for 24 seasons at the collegiate level: five at Montana and 19 at Michigan State...
, and transferred to the University of Montana in January of 1972. He again made the team as a walk-on the following year.
Hays' high school dream was realized in his final year as a collegiate basketball player. He had always wanted to play at the Memorial Coliseum
Memorial Coliseum
Memorial Coliseum is an indoor arena located in the oldest part of, what is now known as the Rose Quarter area, within Portland, Oregon, United States....
in Portland, Ore.
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
At the twilight of his senior year, he was given the opportunity, and he didn't put it to waste. Entering the 1975 season, the Montana Grizzlies had never won an NCAA tournament game. This year would prove to be different as Hays and company posted a record of 21-8, including a 13-1 conference record en route to winning the Big Sky Conference championship, which earned them a bid to the tournament.
The Grizzlies defeated Utah State
Utah State University
Utah State University is a public university located in Logan, Utah. It is a land-grant and space-grant institution and is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities....
69-63 in the first round, sending them to Portland and the Memorial Coliseum to face off against the mighty UCLA Bruins. The Bruins were led by coaching legend John Wooden
John Wooden
John Robert Wooden was an American basketball player and coach. Nicknamed the "Wizard of Westwood", he won ten NCAA national championships in a 12-year period — seven in a row — as head coach at UCLA, an unprecedented feat. Within this period, his teams won a record 88 consecutive games...
and eventual NBA star Marques Johnson
Marques Johnson
Marques Kevin Johnson is a retired American professional basketball player in the NBA, playing for the Milwaukee Bucks , Los Angeles Clippers , and Golden State Warriors ....
. Hays had the game of his life against a team that went on to win its 10th national championship in 12 years. In the final game of his college career, the 6-foot-3 Hays racked up a game- and career-high 32 points, almost singlehandedly willing his team to stay right with UCLA. Despite his efforts, Montana fell short 67-64, but the game continues to be talked about and Hays still is asked if he's "Eric Hays, the basketball player."
In college, Hays married his high school sweetheart, Deb, in 1973.
He graduated from UM with a degree in math education in the spring of 1975.
Life after college
The left-handed Hays was taken in the ninth round of the 1975 NBA draftNBA Draft
The NBA Draft is an annual event in which the thirty teams from the National Basketball Association can draft players who are eligible and wish to join the league. These players are usually amateur U.S. college basketball players, but international players are also eligible to be drafted...
by the Milwaukee Bucks
Milwaukee Bucks
The Milwaukee Bucks are a professional basketball team based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. They are part of the Central Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association . The team was founded in 1968 as an expansion team, and currently plays at the Bradley Center....
, but failed to make the team.
Eric and Deb Hays moved to Sheridan, Ore
Sheridan, Oregon
Sheridan is a city in Yamhill County, Oregon, United States. Platted in the 1860s when it received a post office, the city was incorporated in 1880. A major fire burned much of the city in 1913, and a flood covered much of the city in 1964...
., 75 miles north of Junction City, after his brief stint in Milwaukee. Hays took a job as the lone faculty member that made up the entire mathematics department at Sheridan High School, which consisted of 200 students in four grades. In addition to his teaching duties, he accepted positions as the assistant football coach, the junior varsity basketball coach and the head baseball coach at the high school.
Hays heard from a student that Heathcote was awarded the head basketball coaching job at Michigan State University
Michigan State University
Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...
. Again, he followed his former coach and helped out as a graduate assistant. He coached the JV team, went to the varsity practices, and helped recruit high school talent. Among those recruited were eventual NBA players Jay Vincent
Jay Vincent
Jay Fletcher Vincent is a retired American professional basketball player.A 6'7" forward, Vincent played at Michigan State University under coach, Jud Heathcote, where he teamed with Magic Johnson and Greg Kelser to win the 1979 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament...
and Earvin "Magic" Johnson
Magic Johnson
Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. is a retired American professional basketball player who played point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association . After winning championships in high school and college, Johnson was selected first overall in the 1979 NBA Draft by the Lakers...
, a superstar member of the Basketball Hall of Fame
Basketball Hall of Fame
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, located in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States, honors exceptional basketball players, coaches, referees, executives, and other major contributors to the game of basketball worldwide...
.
The Montana Grizzly standout obtained his Master's degree in mathematics in one year at MSU and was drawn back to Missoula by job openings in the math department as well as the head boys basketball coaching position at Hellgate High School. Along with newly-born twin daughters, Kelly and Kristy, the Hayses moved back to Missoula in 1977. Their son, Jeff, was born in 1983, and another set of twin girls, Molly and Mandy, was born in 1985.
Coaching career
Hays went on to coach the Missoula Hellgate Knights for 25 years, racking up more than 350 wins, the most in school history, and three state championships in 1985, 1990 and 1993.According to Hays, the 1993 team stood out as the most talented team he had coached. The team went undefeated at 23-0 in a season that featured a regular season-ending game against then undefeated Billings West. Hellgate prevailed and went on to close out the season without a loss, defeating Billings West again in the championship, this time 71-68 in double overtime. It was the first time in 20 years that a team had gone undefeated. Hays' 1993 team was led by eventual Montana Grizzly starter J.R. Camel.
In 1985, Hays' boys took down crosstown rival Big Sky 52-47 for the first of Hays' three championships. The team finished 18-6.
The 1990 Knights again finished 18-6 en route to Hays' second championship as Hellgate downed the Butte Bulldogs
Butte High School (Butte, Montana)
Butte High School is a public high school in Butte, Montana.-External links:***...
57-51.
Hays came close an undefeated season in 1988 as his team had a spotless record until it lost to Bozeman 50-42 in the championship game.
Teaching career
Hays returned to his home-state of OregonOregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
for a brief stint at Sheridan High School as the only mathematics teacher at the school stretching from 1975-1976.
Upon finishing graduate school, he fulfilled two dreams at once, by becoming a mathematics teacher as well as the head boys' basketball coach at Hellgate High School in Missoula. He continued teaching math for 32 years from 1977-2009.
Current life
Along with the rest of the 1975 Sweet 16 team under coach Heathcote, Hays was inducted into the Montana Sports Hall of Fame on Nov. 12, 2010. He teamed with eventual 1978 NBA fourth overall pick Michael Ray Richardson (New York KnicksNew York Knicks
The New York Knickerbockers, prominently known as the Knicks, are a professional basketball team based in New York City. They are part of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association...
) to lead the 1975 Grizzlies on their historic journey to the NCAA tournament.
Hays is currently working as a volunteer assistant coach alongside his son, Jeff, who is following in his father's footsteps and has recently accepted the head coaching position at Hellgate.
In addition to his volunteer coaching role, Hays is also working as a financial investor and retirement planner. He is currently working with SII (Service, Innovation, Integrity) investments in Missoula.