SPOKANE -- The memorial service for former Gonzaga University head men's basketball coach and athletic director Dan Fitzgerald will be Wednesday at 10am in the Pend Oreille Pavilion at Northern Quest Casino.
Fitzgerald was the director of community relations for Northern Quest Casino at the time of his death. He died this past Tuesday in Spokane from an apparent heart attack.
The 67-year-old Fitzgerald was the basketball coach and athletic director at Gonzaga University from 1978-79 through 1996-97. Fitzgerald, who was an assistant coach under Gonzaga head coach Adrian Buoncristiani for two seasons from 1974-75, returned as head coach in 1978 after two seasons as an assistant coach at Santa Clara University. Fitzgerald was named athletic director of the Bulldogs in the summer of 1978.
Fitzgerald served two stints as head coach, the first from his hiring in 1978 through the 1981 season and the second from 1986-97. His 15-year record was 252-171. The Bulldogs won their inaugural West Coast Conference regular-season title in 1994, lost in the semifinals of the WCC Tournament and were awarded a bid to the National Invitational Tournament, the first post-season bid in Gonzaga's NCAA Division I history. The Zags stunned Stanford University in the first round on the road and lost at Kansas State University.
The Bulldogs won the 1995 WCC Tournament title as the No. 4 seed and with it the school's first trip to the NCAA Tournament. The following season the Bulldogs tied for first in the WCC regular season, lost the WCC Tournament title game and earned a first-round berth in the NIT.
