Legendary Stanford head coach Mike Montgomery has been selected for the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame. Montgomery was known for his stints at Stanford and Cal, as well as the Golden State Warriors. However, his time at Stanford was the most successful of them all.
Montgomery took over the job in Palo Alto for the 1986-87 season and stayed for 17 years, where he brought the most success to Stanford that they had ever seen.
In the 80’s, their best season was highlighted by a 25-7 season and a NCAA Tournament appearance. In two other seasons, they reached the NIT. Only Montgomery’s first season on the job saw the Cardinal fail to reach the postseason.
The 90’s saw even more success from the Cardinal. The decade started with an NIT Championship, followed by seven NCAA Tournament appearances throughout that span. In 1997-98, Montgomery led the Cardinal to their first Final Four in 50 years. They have not been back since.
In the 2000’s, Stanford continued to be a premier program in college basketball. In all four seasons Montgomery coached throughout the decade, the Cardinal got past the first round in all four, but never reached the Final Four.
Montgomery held a cumulative 392-168 record as the head coach of the Cardinal, good for a .700 winning percentage. Over a span of 17 seasons, that’s an incredible stretch of winning basketball. He enjoyed success at Cal as well, going 130-73 (.640) across six seasons.
After 17 seasons, Montgomery elected to take the job with the Warriors, before returning to the college game with Cal. He saw little success with the Warriors, but carried Cal to a few of their best seasons in program history. In his two seasons as the head coach, the Warriors went 68-96 from 2004-06 after back-to-back 34-48 seasons.
Montgomery was replaced by a returning Don Nelson, and in 2006-07 he led the “We Believe” Warriors past the No. 1 seeded Dallas Mavericks in six games. The team fell to the Utah Jazz in five in the following round.
Montgomery has been a Bay Area legend after decades of successful runs and tournament appearances, which makes his induction into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame no surprise. Montgomery embodied what Stanford could truly be as a program, and gave the Cardinal some of their best seasons that fans would love to see replicated today.
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