Boyd Grant, who put Fresno State basketball in spotlight with NIT title, dies

Boyd Grant, the former Fresno State basketball coach who helped turn the Red Wave into a traveling force with a dynamic run through the old Pacific Coast Athletic Association, died on Monday following a stroke.

Grant was 87, passing away on the same date he was born.

“I used to go to his games,” said Bulldogs coach Justin Hutson, who grew up in Bakersfield and as a kid was part of that Red Wave. “My dad (former Bakersfield High coach Mark Hutson) used to take me to some of his games and he also recruited some of my dad’s players so I had a chance to know him when I was a little guy.

“I was (part of the Red Wave), I definitely was. We would come up to Fresno to watch some of the games and me and my dad were big Boyd Grant fans. We have his pictures up in our office.”

Tyrone Bradley: ‘Coach was a good man’

For Grant’s former players, it was a rough start to the week.

“I’ve been talking to quite a few people – players, coaches,” said former Bulldogs guard Tyrone Bradley, who capped his Fresno State career with the 1983 NIT title along with Ron Anderson, Bernard Thompson, Desi Barmore and Mitch Arnold.

“The best way for me to describe it, my four years there were great. There were far more great times than bad times and Coach Grant, he played a big role in helping me become who I am today. The things that he was teaching us during that time, I didn’t see it, but I see it now as a grown man.

“Coach was a good man. He really was a good man. I’m biased, but the best coach in Fresno State history is Coach Grant. The brotherhood of the players that were there, that’s a special friendship, a special bond.”

That bond extended to the Red Wave, to the community, said Grant’s son, Kevin.

“It really is something that we shared as a family, sort of this relationship that we had with the community,” Kevin Grant said, on a Zoom call with media.

“Dad was from an agricultural area in Idaho and I think coming to Fresno with the ag base here, he felt an instant connection that way, and I think in his mind the people in Fresno were hard-working, ethical, honest types of people and maybe had a little bit of an underdog mindset. So, with all of that, it was a perfect combination of his defensive style, the town really getting behind him and taking bus loads of 13, 14, 15 Red Wave buses up to San Jose. And then dad’s sort of honest, maybe folksy nature really connected with people and I think that bond was almost instantaneous, really, between the town and my dad.”

Winningest Bulldogs coach

Grant, who was inducted into the Fresno Athletic Hall of Fame in 1993, flipped the Bulldogs’ fortunes seemingly overnight in taking them to a 194-74 record in nine seasons including the NIT championship in 1983 and NCAA Tournament appearances in 1981, ‘82 and ‘84.

He’s still the winningest coach in Fresno State history, and his teams hold five of the six longest winning streaks in school history including a 13-game run in a 25-4 season in 1981.

Fresno State was just 7-20 the year before Grant was hired, but went 21-6 and won a PCAA championship in his first season. The Bulldogs went 11-0 at Selland Arena that season, in a building that soon enough was one of the toughest to play in the country for opponents.

Much of it was built on defense. “Imagine, Selland Arena would be sold out,” former Bulldogs guard Charlie Smith said, “and you have the whole arena standing up and cheering for defense.”

Fresno State led the nation in scoring defense in Grant’s first season, first among 250 teams, and was ranked in the top 10 in every one of his nine years.

Grant returned to his alma mater in 1988, coaching Colorado State to 81 wins in four seasons with two trips to the NCAA Tournament.

He retired from coaching following the 1991 season with a career record of 275-120, two PCAA championships, three PCAA Tournament titles, two Western Athletic Conference titles at Colorado State and the NIT title in 1983 with the Bulldogs. Grant also was inducted into the National Junior College Basketball Hall of Fame (1989) and the Colorado State Athletics Hall of Fame (1990).

‘Everybody took care of business’

“It’s just a sad day today, it really is. He’s a legend. We’re going to miss him,” said former Bulldogs center Art Williams, who followed Grant to Fresno State from the College of Southern Idaho and helped build the program those first three seasons.

“I think I might have been the first player to play for him for four years. It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of hard work, but we had a great team. Coach (Ron) Adams was there at the time. Coach Grant. We worked really hard and he had us prepared for every game.

“But the main thing for me, most of the guys graduated, got their degrees. He made sure everybody took care of business.”

The coach, Smith said, did leave a stamp on the community that resonates even 30 years later.

“He really put Fresno on the map with the basketball program,” Smith said. “He obviously was a winning coach wherever he went, but at Fresno State, he went to the final 16 in the NCAA. I wasn’t on that team, that was the year before with Rod Higgins and some of the guys. My freshman year was the NIT championship team in ‘83, and it was an honor and a privilege.

“A lot of great memories under his leadership, with other great, talented athletes, some that went on to the NBA. It’s a sad day for many, losing him as a coach and a mentor who was a part of our life.”

This story was originally published August 17, 2020 at 10:16 AM.