Hardwood Reunion

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

A memorial service was held Sunday at Pacific Palisades Presbyterian Church for former Palisades High basketball coach Jerry Marvin and among those there were several members of his 1969 City championship team.

Two of them, Chris Marlowe and Don Shaw, reflected on the impact Marvin had on their lives.

“Jerry had a huge influence on my coaching philosophy,” said Shaw, who grew up on El Medio and became a successful volleyball coach at Stanford. “We were always ready for any situation. It didn’t matter what they threw at us.”

Marlowe, a volleyball gold medalist at the 1984 Olympics and now the play-by-play announcer for the Denver Nuggets, called his mentor and friend “the best coach I ever played for.”     

Another eulogist was former NBA star Kiki Vandweghe, who described being dunked on by Marlowe during  an alumni game and the look of bewilderment on his coach’s face.

“He was a basketball purist,” Vandeweghe said of Marvin, who died August 27 at the age of 87. “I invitied him to a banquet and he was drawing up plays on a napkin. By the end of the night, every coach was gathered around the table talking to him. That’s the kind of man he was. So many players loved him, so many coaches respected him. He impacted so many people.”

Another former player, Adam Knowlton, shared his thoughts on Marvin and read a moving statement from Sam Lagana, the public address announcer for the Rams-Redskins game that afternoon.   

“Touching those around him was his greatest gift,” said Marilyn Nichols on behalf of  Marvin’s wife Gaelyn and their son Conner, a Pali High freshman. “Whether you were a player, student, friend or family member, he loved everybody.”

Others attending Sunday included James Paleno, Marvin’s successor at Palisades, and former players Chip Engelland (shooting coach for the San Antonio Spurs) and Steve Kerr, head coach of the Golden State Warriors.

Afterwards Marlowe and Shaw joined 1969 teammates Doug King, Jay Hanseth, Kris Jantaas and Jack Waddill for a photo in the Pali High gym. Marlowe identified the exact spot near halfcourt where he made a buzzer-beater against Venice.

“We did everything together,” King recalled. “We weren’t the most talented team, but we were the smartest. One day we snuck up to Mayfair Market, where Gelson’s is now, for sandwiches and the VP caught us. He was gonna give us a week’s detention, but Marlowe made a deal that for every game we won in the playoffs, he’d take away a day of detention. Well, we won all four so we never did any detention.”