Yellowjacket Coaching Legend Mike Harkins Dies at 81

Billings Gazette article

BILLINGS, Mont. – The winningest coach in Montana State Billings men’s basketball history has died at the age of 81.  Mike Harkins passed away Sunday morning at the Billings Clinic as he had been battling muscular dystrophy for nearly 35 years.

“We were saddened to learn on Sunday of legendary Yellowjacket Basketball Coach Mike Harkins’ passing,” MSUB Athletic Director Gary Gray said.  “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the entire Harkins family at this time of loss.  We can only imagine the thousands of lives touched in so many ways by Coach Harkins over his many years as an inspirational teacher and coach, both in the classroom and on the basketball court.” 

Harkins coached at Eastern Montana College (now MSUB) from 1960-1976 where he compiled a 290-158 record winning 12 conference championships and 10 NAIA district titles.  He took a school record 10 teams to the NAIA national tournament.

“Coach Harkins was an extraordinary coach, scholar, teacher, mentor, and friend,” MSUB Chancellor Dr. Ronald Sexton said.  “If ever there were a coach who served as a role model, be it on the court, in the classroom, or in dealing with life’s issues, it was Coach Harkins.  He truly cared about others and it showed every day in the way he lived his life.  He set “benchmarks,” personal and professional, most of us can only hope to achieve.”

He took over a program that only had seen 123 wins in 29 previous seasons, Harkins made an immediate impact as his first team went 16-5 with basically the same players that had gone 12-13 the year before.  In 1961-1962, the Yellowjackets set a then-school record with a 19-9 mark and captured the Montana Collegiate Conference Championship.  It was the first conference title in school history and Harkins was named conference and NAIA District Coach of the Year.

From 1961-1965, Harkins led his teams to an astonishing 39-1 record in conference play and three seasons of perfect 10-0 records in league play.  He led the Jackets to six consecutive winning seasons in his first six years.

The dynasty was off and running.  In 16 years, he tallied 290 victories for a .647 winning percentage.  In 1965, his club upset No. 14 Central Washington 63-61 in the first round of the national tournament.  He then would guide his team to another upset of No. 16 Wayne State (NE) in 1968, 83-70.

He saw his first 20-win season in 1967-1968 as the team went 20-9 with a Frontier Conference title and a berth in the NAIA National Tournament.  He would go on to win 20 games or more five more times.

In his final season as a Yellowjacket head coach, Harkins compiled a 20-10 record, the Frontier Conference Championship and beat Black Hills State and Valley City to win the school’s 10th district title.  He was named conference and District Coach of the Year and was a finalist for National Coach of the Year.

During his impressive tenure, he coached 59 all-conference performers and 22 NAIA All-Americans.

Current MSUB head men’s basketball coach, George Pfeifer, felt it was next to impossible to quantitatively measure the influence Coach Harkins had on the people he touched in his life.

“It is next to impossible to quantitatively measure the influence Coach Harkins has had on the people he touched in his life. Every time you interact with someone who had the privilege to play for Coach Harkins, you see the gleam in their eyes as they share a treasured moment. His impact on those people he touched not only affected, them it spread to other people who they have contacted. I bought his books and took a class from him and in that brief time he influenced some of my approaches to coaching. From my point of view, Coach Harkins is and will always be the godfather of Yellowjacket basketball.”

A native of Akron, Ohio, Harkins earned all-state honors in basketball and football at Akron East High School.  He went on to have an outstanding basketball career at the University of Akron.  In 1955-1956, as a senior, he averaged 28.4 points finishing as the number three scorer in the country.  He scored 46 points against Heidelberg which remained a school record for nearly 28 years.  The 46 points he scored only has been surpassed once and his scoring average is third best to this day.  He was an All-America selection that season.

Harkins finished his career as the all-time leading scorer with 1425 points in 65 games.  He currently is 11th on the all-time scoring list.  He averaged 21.3 points per game which is second-best in Akron history.  He was a three-time All-Ohio Conference selection, named to the All-Ohio College team twice and was elected team captain as a junior and senior.  He helped lead his team to three Ohio Conference Championships and was a charter member of the Akron Athletic Hall of Fame.

He traveled the world coaching teams on international tours to Africa, Great Britain, Italy, Yugoslavia, Turkey, Spain, Mexico and Brazil.  He wrote 18 books on basketball and authored 50 magazine articles.  Harkins has been praised by numerous coaches for his books and articles.

For his dedication to the game of basketball and to teaching, Harkins has been named to seven hall of fames and has received numerous awards.  He is a member of the Yellowjacket Hall of Fame and Distinction, as well as receiving the EMC Research Award, EMC Teaching Award, EMC Emeritus Teaching Award and EMC Emeritus Coaching Award.

Most recently, Harkins was inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame in 2007, marking the seventh hall of fame that he was inducted to as either a player or coach.  In May 2006, MSUB unveiled a bust of Harkins in the main lobby of the Physical Education Building.

“Untold thousands more learned so much about the game Coach Harkins loved by reading the many books he authored on basketball,” Gray added.  “It was a real joy for me to teach with Coach Harkins at EMC back in the mid-80’s.  I learned from him every day, and all of us at MSUB will miss him immensely.  His legacy will live on within Yellowjacket Basketball.”

Harkins’ wife (Grace) passed away June 1, 2008.  They had been married for 60 years and are survived by three children, Mike, Jim and Patti, five grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Information in this article was gathered from the Billings Gazette and the MSUB Sports Information Department.