Rich Glas, who is in his 18th year at UND and 28th as a collegiate head coach, enters the 2005-06 season needing 11 wins to surpass the legendary Dave Gunter (1971-88) as the winningest coach in UND men’s basketball history. Glas enters the season with 322 wins, compared to 332 by Gunther.
Born in Bemidji, Minn., the youngest of John and Elfrida’s three sons, Rich had an all-access pass to every Bemidji State sport he could find. Life is good like that when your dad is the vice president of the university. Batboy, ballboy, waterboy, if it had something to do with sports, Glas wanted to be around it.
The desire to get into the coaching side of athletics was first aroused when Glas was growing up and watching brother Bob play basketball at Bemidji High for legendary coach “Bun” Fortier. In awe of Fortier, Glas started dreaming of one day growing up to be just like the coach. Glas would go on to play for the hard-nosed Fortier himself, then move up to play for the hometown BSU Beavers.
After graduating from BSU in 1970, Glas moved on to Western Illinois, where he put on the whistle for the first time. After earning his master’s degree in 1971, he was hired as Jack Haddorff’s assistant at Minnesota-Morris.
For three seasons he faithfully performed behind the scenes, filling the role of hard-working assistant. When Haddorff resigned after the 1974 season, the precocious Glas moved up to the head coaching position at the age of 25, his efforts as assistant not being lost on the UM-Morris administration.
After going 27-23 in his first two years, Glas and the Cougars broke through in 1977, going 21-6, winning the conference championship and advancing to the NAIA national tournament. In 1978 UM-Morris made the move to Division III, repeated as conference champions with a 22-6 mark and advanced to the Division III national tournament. Glas’s 1979 team went 19-9, finished second in the NIC and again advanced to the postseason.
With the program at UMM on solid footing, and with two NIC Coach of the Year awards and an NAIA District Coach of the Year honor to his name, Glas decided to move on to a new job and a new challenge.
His next stop was Willamette University, in Salem, Ore., where he would coach for five seasons. Glas also served as WU’s athletic director for three of those years. The Bearcats went 66-64 under Glas, with the 1983 team going 19-8 and advancing to the NAIA national tournament.
After the 1984 season Glas took a leave of absence from Willamette and spent a year on Lute Olson’s staff at Arizona. Glas made such a favorable impression on Olson that when Hawaii coach Frank Arnold later called Olson looking for leads to fill an open assistant coaching position, he gave Arnold Glas’s name and Arnold hired Glas.
After three years of coaching in Hawaii, the job at North Dakota opened and Glas was chosen to lead the program. Glas and the Sioux got off to a rocky start, finishing 8-20 his first year, but that only set the stage for a remarkable and historical turnaround.
After going 3-15 in the NCC to finish last in 1989, Glas led UND on a worst-to-first charge. His 1990 team went 14-4 to win the NCC, advanced to the Elite Eight where it finished third and finished 28-7 overall. It was the first time in 65 years an NCC team had made such a dramatic improvement within the standings.
Glas’s 1991 team would fare even better, winning the NCC with a 17-1 mark (a league record for wins in a season that still stands), going 29-4 overall and advancing to the Elite Eight for the second consecutive year. Glas had the program off and running and it has not looked back since.
Glas has led UND to seven NCAA appearances in his 14 years, with the Sioux winning six straight NCC regular season or tournament championships between 1990 and 1995. He has compiled a 14-year postseason record of 26-11 (.703), and his 268 overall victories at UND give him the second-most wins in the program’s storied history.
In 2001 Glas won his 400th career game. He was named the Kodak/NABC North Central Region Coach of the Year in both 1990 and 1991.
His impact on the individuals around him, both assistant coaches and players, has been just as impressive as his 477 career wins. At the moment 16 former UND assistant coaches or players are coaching at levels from high school to Division I to professional leagues in Europe. Glas has also coached five NCC MVPs, nine All-Americans, 24 All-NCC selections, two NCC Newcomers of the Year, one NCC Freshman of the Year and six Academic All-NCC selections.
Glas and his wife, Sandy, reside in Grand Forks. Their daughter, Randi, lives in Portland, Ore., with her husband, Deven Paolo, while their son, Jeff, is a senior at UND and the starting kicker on the Fighting Sioux football team.
