Presented by LOUIE’S PIZZA & ITALIAN RESTAURANT.
This Day In Sports…March 12, 1996:
College of Idaho, then known as Albertson College, beats Whitworth in overtime, 81-72, to win the NAIA Division II national basketball championship at Montgomery Fieldhouse in Nampa. The Coyotes recorded their first-ever 30-win season, going 31-3. For Albertson coach Marty Holly, it was the crown jewel of his 19-year stint leading the Yotes. Holly, who would later become athletic director, is now retired. But he’s a C of I fixture to this day.
Before the transfer portal was a thing, there was Damon Archibald. He spent three years at Boise State under Bobby Dye and was a key contributor for the Broncos. But Archibald decided to spend his senior season at Albertson, and it wasn’t just a shot-in-the-dark destination. He basically had family ties with Holly. His dad, Lynn, had just taken the Idaho State head coaching job in 1977 when he hired Holly, a Southern California high school coach, to become an ISU assistant. The duo had known each other since third grade. Four years later, Holly took the top job at C of I.
A 2020 story on the Yotes’ title by John Wustrow of the Idaho Press details the relationship. “The two became best men at each other’s weddings and later godparents to each other’s children,” wrote Wustrow, who noted that Archibald was in the stands in Nampa for the championship tilt. “Late in the game, Holly looked up and made eye contact with (Lynn) Archibald,” Wustrow wrote. “It’s a moment that sticks with Holly. ‘That team won the national championship because of him, I truly, truly believe that,’ an emotional Holly said about his friend, who died of cancer in 1997. ‘That was a team of destiny, call it what you want.’”
Damon Archibald averaged 16.7 points per game for the Yotes—and all he did in the title game was score 23 of his game-high 29 points in the second half and overtime. “It’s the stuff storybooks are made of; it’s almost a Hallmark movie,” Archibald said in Wustrow’s story. “We didn’t know it (the cancer diagnosis), but my dad did. He and my mom knew it and they kept it quiet. What I treasure is the fact that he got to see his best friend and his son have this magical season and that magical moment.”
The Yotes wouldn’t record another 30-win season until Scott Garson’s teams went 30-6 in 2014-15 and 30-7 in 2017-18. C of I wouldn’t win its second national championship until last year, when they went 36-1 under Colby Blaine. Outside of the COVID season in 2020-21, Blaine has gone a staggering 158-18 with four 30-win seasons (and he’s two wins away from a fifth). Despite a loss in the Cascade Conference championship game a week ago, the Yotes have their sights squarely set on a second straight national crown, and the quest starts Friday in Caldwell with an NAIA First Round game against Jessup University.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
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