Athletics The Scholar-Athlete

SPU Coaching Legends

Books Chronicle Careers of Foreman and Habegger

By John Glancy '70, Ed.D. '05

For more than 30 years, Ken Foreman and Les Habegger were synonymous with coaching excellence at Seattle Pacific University in track and field and basketball. Now two books record their careers and influence, both at SPU and at the highest levels of amateur and professional sports.

Foreman's autobiographical A Coach's Journey recounts his development from a "skinny high school kid" to a premier collegiate gymnast and ultimately a decorated Olympic coach who was recently elected to the USA Track and Field Hall of Fame. The book grows out of a series of anecdotes Foreman recorded over his 62-year (and counting) coaching career.

A biography of Habegger, We Still Call Him Coach, traces his Amish roots in Berne, Indiana, and his growing love for basketball, to the foxholes of France where he served as a medic in WWII. At Seattle Pacific, Habegger established a highly successful coaching and administrative career that later led to roles as assistant coach and general manager with the Seattle Supersonics and a world basketball championship in 1979.

Both books can be ordered through Amazon.com.