Yale Bulletin and Calendar

April 22, 2005|Volume 33, Number 27|Two-Week Issue

Chris Gobrecht

Veteran coach with over 400 wins
to head women's basketball

Chris Gobrecht, a 25-year Division I coaching veteran and a two-time Pacific-10 Conference Coach of the Year, has been named the new Joel E. Smilow Class of 1954 Coach of Women's Basketball.

Gobrecht has amassed a 425-311 (.577) record after turning around the Cal State Fullerton program, becoming the winningest coach in Washington's history, spending a year rebuilding at Florida State and moving on to turn around the program at her alma mater, the University of Southern California (USC).

Her Washington teams won or shared the Pac-10 title three times and reached the NCAA Tournament 9 times in 11 seasons. Her squads reached the NCAA "Sweet 16" three times and the "Elite Eight" once. Six of Gobrecht's former players have played professionally in the WNBA and ABL.

With USC's win over Pepperdine on Dec. 4, 2002, Gobrecht became the third active coach to reach the 400-win mark. She spent seven years as the coach of the Trojans, going 15-13, 11-7 in the Pac-10 to tie for third place, in her final season of 2003-2004. Two of her recruiting classes at USC were ranked among the best in the country, and she regularly faced some of the toughest competition in the country. Her team's 2002-2003 schedule included three of the previous four national champions in Connecticut, Tennessee and Notre Dame. Gobrecht had a 95-108 record and three winning seasons with the Women of Troy.

In her 11 seasons at Washington, Gobrecht won at least 16 games every year, had eight 20-win campaigns and finished with a 243-89 (.732) record. In addition to their three conference championships, her Huskies finished second in the conference four times. Her 1989-1990 squad won a school-record 28 games and ended the season ranked third in the nation, the highest mark in program history. Washington was the only team to beat NCAA champion Stanford that year.

Gobrecht began her Division I career by taking over a struggling Cal State Fullerton program in 1979-80. She produced an 18-12 record in her third season on the job. In her final season of 1984-1985, Gobrecht led the Titans to a 19-11 mark and their first WNIT appearance and was a finalist for national Coach of the Year honors.

Her coaching career began in 1978 at Santa Fe Springs (Calif.) High School, where her team went 20-4 and made the CIF AAA playoffs. The next year, Gobrecht led Pasadena City College to a 25-5 record, a conference championship and second place in the state junior college tournament.

In 1990, she was an assistant for a USA Basketball select team which played in Czechoslovakia and Italy.

The coach has received several honors for her work in women's basketball. In 1996, she won the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sports Star of the Year award. She was also nominated in 1988. Gobrecht was a featured speaker at the NCAA's "Spotlight on Women's Basketball" in New York in 1991. She was honored as a 1990 Woman of Achievement by the Seattle chapter of Women in Communication at its annual Matrix Table Awards.

Gobrecht earned a bachelor's degree in public affairs from USC in 1977. Then known by her maiden name of Chris Geiger, she was a three-year starter for the Women of Troy 1974-1976 and also played volleyball for USC for two years. She spent a year after graduation in the Peace Corps, volunteering as an English teacher at St. Mary's College in Apia, Western Samoa.

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Veteran coach with over 400 wins to head women's basketball

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IN MEMORIAM

Biologist Dr. Alvin Novick, noted advocate for people with AIDS

Lloyd Reynolds, shaped fields of labor relations and economics