This weekend, Creighton will treat its basketball fans to the first Alumni Weekend since 2003. And as part of the celebration, the school’s athletic department will bestow one of its greatest honors on Bob Harstad.
Saturday night, during halftime of Creighton’s game against St. Joe’s, Harstad will join Bob Portman, Bob Gibson, and Paul Silas as the only Bluejays to have their jerseys retired in the program’s storied history.
If you read our recent “What’s in a Number?” series, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Harstad’s jersey will hang beside those of the best Bluejays ever. But when he first heard about the honor, Harstad was shocked.
“It never crossed my mind, even after everything that we accomplished at Creighton and after the years had gone by. I just never thought it would happen,” Harstad told WBR. “It still hasn’t really set in. You look up in the rafters and you see a Bob Gibson, or a Paul Silas, and you say Bob who? Bob Harstad? I’m tremendously honored by the recognition.”
You can read about Harstad’s gaudy statistics and the successful teams he was a part of here. But aside from his individual statistics and his team’s success, Harstad represents the Creighton community well.
“Bob is really what Creighton is all about,” said Mark Burgers, Creighton Associate Athletic Director. “He’s a great human being who really got involved in the community, and has always been a man for others. He’s been a great representative of Creighton and we felt that it’s time that we acknowledge him for his great accomplishments.”
Those successes include being one of only four Missouri Valley Conference players to score 2,000 points and grab 1,000 or more rebounds — the others are Oscar Robertson, Larry Bird, and Xavier McDaniel, so not bad company. He earned the MVC Player of the Year award in 1990 and the MVC Tournament Most Outstanding Player award in 1991. He led his team to MVC regular season and tournament championships in 1989 and 1991, and his squads made trips to the NCAA Tournament in those two years. He is a member of the Creighton and Missouri Valley Conference halls of fame.
Among the thousands of CU fans who will watch as Harstad receives the honor of jersey retirement this weekend will be his past teammates as well as the players for whom he helped set a foundation in the basketball program. Burgers said the university is committed to honoring the program’s alumni more frequently, as they are the guys who helped build what current players and fans enjoy currently.
“When you sit and think about all the great individuals, teams, and stories that make Creighton basketball what it is today, you realize how critical our alumni are. We’ve been lucky to recruit such good guys and we’d like to get them more and more involved and do a better job thanking them for creating such a positive impact on Creighton basketball.”
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Harstad and his teammates definitely did that. He was a first-team All-MVC selection in his last three seasons at CU. During his four years at Creighton, the Bluejays went 81-47 overall and 38-20 in conference play. The Bluejays won 20 or more games in his last three years, and the 24 and final victory in his storied career was a first round NCAA Tournament win over New Mexico State in 1991. Playing in the Big Dance was the only thing Harstad wanted to accomplish when he arrived in Omaha in 1987.
“When I came to Creighton, I had no ambitions other than I hoped I’d get on the court my freshman season and play a little bit, contribute here and there,” he said. “But all I really wanted was to go to the tournament.”
The road to the NCAA Tournament started during preseason practice, where Harstad and his fellow newcomers began to feel the pain Tony Barone would inflict, pain necessary to build a lasting bond between players and pave the way for future success.
“After our first day of preseason conditioning, sitting on the cement slab outside the Vinardi Center on their way back to the dorms, all the new guys were all exhausted. None of us had ever experienced anything like the workout we had just gone through,” Harstad said. “Had you asked me that night, I would have told you maybe one out of the group of six of us sitting outside the gym that night would come back the next day. Barone set the tone early, and we all stuck together. We all made it back the next day. That was the beginning of the bond.”
Harstad said that bond, the chemistry created among that group and his teams at CU overall, was critical to the team’s successful run. “In the four years I was there, I don’t remember any yelling or negative interactions between us. There were a few times when some tussles broke out in practice, but it wasn’t because we were mad with each other. We were pushing each other to get better. The harder we practiced, and the harder we pushed each other, the better we got. That is such a rarity.”
And they did get better. After winning 16 games during his freshman season, Harstad and the Bluejays elevated their game to a championship caliber. The process started in the off-season, between his first and second seasons in Omaha.
“After my freshman year, I took a look in the mirror and realized, as most freshmen do, that I was just trying to survive my whole first season,” he said. “After my freshman season, I wanted to get better instead of just survive. I had to flip my mentality. We all kind of did that in that summer.
“We had very intense pick-up games. Sometimes, guys just get together, break a bit of a sweat, and shoot around for awhile. Our summer games were as competitive as they were during the season. Instead of trying to survive, everyone was trying to succeed.”
Harstad led Creighton in scoring and rebounding as a sophomore, and he along with fellow sophomore Chad Gallagher gave the Bluejays a one-two punch in the post few teams in the Valley could contain. Their daily battles in the Vinardi Center helped both get better as their careers progressed.
“Chad and I had some epic battles during practice. And I loved playing against him, and I think he loved playing against me. He would make me a better player; he was taller, and it was difficult to score on him. I was faster than him, and I could guard him quicker, so it made him better. We challenged each other.”
Their sophomore season ended with a challenging matchup against nationally ranked Missouri in the NCAA Tournament. After two seasons at Creighton, Harstad realized his dream of reaching the Big Dance. “You are in such a state of awe when you get to your first tournament, it is just a whirlwind. I couldn’t tell you anything that happened before the game; I was in la-la land,” he said.
The game didn’t go as Harstad planned, as the Bluejays lost to the Tigers. And while he was upset after the loss, he relished the opportunity just to make it there. It was an accomplishment.
Harstad and the team expected the same type of accomplishment the next season, his third at Creighton. But while his junior year was one of the most outstanding individual campaigns by a Bluejay in program history, the team failed to return to the NCAA Tournament. When asked about the dichotomy of that season, he posting the great stats but the team falling short of the Big Dance, Harstad was quick to point out exactly what he did 20 years ago: that the stats didn’t matter.
“Those stats were never a goal of mine. It is nice to be recognized, don’t get me wrong. But your goal at the college level is to get to the NCAA Tournament. There’s no question about it. To me, it was a very disappointing season, even though I was player of the year.
“One of the only satisfying things that season was to be picked preseason player of the year and then finish the season the player of the year. It is a hard thing to do; there’s a lot of pressure that comes with it. But I would have given it up any time to make the tournament. It was a disappointment not to make it; we had very high expectations for that season. But looking back, I think not making it in 1990 was really the catalyst for that next season.”
That next season, 1990-1991, was one of the most exciting in Creighton athletics history. It began with Bob Warming arriving at the Hilltop that fall to restart the Creighton soccer program. It ended with Creighton’s appearance in the 1991 College World Series. And in between, Harstad and Gallagher and the rest of the men’s basketball team posted one of the most successful seasons in school history.
CU won a then-record 24 games, becoming the first team in school history to win 20 or more games in three straight seasons. The third game of the season, Harstad got revenge against Missouri when the Jays beat the Tigers in Omaha. CU defeated Notre Dame for a second consecutive year. The Jays won 14 of their last 16 regular season games and swept through 3 games in St. Louis for an Arch Madness championship. Their reward was a return to the NCAA Tournament, where they would beat New Mexico State before falling to Seton Hall in the second round.
“The second time around in the tournament, it was all business,” Harstad said. “The first time, you’re giddy and excited. So when we went back I can remember every moment of those two games. I felt we deserved to be there, that we had a right to be there. With that mentality going in, and the fact that most of those guys had been there before and gone through it, there wasn’t really any adjustment. And we played that way. We expected to do well.”
The loss to the Pirates brought an end to Harstad’s Creighton career. After graduating, he joined the professional ranks.
“I went to camps. I signed with the Utah Jazz as a free agent, dropped about 25 pounds, and tried to make the roster outside my natural position of power forward,” he said. “I got cut right before veterans camp, then went overseas.
“I played 9 seasons in Spain and 1 year in Portugal. I had a few bites to come back, but I had to weigh my options. For a little more money than what I was making, I could be the 11th or 12th man on the team. But for a little less money, I could have the responsibility of being the leader and the star for the team. I loved that responsibility. I never looked for it, but when it came my way — sophomore year at Creighton, when I went overseas — it was something I thrived doing.”
You’d be hard-pressed to find a Creighton basketball fan who wouldn’t agree.
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Alumni weekend features various events open to the public, including an alumni basketball game, a pep rally and pre-game party, and Harstad’s jersey retirement at halftime of the Creighton game Saturday evening. He’s excited more to see his old teammates than to see his old number hoisted to the rafters.
“The camaraderie we had at Creighton my four years there was amazing. You share some great times together, some tough times. You go through so many trials and tribulations. But when you get back together, you can pick up right where you left off with the guys. I’m looking forward to it.”
Burgers hinted that alumni weekend may become a more frequent event.
“Anytime you get the guys together, it’s pretty special for two reasons,” he said. “First, to listen to them reminisce about their days at Creighton; and second, to see them interact with the current players and show their passion for the program and what it means to be a Bluejay. Great stories, lots of laughs, and a lot of pride in what was, what is, and what will be on the Hilltop.”