Dan Fitzgerald, architect of Gonzaga’s college basketball rise, dies suddently at 67

Longtime Gonzaga coach Fitzgerald dies

SPOKANE, Wash. — Dan Fitzgerald, the coach who built Gonzaga into a national basketball power but resigned before the school began its current run of NCAA tournaments, has died at the age of 67.

Fitzgerald collapsed Tuesday evening in a restaurant in the suburb of Airway Heights.

A nursing supervisor says he was pronounced dead at Deaconness Medical Center in Spokane. The cause of death was not immediately released.

Fitzgerald recruited John Stockton to campus, took the Zags to their first NCAA tournament in 1995, and built the coaching staff of Mark Few, Dan Monson and Bill Grier that has taken the Zags to every NCAA tournament since the 1999 season.