Weber State To Retire Jersey Of Legendary Coach Dick Motta
Feb 15, 2022, 2:24 PM
(Photo courtesy of Weber State Athletics)
(Photo courtesy of Weber State Athletics)
OGDEN, Utah – The Weber State men’s basketball program announced that they will retire a jersey and honor legendary Wildcats coach Dick Motta.
Weber State basketball will hang a jersey in the rafters at the Dee Events Center in honor of Dick Motta on Saturday, March 5 in their game against Southern Utah.
They will hang a jersey with the number 164 into the rafters, representing the number of wins Motta had as the head coach of Weber State. He will be the first coach in Weber State history to have a jersey retired.
“It is an honor to celebrate coach Motta’s coaching career at Weber State,” said WSU Director of Athletics Tim Crompton. “He coached at every level possible from junior high, high school, junior college, NAIA, Division I, and the NBA. He attributes much of his success at the professional level to his time here at Weber State. Coach Motta left a unique mark on the Weber State men’s basketball program and Wildcat athletics as a whole.”
Wildcat Athletics and @WeberStateMBB are thrilled to honor legendary Weber State and longtime #NBA coach Dick Motta!
Motta will be honored at the March 5 home game, the first coach to have a jersey retired at Weber State.
📰 https://t.co/fpoFOOM7pD#WeAreWeber #BigSkyMBB pic.twitter.com/kkdGNjbOSp
— Weber State Athletics (@weberstate) February 14, 2022
Dick Motta’s Legendary Career
Motta coached the Wildcats from 1960-68, bringing Weber State from the Junior College ranks into Division I, as the program made the jump in 1961. In eight full seasons as the head coach, Motta finished with a record of 164-50, winning .766 of his games coached.
Motta is from Utah and graduated from Utah State before he started his coaching career at Grace High School in Idaho, leading his team to a state championship.
At Weber State, Motta was named Big Sky Coach of the Year in 1965 and currently ranks third in Big Sky history in overall and conference winning percentage. He coached longtime Jazz assistant coach Phil Johnson when he was at Weber State and later hired him as an assistant for the Wildcats program.
Motta left Weber State in 1968 to coach in the NBA, becoming the head coach of the Chicago Bulls. That led to a 25-year career in the league and won an NBA title in the process. In 1976, Motta led the Washington Bullets to an NBA Championship. Motta spent four years with Washington before becoming the first head coach of expansion Dallas Mavericks. After seven seasons with the Mavs, Motta coached the Sacramento Kings for three seasons.
Then he returned to Dallas for two more years before finishing his career with the Denver Nuggets, where he spent two seasons.
