Mike Montgomery to Be Honored During Saturday's Cal-Stanford Game

Former Cal and Stanford head coach Mike Montgomery will be honored during Saturday’s Cal-Stanford game at Maples Pavilion.

The 77-year-old Montgomery, who will be present Saturday, had his greatest success at Stanford, but he also coached six seasons at Cal, from 2008-09 to 2013-14, and he took Cal to the NCAA tournament four times in those six seasons.  Cal’s only regular-season conference title since 1960 came in 2010 when Montgomery led the Golden Bears to the Pac-10 championship with a 24-11 record, including 13-5 in the conference.

In Montgomery’s six years at Cal, the Golden Bears had the conference player of the year three times – Jerome Randle (2010), Jorge Gutierrez (2012) and Allen Crabbe (2013).

Cal head coach Mark Madsen played for Montgomery at Stanford from 1996-97 to 1999-2000, and he was a starter on the Cardinal’s 1998 team that reached the Final Four as well as the 1999-2000 Stanford squad that earned the first No. 1 ranking in school history.

Saturday will be the second time Madsen will appear at Maples Pavilion as Cal’s head coach.  Last year, Madsen’s Golden Bears lost at Stanford 80-58.  Earlier this season, Stanford beat Cal 89-81 in Berkeley.

“There’s always going to be some emotion in there,” Madsen said Monday on coaching at Stanford on Saturday as an opponent. “I was at Stanford for four years, just have some great friendships, from the players, teammates, coaches, faculty, other students, other athletes. So I have a lot of great memories there.”

Montgomery is Stanford’s all-time winningest head coach, going 393-167 over 18 seasons. He led Stanford to the NCAA tournament 12 times, and Montgomery’s Cardinal got to the Final Four in 1998.

His Stanford teams were ranked No. 1 in the country during three seasons – 1999-2000, 2000-02 and 2003-04, and the Cardinal finished the 2004 regular season ranked No. 1. Stanford finished ranked in the top 10 in five different seasons under Montgomery. 

Montgomery also was head coach of the Golden State Warriors for two season in between his tints at Stanford and Cal, but that did not go as well, as he finished with a 68-96 record.