JACK TUZ

Richard Dunn

Once a high-flying 6-foot-6 swingman for Corona del Mar High’s Sea

Kings in the 1970s, Jack Tuz started for the program’s only three

head basketball coaches in three decades -- Tandy Gillis, Jack Errion

and Paul Orris.

Tuz, the Orange County and CIF Southern Section 3-A Co-Player of

the Year in 1977, opened his prep career playing for Orris on a

fabulous CdM freshmen team in 1973-74.

After a large growth spurt, Tuz cracked the varsity his junior

year and played for Gillis, who guided the Sea Kings to their famous

25-1 record in 1975-76, when they lost to Pasadena Muir in the first

round of the CIF 4-A Playoffs, 59-49, after entering the postseason

as the only unbeaten team in the section and seeded second in 4-A

behind Long Beach Poly.

“We were never in that (first-round playoff) game,” recalled Tuz,

who began the campaign as Gillis’ sixth man, then replaced an injured

Doug Garn in the starting lineup at midseason and never came out.

Aside from the late Alex Black, a first-team All-Orange County

choice as a 6-6 junior in ‘76, the rest of the Sea Kings were

“interchangeable” in a 10-man rotation, said Tuz, a first-team

All-Century League selection as a 6-4 junior that year, averaging

10.7 points per game.

Later, in the Watts Summer Games, the Sea Kings would face Muir

again in a first-round game, and, this time, they won. “Even though

it was summer, we wanted to win that real bad,” Tuz said.

Most of CdM’s returning basketball players were shocked when

Gillis announced he was leaving to accept the head coaching position

at Orange Coast College, but Errion, the longtime former Long Beach

St. Anthony coach, would set an even higher course for the Sea Kings.

The following year was a banner season for Tuz and the Sea Kings

as they captured the school’s first CIF basketball championship,

finishing 25-5 and defeating Ramona in overtime, 56-50, to win the

CIF 3-A title at Long Beach State.

Tuz, who sprouted two more inches before his senior year and

eventually reached 6-7 1/2 in college, averaged 17.6 ppg and formed

an unstoppable tandem with Black. The Sea Kings played in a new

league in ’77 and dropped down in CIF from 4-A to 3-A. Tuz and Black

shared South Coast League Player of the Year honors, as well as

Orange County Player of the Year honors by the Daily Pilot. Tuz was

the Orange County Player of the Year by the Los Angeles Times and

shared CIF 3-A Player of the Year laurels with Damien’s Bill Duffy.

While Tuz was a blue-chip recruit, he chose Colorado, because the

Buffaloes were the first to make contact with him and watched him

play in person more than 50% of the time his senior year. Tuz had met

with future UCLA Coach Larry Farmer and listed Kansas and USC among

the candidates, but decided the Buffaloes’ loyalty and dedication was

worth a signature.

“Had John Wooden still been at UCLA, I would have gone there,”

said Tuz, who first opened Colorado’s eyes during the Watts Summer

Games in 1976, when he made a steal, dribbled down the side and took

off in the air several feet from the basket, before slamming home a

two-handed dunk.

Tuz, however, suffered a series of left-ankle injuries and

underwent three surgeries. Still, in 1981, the San Diego Clippers

selected Tuz in the eighth round of the NBA draft (187th overall).

The Clippers didn’t have a summer team, so Tuz played for the

Atlanta Hawks and later that summer broke a finger on his right hand

diving for a ball. The Clippers never invited Tuz to rookie camp and

he said they never gave him a tryout. “I didn’t have an agent. Maybe

that was my biggest problem,” Tuz said.

Discouraged, Tuz returned to Boulder, Colo., then later he ran

into an old CdM teammate, Brent Fair, who was teaching in England and

suggested Tuz try out for one of the English club teams. Eventually,

Tuz hooked up with an Austrian club team and began a globe-trotting

basketball journey that includes playing mostly in New Zealand.

Tuz, the latest honoree in the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame, is

a school teacher by trade. He lived in New Zealand from 1984 to early

this year, when he returned to Newport Beach. He has three children:

Joshua, 11, Bradley, 9 and Nadia, 6.

The youngest of eight children, Tuz, 43, is starting a new chapter

in his life and pursuing coaching opportunities. Tuz said he’s

“coming from a whole different perspective” in the way basketball in

played in Europe and New Zealand, but that might be a good thing

considering the success of this year’s New Zealand team in the World

Championships, reaching the semifinals with players like Kirk Penney

and Pero Cameron, both of whom Tuz played with and against for many

years in New Zealand’s first division.