PORT ANGELES — Bob Klock starts from the top when talking about how he ended up coaching at Port Angeles High School.
“Well, I grew up with a guy named Jack Elway . . .” Klock said last week in a phone interview from his home in Bullhead City, Ariz.
Klock was a sophomore offensive guard when Elway was a senior quarterback at Hoquiam High School.
“He was an incredible quarterback,” Klock said of Elway. “He could really throw.”
Elway graduated and moved on to Washington State University, where he played for one year before a knee injury ended his playing career.
Hoquiam’s coach, Jack Swarthout, who also was the school’s basketball coach, moved Klock to quarterback.
“That worked out fine for me,” Klock said.
“He told me he moved me there because I could pay basketball and I could handle the ball.
“I ended up playing in the all-state game.”
Klock also ended up at Washington State, but on a basketball scholarship.
There, he joined a fraternity and lived with Elway.
Klock earned a degree and then volunteered for a two-year stint in the army. He said volunteered rather than wait to be drafted because he wanted to return in time to find a coaching job.
His college coach, Jack Friel, helped him get a head coaching job in Marysville.
Elway, meanwhile, graduated from Washington State and became the football and basketball coach at Port Angeles High School.
After two years in Marysville, Elway asked Klock to move to Port Angeles to be the assistant basketball and football coach.
“My friend Jack asked me to come over to Port Angeles,” Klock said. “We had always wanted to work together.”
Elway would stay in Port Angeles for two more years before moving on to coach football at Grays Harbor College in Aberdeen.
He then served as an assistant at the University of Montana (under his high school coach, Jack Swarthout) and Washington State before becoming a head coach at Cal State Northridge, San Jose State and Stanford.
But his biggest contribution to the football universe happened the year before he left Port Angeles: His son John and twin sister Jana were born at Olympic Medical Center on June 28, 1960.
John Elway, of course, went on become one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history and led the Denver Broncos to a pair of Super Bowl wins in the late 1990s.
Port Angeles High School was a steppingstone for Jack Elway. But for Klock, it was where he would leave his legacy.
“I would say that he’s the godfather of Port Angeles basketball,” Lee Sinnes said Monday.
Sinnes was a member of Klock’s 1966 Roughriders squad that placed second in the state tournament, the highest ever finish by a Port Angeles boys basketball team.
Klock will return to Port Angeles this week as that team will be honored Saturday night at the Port Angeles High School all-class reunion party at Vern Burton Community Center.
When Elway left, Klock was elevated to head coach of the boys basketball team.
The Riders went 3-17.
“There were some unhappy people in town,” Klock said. “But we weathered the storm and all of that.”
That 3-17 record was enough to earn some bragging rights with Elway, who was the best man at Klock’s wedding.
“I used to always rib Jack Elway. When he came in there, his first year he went 2-16,” Klock said.
“I told him that’s because I’m better.”
It didn’t take long for Klock and the Riders to turn things around.
Port Angeles reached the state tournament in 1965, 1966, 1968 and 1984. The 1972 team was ranked No. 3 in the state.
Klock credits the players for the success of his teams, but his players say he also had a lot to do it.
“He was just a master of being able to manipulate whatever needed to be done in terms of talent that we had,” Sinnes said.
This was especially true in 1965.
The Riders began season as one of the highest-scoring teams in the state. Sinnes, a junior that year, said they were putting up about 70 points per game.
Then their two leading scorers, both seniors, were lost to injuries.
“We went from one of the leading scoring teams in the state to a team that was underclassman,” Sinnes said.
“So he changed our style because he knew we could not win playing that way. We went to total slow-down type of game.
“We ended up going into the state tournament averaging 32, 33 points per game.”
The next year, the Riders returned to their fast-paced ways and made it to the state championship game.
“A good coach like Coach Klock will adjust his strategies according to the type of players he has,” said Mike Clayton, who was a junior on the 1965 team and the leading scorer on the 1966 team.
“We did have good players, but without a good coach to put it all together and create a fun atmosphere . . . we couldn’t have been as good without him.”
Klock was a demanding coach, but also one who was fun to play for.
“The biggest thing for me was the fact that I just enjoyed going to practice every day,” Clayton said.
“I could hardly wait for the end of the day so I could go to the gym, and when I got to the gym, I could hardly wait to get my shoes on to get out to practice.
“That’s a compliment to him because a coach wants to create an atmosphere where everyone wants to be there.”
Many of Klock’s players went on to play college basketball, including Sinnes, who played at Pacific Lutheran and is in the Lutes’ Hall of Fame, and Clayton, who for a time held the career scoring record at Western Washington.
Bernie Fryer, who was a sophomore in 1966 and who led the state in scoring as a senior in 1968, played at Peninsula College and Brigham Young University before becoming an NBA player and longtime referee.
Also, many players became coaches.
Dave Denny, Klock’s first star player at Port Angeles, was inducted into the Washington Interscholastic Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2006 following a coaching career that included stints at Montesano, Mark Morris, where he won three state titles, and Auburn.
Sinnes replaced Klock at Port Angeles in 1976 when Klock became the district athletic director.
Klock took over the program again from 1983-85, and Sinnes took it over again from 1991 to 2004.
Sinnes was inducted into the WIBCA Hall of Fame in 2012.
Klock’s so-called coaching tree continues to grow.
“He molded my life to become a high school coach and a teacher,” Sinnes said.
“And my son is a recipient of that, and I’ve had a number of players that went on to become coaches.”
Sinnes’ son, Matt, is the head coach of the girls basketball team at Fife High School.
The 1966 boys basketball team will be honored a 7:30 p.m. Saturday night along with the 1989 girls team that placed fifth at the state tournament.
Earlier that day will be an all-class basketball tournament held at Port Angeles High School in conjunction with the annual Olympic Medial Center Foundation Festival of Trees.
Any classes or combination of classes can enter the tournament. Players must be graduates of Port Angeles High School, but do not need to be letter winners.
Those interested in participating should phone the foundation office at 360-417-7144.
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Sports Editor Lee Horton can be reached at 360-417-3525 or at lhorton@peninsuladailynews.com.
