Hall of Fame
Rundell, who died in 2005 at the age of 79, was regarded as a master of thorough preparation, precise practice sessions and creative in-game adjustments, a teacher/coach to his core.
Blessed with commendable people skills, he was San Francisco State’s head men's basketball coach for 10 seasons; he left the Gators’ bench with an overall 120-135 record (four league championships), and became the school’s athletic director for another eight years. Later in his career, he was an assistant coach at Stanford.
A native of Ohio, he played and coached at San Diego State and was a member of the 1955 team that represented the United States in the Pan American Games. Midway in his tenure at SF State, Rundell took a two-year leave of absence to work at the University of Kabul in Afghanistan, administering its physical education/athletics program.
Though often under-manned, his teams were frequently competitive in spite of facing much bigger and better-funded programs. He purposely scheduled strong non-conference foes to ready his Gators for the rigors of the Far Western Conference.
A man of keen intelligence and droll wit, combined with a passion for his sport, “Rundy” (or the “Red Rooster”) was known for his fiery presence on the Gators’ sideline.
The 1968-69 Gators were one of Rundell’s most efficient groups, using crisp ball handling skills, selfless passing, and constant off-ball movement to key their success.
Ron Beall, who played for Rundell, said, “He was the best coach I ever played for. He was highly organized; everything was scripted.”
Girard Chatman, one of Rundell’s two outstanding inside operatives, explained that the coach, in order to make the Gators’ passing game more efficient, had his players practice passing with semi-deflated basketballs at times so that dribbling was out of the question.
In their 14 Far Western Conference games in 1968-69, SF State led the league in defense (63 points per game) and, on offense, connected on 51 percent of their field goal attempts and 71 percent of their free throws. They made the most of what they had.
As a pair of crafty 6-6 forward/centers, Rundell’s two stars, Chatman and Joe Callaghan, combined to score 44 points per game, roughly 60 percent of the team’s FWC output.
They were FWC co-Players of the Year and both received College Division All-America honors. They also were 1969 NBA late-round draft selections of the Warriors. Neither played professionally, although Callaghan did try out with the ABA Indiana Pacers.
Rundell was rarely at a loss for words. As tumult and violence continued to rock the campus prior to the start of the 1968-69 season, the wry coach’s gift of understatement came to the fore during an interview.
Asked by a sportswriter how Rundell thought the 1968-69 campaign might go, the coach responded: “We’ve had one or two problems at our place in the last few weeks but we’ll have a pretty good team if we can keep them [the players] together.”
It turned out he was more prescient than he could have imagined.
