He accumulated 559 career victories, most of them at Maquoketa Valley
CEDAR RAPIDS — Tim Lambert couldn’t get through a short interview Friday afternoon without having to pause and weep. Make that weep a little more.
Gordon Rundquist meant that much to him. To so many.
“He was a huge part of a special group of people that made going to Maquoketa Valley so great,” the Monticello boys’ basketball coach said. “I have a huge hole in my heart today. I will miss him a great deal.”
Rundquist died Friday at age 81 after a short illness. An Iowa High School Athletic Association Basketball Hall of Fame member, his 559 career victories are 24th all time in the state.
Most of them came at Maquoketa Valley, where he led the school to five state tournaments. That included a runner-up finish in Class 2A in 1986.
“He taught us all about being winners in sports and life,” said Lambert, who played for Rundquist at Maquoketa Valley, growing up with Rundquist’s son, Paul, who is head coach at Iowa City Regina. “We have tried to take his blueprint of how to build a program and use it here at Monticello. He is the biggest role model you could ever have as a coach and equally influential as a person.”
Another one of Rundquist’s former Maquoketa Valley players is Eric Henderson, who is the successful head coach at South Dakota State University. He, too, was having difficulty processing Friday’s news.
“His ability to get the best out of people was unmatched,” Henderson said. “His influence on me can be seen in so many aspects of my life, and I am forever grateful for his influence on my life.”
Lambert said Rundquist was ahead of his time in taking community youths to offseason camps and things to help them improve. If a kid couldn’t afford it, he would pay.
Henderson fondly remembered the youth camps Rundquist would conduct at MV.
“Some of my favorite memories of my childhood were his basketball camps,” Henderson said. “He is the one who helped grow my love of the game.”
After retiring from teaching, Rundquist (a Marion High School and Coe College grad) and his wife, Sherri, moved to Iowa City, and he became a valued assistant for Steve Bergman at Iowa City West. At one point, Gordon and Paul both were on Bergman’s staff.
Paul Rundquist won a state championship at Mount Pleasant in 2012. Gordon, Bergman and West won four titles in 2010s.
“I had a former player text and say he was a hall of fame coach and a hall of fame person. I couldn’t say it better,” Bergman said. “The 15, 16 years we had together were great. We got along so well, and his strengths meshed so well with my weaknesses. He made every day we were in the gym more enjoyable and productive. Gordon just enjoyed working with a player individually on a weakness and took so much joy in seeing improvement. One of a kind.”
“One of the all-time best,” said former West all-stater Even Brauns in a post on X. He began his college career at Belmont before transferring to the University of Iowa. “I am so thankful for everything he poured into me when I was at West.”
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