Stan Washington, who grew up in Washington D.C. in the turbulent late 1960s, chose to play basketball at the University of San Diego because it was too far away to easily dash back home.
“Most of the guys in the DC area like myself, if they went to school on the East Coast they would always come back home and never go back to school,” Washington explained. “I said, I’m going to go as far away as I can — I know my mother can’t bring me back home.”
Here’s the thing: It took just one look at San Diego for Washington to know he’d never want to leave.
“When I first got off the plane — this is one of my career jokes — I thought I was in Hawaii Five-O,” he said. “I had never seen a palm tree. I had never seen really green, green grass. Just a lot of concrete. I stepped out of the airport and my mouth dropped open. I said, `Where am I?’ It’s a big difference coming from the inner city and the riots. It really worked out for me that I went out west.”
Yes, it did. Washington completed his career after the 1973-74 season as USD’s career scoring leader, and his name continues to find its place throughout the Toreros’ record book.
The first person from his extended family to ever attend college, Washington graduated in four years with a degree in sociology that he put to use in a rewarding three-decade career in social services. Even today, at age 72, Washington is a reservist on call with FEMA in the event of a hurricane or tornado.
“I had two gifts,” Washington said. “I had an athletic gift that God gave me and a gift to help people — that was my true blessing when the ball was put down. I could move on and still be successful in something I never dreamed I’d do.”
In appreciation for how he conducted himself on and off the basketball court, Washington has been chosen as San Diego’s 2024 entry into the West Coast Conference Hall of Honor.
“I was really surprised and taken aback and grateful,” said Washington, who along with honorees from the Conference’s eight other schools will be celebrated on March 9 at the Credit Union 1 WCC Basketball Championship in Las Vegas.
The sunny reception Washington got when he first arrived in San Diego had one more surprise. Bernie Bickerstaff, just 26 years old, greeted him at the airport. “He picked me up in a blue VW,” Washington recalled. “I thought he was one of the players. He was so young himself. It was crazy.”
They stopped to visit Curtis Perry and Bernie Williams, a couple of D.C. guys that Washington knew who were playing at the time for the NBA’s San Diego Rockets. It wasn’t until then that Washington sorted out who was who. “Stan, this is the coach,” one of them told him.
Bickerstaff, who also played at USD and was the school’s inaugural Hall of Honor selection in 2009, went on to a lengthy career as a coach and executive in the NBA. Now 80, he works as a senior advisor for the Cleveland Cavaliers. But even in 1970, when he brought Washington to the campus, Bickerstaff knew talent.
He recruited Washington, an all-city selection in D.C., out of Springarn High School, the alma mater of Hall of Famers Elgin Baylor and Dave Bing along with future USF star Ollie Johnson.
“He was really one of the best all-around players who played at the University of San Diego,” Bickerstaff said. “He may not have been, in my opinion, the greatest athlete, but he could probe and get to where he wanted to go and get done what he wanted to get done. He knew how to play.”
The Toreros were a Division II program at the time, but Washington had scholarship offers from several Division I teams. Those included Niagara and St. Bonaventure, which featured All-Americans and future Naismith Hall of Famers Calvin Murphy and Bob Lanier as seniors the year before Washington entered college.
Jim Brovelli took over as head coach at USD when Bickerstaff left for the NBA before Washington’s senior season of 1973-74. He said Washington could have played almost anywhere.
“Stan was a premier player, an NBA talent. A 6-4 point guard who could handle it, shoot it, defend, score, make great decisions with the ball,” said Brovelli, a 2015 Hall of Honor inductee as a former player and coach at USF. “Not only could he have played Division I, but he would have been an all-league player.
“He was so easy to coach and such a great player. He did everything you asked him to do and more. He was quite a guy.”
Washington had plenty of chances to face Division I opponents during his three seasons as a varsity player, and the Toreros advanced to the NCAA Division II playoffs his final two seasons. A DII All-America pick three times, he put up impressive numbers that fueled his teams.
His single-game mark of 14 assists remains the program record a half-century later, and his career total of 451 assists survived as the standard until 1996. Washington led the team in scoring as a sophomore (18.1 points) and a senior (19.2). His career average of 18.2 points per game remains the USD mark `.
“I basically handled the ball. I’m a jump shooter but I loved to pass — that was my forte,” Washington said. “The team chemistry was just awesome, along with the coaches. We all just meshed.”
Before freshmen were eligible to play and without the benefit of the 3-point basket, Washington scored 1,472 points in three seasons. That total now ranks fifth on San Diego’s career scoring list, but if those above him got credit for just three seasons and no 3-pointers, Washington would still be No. 1.
Bickerstaff was an assistant with the Baltimore Bullets when the franchise chose Washington in the fourth round of the 1974 NBA draft. That class was elite, topped by No. 1 pick Bill Walton, but also including George Gervin, Bobby Jones, Jamaal Wilkes, Len Elmore and Maurice Lucas, among others.
Washington joined a team that advanced to the NBA Finals in ’75, with veterans Wes Unseld, Elvin Hayes, Mike Riordan and Kevin Porter in the lineup. During two-a-days, Washington was often matched against three-time all-star Phil Chenier.
“You compete and compete and then there’s a point where you know you belong,” Washington said. “I remember the time Phil and I were going at it in practice and he turned his head once and looked. From that moment on, I was on par. He knew: This guy can play. That’s all you wanted, to get in there and prove yourself.”
When he took the court on Oct. 19, 1974, against Pete Maravich and the New Orleans Jazz, Washington became the first player from USD to appear in an NBA game. He was scoreless in four minutes, and four days later he was released, ending a career that never really got started.
Washington understood his fate — Unseld had warned him that everyone else on the roster was protected by his contract. “There were 12 on the team and there was 11 no-cuts,” Washington said. “I didn’t have one.”
“It had nothing to do with his basketball abilities,” Bickerstaff confirmed. “A lot of times it’s about numbers."
Washington has spent the past seven years living in Carolina, Puerto Rico — the hometown of baseball legend Roberto Clemente. The father of two with four grandchildren, he returns to the States on a regular basis, and whenever FEMA requests his help.
He has never second-guessed his decision to attend San Diego. The experience was better than he imagined it would be, helped him grow up and allowed him to fulfill both his athletic and academic ambitions.
His career choice in social service remains a source of great satisfaction. “You meet people in a disaster who have lost everything. You provide some hope,” Washington said. “I know my purpose today. My purpose is providing assistance to those who are in need. I am spiritually connected now.
“The best thing I can say is I have no regrets. Life has been great for me.”