Fresno State Athletics
The Tale of Tark's Towel
11/1/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 1, 2001
Fresno State coach Jerry Tarkanian has been chewing on towels during basketball games for a long time - long before his days at UNLV or Long Beach State.
In fact, Tarkanian's trademark towel dates back to 1960, when he was coaching at Redlands (Calif.) High School. It was during a league championship game vs. Ramona High School that Tark found himself thirsting for water. But instead of continually making his way to the drinking fountain located at one end of the court, Tark instead soaked a towel with water and chewed on it whenever he needed a drink. As the game moved into overtime, Tark found him going to his towel more and more.
"We won the game and the championship, and since I'm not one to change when something works, I've stuck with the towel ever since."
A standard 20"-by-40" towel is watered down to make it moist, then folded into sixteenths by a Bulldog manager. (There are actually two towels, only one of which is wet. The other is placed on the floor to keep the wet one from getting dirty).
