Where are they now: John Tuft

John Tuft and Tippy Dye had harsh words and then didn't speak for more than four decades.

Yet last month, there they were, the former Washington basketball player and his Huskies coach, sitting side by side at a reunion at Edmundson Pavilion, chatting amicably, catching up on each other's lives.

In 1958, Tuft was a senior guard faced with stopping a 3-on-2 Stanford fast break. He anticipated a lay-in and backpedaled, only to have the guy with the ball pull up and hit a long jumper.

Dye got on him about his defense. Every time Tuft passed the bench, the coach was in his ear. A timeout was called, and Dye grabbed him and demanded to know why he had let the Stanford player score.

"They had a 3 on 2," Tuft replied.

"No they didn't," Dye argued.

"Yes they did," Tuft shot back, knowing he was walking a fine line.

"Go sit on the bench," Dye ordered.

Teammate Bill Stady later approached Tuft and asked why he was no longer playing. Dye pushed them apart. Tuft now was told to take a seat at the far end of the bench.

"I said, 'I'll go in and take a shower,' " he said. "I never came back."

Eight games before his UW basketball career was supposed to end, Tuft pulled the plug himself in a 69-58 victory at Edmundson Pavilion. Dye didn't try to stop him.

Three years of increasing frustration -- as a guard in a center-oriented offense, as a scorer often muffled, as a part-time starter with an ever-changing role -- had boiled over.

Tuft had been a big-time recruit out of Ballard High School, someone who preferred to fire up a long jumper and throw a behind-the-back pass. Dye told him to feed the post and use a two-hand chest pass.

Tuft hit five consecutive shots against Oregon and was rewarded with a seat on the bench. He personally erased a six-point deficit to Oregon State and was yanked once more. He shot too much for his coach's taste. Dye wanted patterned post play; Tuft wanted to be more involved in the stationary offense.

"I'll never figure out until the day I die why Tippy Dye gave me a scholarship," Tuft said. "I knew what would happen exactly if I said anything to him, but I was tired of it.

"The California schools always knew what we were doing and they would jump out at you, harass the hell out of you, because they knew we weren't going to drive.

"It was very exasperating to play for Tippy Dye."

Tuft came to the UW after starting for five years on three different high school teams. The son of a lumber company employee, he played on the Skykomish varsity as an eighth-grader and ninth-grader, moved to Oregon and led a 27-1 Mapleton team, and spent his junior and senior seasons as an all-city player for Ballard. He was a basketball junkie.

"I'd play an hour in the morning, an hour at lunch and three hours in the afternoon," he said. "I did that every day from first grade to my senior year in college. I used to shoot baskets for hours because I could do it by myself."

If it's not obvious already, Tuft is a black-and-white guy with an obsessive nature. His basketball career ended after two years of AAU ball, and he threw himself into golf.

He went from beginner to one of the region's top amateur players, a scratch golfer, by hitting 300 to 500 shots per day for four decades. He joined Seattle Golf Club. He won 125 tournaments. He played in the U.S. Amateur Public Links 10 times, twice in the U.S. Amateur, won the Seattle Amateur three times. He often competed locally against future PGA Tour players Fred Couples and Bill Sander, and thought Sander was the better player. Most amazing, he collected 11 holes-in-one.

Tuft, 73, sold heating oil when he wasn't on the golf course. He's been married 37 years to his second wife, Nancy, and raised three children, Greg, 51, Susie, 48, and Brian, 45, from his first marriage.

In 2000, Tuft quit golf much like he did basketball, walking away and not looking back. His eyes bothered him, young kids were beating him and his handicap had risen to a 3.

The north Seattle resident now is consumed with oil painting. He finished 400 his first year. He often painted from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., but has since cut back to a 9-to-2 schedule. Much like shooting baskets and practicing golf, he enjoys the solitude.

As for Tippy Dye, Tuft was asked to attend a reunion honoring his old coach about 10 years ago and has been attending them ever since. He thought that first invitation was a bit odd, considering his abrupt departure, and mentioned it to a UW teammate organizing the get-together.

"He said, 'Let me check on that,' " Tuft said. "He came back and said, 'Tippy doesn't remember kicking you off the team.' "