BELLINGHAM, Wash. – The Western Washington University men’s and women’s basketball programs continue the tradition of hosting tournaments in Bellingham over the holiday weekend, with the 20th annual Lynda Goodrich Classic and the 15th annual Chuck Randall Classic being played Friday and Saturday on WECU Court at Carver Gym on the WWU campus.
There will be a special Black Friday ticket special for the tournament games this weekend, with general admission tickets for WWU games on Friday and Saturday featured at half-price for $5.
The 2017-18 season marks the return to the WWU campus and Carver Gym, with the last two seasons played at Whatcom Community College due to the renovation of Carver. The women’s games this weekend mark the first official home games of the season, while the men’s program has already played three games on campus.
The women’s program will play in the 20th annual Lynda Goodrich Classic with the Vikings (2-2) hosting Valdosta State (2-1), Academy of Art (0-3) and Saint Martin’s (2-2) to Bellingham. The Vikings open tournament play with Valdosta at 5 pm on Friday, and then take on Academy of Art on Saturday in the 7:30 pm slot.
The tournament is named in honor of Lynda Goodrich, one of the legendary figures in the history of WWU Athletics. Goodrich served 26 years as director of athletics during which the Vikings won nine national championships. Prior to that, Goodrich coached women’s basketball at WWU for 19 seasons and won 411 games.
“Lynda has done so much for Western, the community around us and women’s athletics in general,” said head coach Carmen Dolfo. “She fought the battle and made a lot of what we have today possible. I can’t think of anyone better to honor than Lynda and we look forward to having her out to support the teams this weekend.”
The men’s program will be hosting the 15th Chuck Randall Classic with the Vikings (2-1) entertaining West Region rival UC San Diego (1-3), Alaska Fairbanks (1-2) and Capilano (1-3) in the two-day tournament. WWU will face UCSD on Friday in the 7:30 pm slot and Capilano at 5 pm on Saturday.
The tournament is named after the legendary former WWU coach and basketball pioneer Chuck Randall, who passed away last year at the age of 89. Randall, who coached the Vikings for 18 seasons from 1963 to 1981 and posted a record of 275-186, was named the WWU men’s Coach of the Century for 1900 to 1999. He received hall of fame honors from Central Valley High School, National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, Western and Eastern Washington University.
“Chuck Randall is a pioneer in basketball, not only at Western, but on the national level,” said head coachTony Dominguez. “He was always very gracious to me and our program. Honoring Chuck and his legacy each year reminds us how special this program is and how many people have contributed to all the success of WWU men’s basketball.”
Every game during the tournament will be streamed live in high definition online via VikingsTV atWWUVikings.com/Live. Longtime Whatcom County sports personality Doug Lange will call the action for the WWU games, featuring a pregame show, halftime interview and postgame show. The new webcast setup for Carver Gym features a state-of-the-art seven-camera HD broadcast that is available free online and is also available on streaming devices like Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire and Android TV by searching for the GNAC channel.
The tournament schedules for both the Chuck Randall Classic and Lynda Goodrich Classic are listed below.