FARGO - There are not many people out there who have influenced as many coaches and teachers in North and South Dakota as Al Bortke-including Tim Miles, the current men's basketball coach at the University of Nebraska. "I was fortunate to have not only played for Al, but to have coached with him as well," Miles said on his cell phone Monday afternoon, with the sounds of squeaky basketball shoes in the background from a Huskers preseason workout in Lincoln. It was one day after Miles learned that Bortke-the man who pretty much built the athletic department at the University of Mary in Bismarck-passed away at the age of 78. He was also the man who got Miles his start in coaching.
The story goes like this: Bortke called Miles into his office prior to his senior season for the Mary men's basketball season. Bortke asked Miles if he wanted to continue as a player-one who wouldn't see much playing time-or become a student coach. Miles chose the latter and the rest is history. Miles eventually coached a Mayville State, Southwest Minnesota State, North Dakota State, Colorado State and now Nebraska. And even though he has climbed the ladder higher than most of Bortke's students or players, Miles will never forget the man who gave him his start. "A lot of things we're all new to me when I decided to start coaching," Miles recalled. "It was a real eye opener for me. You learned from Al the importance of discipline, fundamentals and how to game plan. Getting that opportunity is still very meaningful to me. Fred Fridley, a former North Dakota State basketball standout, feels the same way. It was Bortke who hired Fridley as Mary's women's basketball coach in 2003. "Al took a chance on a 20-year-old something who had no college coaching experience," Fridley said. "You owe a guy like that a lot." A lot of high school coaches and teachers are echoing the same sentiments. Bortke, a native of Hettinger, N.D., was hired as Mary's athletic director in 1973 when the one-time all-female college had only one men's sport-basketball, which he coached. For the next 35 years, he expanded Mary's athletic program to 19 sports. He oversaw the transition from competing at the NAIA level to NCAA Division II. Today, the basketball court is named after Bortke. "But when you think about it, the track could have his name on it, the softball field and the football field could have his name on it ... everything could have his name on it," Fridley said. "Al is probably one of the only individuals who went to a school and started every sport." Fridley fondly recalls Bortke's calming influence after a loss-especially after his 2004 women's basketball team suffered a four-point heartbreak in an NAIA national tournament semifinal game in Sioux City, Iowa. "Like always, Al was the first one to give me a handshake after the game," Fridley said. "He always said 'You won't put this loss behind you but you have to get it across to your players that they have to put it behind them.' It was his guidance in the more difficult situations that I remember more." And Miles will never forget the time when he called a timeout during one of Bortke's basketball games. The problem was, Miles was a student-coach. Bortke was the head coach. "Damn it, did you just call timeout?" Bortke asked Miles ... so the story goes. "All right, you called timeout, you coach." Miles coached the team in the timeout before Bortke took over after the huddle broke. "Tim must have saw something we weren't doing and got so wrapped up in the game he called timeout," Bortke was quoted as saying. "He didn't do a bad job in the timeout, though." Bortke must have saw something in Miles-just like the countless others who went on to become coaches and teachers.
