By MARK MOSCHETTI
Seattle Pacific Sports Information
 
AUBURN, Wash. – If Keith Swagerty hadn't known any better, he might have thought he was in trouble with his wife when he gave her the news.
 
But he had a hunch that he wasn't really in trouble with her … well, at least not too much.
 
The former Seattle Pacific men's basketball coach had just gotten himself headlong into a new sport. In this one, the stars run around a dirt oval on four legs instead of up and down the hardwood on two.

 

"One of my buddies at the brokerage I was working at in Southern California was into horses, and I used to go to the races with him at Santa Anita," Swagerty said. "They went to an auction and bought an extra horse. So I bought that, and that was my first horse."
 
Jan, with whom he celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last year, found out about it when she and their son Matt returned from a cruise.
 
"I met her at the airport with a cowboy hat on and an owner's badge around my neck," he said, smiling widely as he told the story. "She says, 'What have you done? What happened?'
 
"I said, 'I went and bought me a horse.' "
 
That was one horse … in 1997. Since then, Swagerty has bred and owned many others – and so many good ones – that the Emerald Downs record for most wins by an owner in one season belongs to him. He is still one of the leading owners at the 22-year-old Auburn facility, located about 30 miles southeast of the SPU campus.
 
"The first one got me into the business," said Swagerty, 71 and still towering over most everyone with his 6-foot-7 frame. "After meeting him, I bought a horse from a client who was getting out of the business. So I got to learn about the horses and their temperament – and how smart they are."
 
AN EARLY BOND WITH HORSES
Ask most anyone in the thoroughbred game, and they'll say how much they love to watch the races. Keith Swagerty is no different.
 
But he'll tell you that his some of his favorite races are those that nobody sees – except he and Jan – near the 22-acre farm that he owns a bit farther south of the track.
 
"The fun thing for my wife and I is when we separate the babies from the mares, the babies come to my property about a mile down the road," Swagerty said. "Out in my back yard, I have five or six acres, and they just run around like crazy for a year.
 
"I let them be kids," he added. "People say, 'I can't believe you make horses race.' I tell them if they ever come to my back yard when the sun goes down, they race every day for a long time. They carve out their own course, and it's kind of fun to watch. They're showing off, too. The girls race each other and the boys watch them, then the boys race."
 
 

Swagerty grew up watching races in Northern California. But what strengthened his bond with horses didn't necessarily happen at a track. Instead, it was an experience he had at a Young Life camp in Colorado during his high school years.
 
"I was on the work crew, and they have a huge horse program. I would take kids out riding three times a day," he said. "Then the weirdest thing happened: They had five wranglers to take care of the whole place, and day by day, each one of them got bronchitis. They were incapacitated, and had to leave.
 
"I was the last man standing. So for the next 2½ or three weeks, I saddled all the horses up, took the kids on horseback rides three times a day, then unsaddled them. I did everything except shoeing."
 
BATTLING BASKETBALL'S BEST BIG MEN
The native of San Jose did some of everything on the basketball court, as well, especially scoring and rebounding. As a star at University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif., Swagerty led the Tigers to a pair of West Coast Athletic Conference titles (1966 and 1967) and two NCAA Tournament appearances.
 

He finished as Pacific's all-time leader in both categories (1,659 points; 1,505 rebounds), and his No. 32 has been retired by the school.
 
In the 1966 NCAAs, Swagerty had 42 points and 42 rebounds in two games. The second of those was a 102-91 loss to Houston, which featured future NBA star Elvin Hayes.
 
"I outjumped Hayes for the tip-off of both halves," Swagerty recalled. "I don't recall ever losing a jump ball. It wasn't like I was this monster leaper, but I could go above the white line."
 
A year later, he helped Pacific upset defending national champion Texas Western, 72-63, before an 80-64 loss to Lew Alcindor and UCLA.

Prior to the Bruins game, Swagerty was told by coach Dick Edwards, 'Don't get Alcindor riled. He's the finest player who ever played.'

Midway through the second half, with the Tigers trailing by 10, Swagerty decided he wasn't waiting any longer.
 
"I made my move, busted right up for him, and he stuck his chin in the way of my elbow," he recalled. "He got the foul, and I got the basket. He picked up three more fouls in the next couple minutes."
 
As a sophomore in 1965, Swagerty grabbed 39 rebounds in a game against Santa Barbara. While that wasn't an NCAA single-game record (Bill Chambers of William & Mary had 51 in 1953), no one has matched Swagerty's performance since then. Coming the closest was Fresno State's Larry Abney, who had 35 in 2000 against Southern Methodist.
 
BECOMING A FALCON
 

After playing professionally for three years, Swagerty came to Seattle Pacific in 1970 as assistant to Les Habegger. He moved up to interim head coach in 1974 when Habegger went on sabbatical, figuring he would have that position for one year until the legendary coach returned.

But that interim job became permanent, and Swagerty stayed for another five seasons. His overall record was 87-75, and his 1976-77 team went 20-9 and finished third in the NCAA Division II West Regionals.

 
 

"We were doing well, and we figured we had to win two of our last three to get into the tournament," Swagerty said. "We were playing two Division I schools and Saint Martin's.

The Saint Martin's game was first, and the Falcons lost. "We came back and I had practice after the game, and I just wore them down physically and mentally – I wanted to get them mad at me instead of at themselves.
 
"We went on to beat Idaho and Montana and did go to regionals."
 
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS TO RECORD-BREAKING
When his coaching days ended in 1980, Swagerty started teaching a financial planning class at Seattle Pacific, and then got into that business himself.
 
But he never lost his love for the horses.
 
"We kept coming out and watching and thinking it would be fun," he said of possibly getting into the sport. "It was a fascinating situation. If you have the money and want to do it, how do you do it?"
 
In Swagerty's case, it was basic as buying that first horse. Then buying another. And then linking up with top-caliber trainer Vann Belvoir, to whom he was introduced during the seventh-inning stretch of a Seattle Mariners game.
 
 

"A fellow who sat in front of me had horses here, and when he heard I had bought a horse in California, he said, 'You have to have one here.' I told him I didn't know any trainers here, then he said, 'I'll find you the right person.' It was Vann.
 
Belvoir's impressive credentials notwithstanding, Swagerty knew he was "the right person" because "he loved country music, the Mariners, and horses."
 
That duo was largely responsible for 27 wins by Swagerty horses at Emerald Downs in 2009, still the single-season record for an owner.
 
They also were behind the success of four-time stakes winner No Flies on Doodle.
 
"Vann was at the track one day getting to know all my horses, and No Flies on Doodle went by," Swagerty said. "Vann asked me what his name was. I told him, and he looked at me and said, 'Are you kidding? That's absolutely the worst name for a horse that I've ever heard.'
 
"But it goes on to win these stakes races and was his first trained stakes winner."
 
Since then, Swagerty has enjoyed success with other horses (Mike Man's Gold also won four stakes) and another primary trainer (David Martinez was chosen after Belvoir moved to Southern California in 2011; Belvoir and Swagerty still stay in touch).

 

Swagerty's stable isn't nearly as large now as it has been previously. He has 10 horses, with five currently competing.
 
"Eventually I'll slow down," he said. "My very good mare passed away two years ago, so I need to replace her with two good mares. If I can solidify those two, I'll have a chance to have a very competitive baby every year."
 
But don't look for "eventually" to come any time soon.
 
"It's just a fun hobby," Swagerty said. "It's competition, which I've always liked.
 
"And this is a fun way to do that."