One isn’t the loneliest number for Dick Katte.
The Denver Christian boys basketball coaching icon’s figures have been keeping themselves company for decades.
Besides, Katte knows one. His teams have won seven Colorado midrange championships, been ranked No. 1 and finished No. 1 in league play dozens of times and won over more than one generation of schoolboy basketballers.
He also needs one more time for his Crusaders to appear on the left side of a newspaper’s scorelist to record 800 victories in a remarkable career that shows zero sign of ending.
It’s just the way the 71-year-old likes it — another season coaching young people has been upbeat as playoff time nears, he’s teaching the game and the players are listening, and the attention is simply a byproduct.
Don’t be fooled. Katte has enjoyed every considerable mark he has matched or set.
But it doesn’t mean he can’t wait to tell you about it.
“Not much to-do has been made. The kids have been good about it,” Katte said.
There have been times, he allowed, “when one kid will say, ‘Now, it’s how many more?’ I just tell the one kid, ‘Don’t dwell on it.’ ”
Fortunately, kids don’t always do what they’re told.
The dwelling is in full swing.
On Friday night, at the corner of Pearl and Evans in South Denver, Katte’s kids will host Class 3A top-ranked Faith Christian for the Metropolitan lead, and even he can’t deny how it has evolved.
“The kids know it’s against Faith Christian and have a chance to make it memorable,” he said.
Memories? Katte has volumes. His credentials alone make him a walking encyclopedia of Colorado basketball, a story for Rocky Mountain ages that has never gotten old and should be told to every present and future coach.
Refer to some of his CliffsNotes:
He began his first of four seasons as an assistant in the 1960-61 season, or before The Beatles debuted on Ed Sullivan’s show.
He has coached long enough to see crew cuts as well as Chuck Taylors come and go and come back again.
The number of U.S. presidents in office (10) during his tenure nearly supersedes how many players Katte has dressed for a varsity game (11-12).
He nearly won 800 games before he coached in 1,000 (he has 202 losses).
The man with a career winning percentage of .798 once was at .500. Katte won his first game as head coach in 1964, then dropped his second.
Since he has been heading to games, the price of a gallon of gasoline went from less than a quarter to $3.
He first coached basketball when folks could purchase Corvairs and Studebakers . . . new off a showroom floor.
He has coached for more years than most of today’s coaches are old.
Five years ago, when Katte had a chance to go for his 700th win, host Bishop Machebeuf gladly switched with the Crusaders, who promptly came through at the Dick Katte Athletic Center.
I witnessed one of his rare technical fouls. There was a Crusaders roster mistake in the official scorebook. Afterward, the referee told me he “felt terrible about T-ing up Coach Katte.” When was the last time you read that?
Katte had hundreds of victories back when Highlands Ranch was, well, a ranch.
He was calling plays when no one thought to question the “recruiting advantages” of parochial schools.
Love of the game or the glory it brings? Katte hasn’t had a Division I player in 26 seasons.
And he’s proof change isn’t always exciting or necessary.
His players head to small Christian schools most of you have never heard of, frequently in the middle of nowhere.
His guys have less tattoos, attitude and individual play than character, sportsmanship and teamwork. He won’t tolerate anything else.
For him, packing his school’s quaint gym is as good or better than selling out the city’s Thunderdome or the old Auditorium and McNichols Sports arenas.
He has talked basketball with the likes of every local figure of consequence for nearly a half-century, including Rudy Carey, Guy Gibbs and Kelly Meek.
And he hopes the talk of 800 ends soon.
“In a perfect world, we can get it done before (the playoffs), then we can move on,” said Katte, whose Crusaders (12-5 overall) will complete their regular season Tuesday against Peak to Peak.
Neil H. Devlin: 303-954-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com
