June 18, 2008

MSUB Names George Pfeifer New Head Men’s Basketball Coach

BILLINGS, Mont. – Montana State Billings Director of Athletics, Dr. Gary Gray, announced Wednesday that former University of Idaho head men’s basketball coach, George Pfeifer, has been hired as the new head men’s basketball coach.

“I am extremely pleased that Coach Pfeifer has accepted our offer to become our new men’s basketball coach,” Gray said. “George brings a wealth of basketball experience and success to MSUB, particularly from his many years as head coach in a very talented NAIA program at LCSC. In fact, LCSC was a provisional NCAA Division II member for a few of those years so he is no stranger to Division II. In addition, he has recruited against and competed well against some of the most successful Division II programs in the West Region. George also has a strong record of fund raising in the Lewiston community, and he built a model camp structure at LCSC over his many years there. We welcome Coach Pfeifer as the newest member of the Yellowjackets.” 

Pfeifer comes to MSUB after three years at the University of Idaho where he served one year as assistant coach and two as head coach. Pfeifer guided the Vandals to a 12-48 record in his two years as head coach.  

“I am humbled to have the opportunity to be the next basketball coach at Montana State University Billings,” Pfeifer said. “I know this was a long and thorough process and I feel fortunate to get this opportunity.” 

Prior to Idaho, Pfeifer had a very successful tenure at Lewis-Clark State College where he was the head men’s coach from 1989-2005 and the assistant coach from 1987-1989. During his time at LCSC, Pfeifer guided the Warriors to a 296-206 mark and six NAIA national tournaments (92, 95, 00, 02, 04, 05). In his last two seasons at LCSC, he went 31-6 and 25-9 in 2003-04 and 2004-05, respectively. His 31-6 team finished the season ranked 11th nationally.

Pfeifer was voted conference coach of the year four times (92, 95, 00, 04) at LCSC. He coached 18 NAIA All-Americans and 18 NAIA Academic All-Americans in addition to 38 All-Frontier Conference selections.  

Not only did he average 23 wins per year from 1999-2005 (140-56), he was strong in the postseason, compiling a 34-19 record.  
Pfeifer is no stranger to Billings and Montana as he was the head women’s basketball coach at Rocky Mountain College from 1985-1987 and was the assistant men’s coach the year before. He led Rocky Mountain College advanced to its first NAIA National Tournament in school history. As the women’s coach at Rocky, Pfeifer guided the Battlin’ Bears to their first winning season in nine years and the team was sixth in the nation in scoring defense.

In addition, Pfeifer also has high school coaching experience as the head boys coach at Hardin High School in Hardin, Mont., from 1982-1985. He also served at head girls coach at St. Maries High School in St. Maries, Idaho, from 1979-82. While at Hardin, Pfeifer’s team qualified for the state tournament both years. In addition, Sports Illustrated featured an article on his team, Shadow of a Nation (1985).

Pfeifer earned his bachelor’s degree in social science at Lewis-Clark State in 1979 and his master’s degree in secondary education at Idaho in 1989.

Pfeifer is married to the former Susan Steiner and they have three children, including two daughters, Jennifer and Abigail, 22 and 18 years-old, respectively, and a son Duncan who is 23.