Tall Tales: The Procession of Husky Basketball 7-footers

From Gary Nelson to Riley Sorn, we break down Washington's most height-blessed players in program history.

While other coaches might take a look at the current University of Washington basketball team and turn up their noses at the talent, Marv Harshman would have been salivating at the chance to get his hands on it.

On another 7-footer.

Harshman, the Husky coach from 1971 to 1985, went from plotting ways to defend against UCLA's towering Lew Alcindor (later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and Bill Walton (always known as the psychedelic redhead) to filling out his rosters with 7-footers. 

The old-school coach, who died in 2013 at 95, secured them from Germany and Iceland, and found one of his better ones just up the street at Seattle's Roosevelt High School.  

Where Harshman once took a chance on Richland High's long-range-shooting yet academic-challenged Mike Neill, he would have gladly embraced 7-foot-4 Riley Sorn from the same school just to see what he could do with the guy and all of those inches.

Sorn, as it stands, is the tallest player in Husky history. 

He ranks as the tallest player currently in the Pac-12 by a wide margin. 

Sorn is one of the two tallest collegiate big men in the country, sharing that unique distinction with Matt Van Komen, a 7-4 post player from St. Mary's College.

Gary Nelson, from tiny Elma, was the first Husky 7-footer.

The late Christian Welp was the best one.

James Edwards was the best pro player.

Spencer Hawes was one-and-done.

So was Uli Sledz, but not in a good way.

Never known as a big-man school, the UW has tried to make a go of it with a dozen of these 7-footers over 118 seasons.

That's one every 10 years.

Enjoy Riley Sorn while you can.

Gary Nelson was a 7-footer in the 1950s, a rare sight.  / Archive photo

Gary Nelson

Considered a freak of nature for the times, Nelson emerged in 1953 as a 32-point scorer on the average for Elma High. He scored 61 points in a game against Seattle's O'Dea High. Regularly out of breath, he used an oxygen tank during timeouts. 

Once at the UW, Nelson played freshman basketball and spent a year and a half on the varsity. He quit during the 1955-56 season. He took a lot of practice punishment from teammate George Strugar, who also played Husky football and ended up in the NFL. Until enough was enough. 

"He was a nice, kind-hearted kid," said Karl Voegtlin, who was a UW forward back then. "What really did Gary in was he didn't have a lot of strength and stamina. George Strugar used to take him apart in scrimmage, bruise him, kick him, knock him around. Gary gave up."

James Edwards

Harshman had to stave off California to sign Edwards, who led neighboring Roosevelt to a state championship. The skinny kid was the Huskies first 7-footer in 18 seasons. It was well worth the wait.

The 7-1 Edwards was a four-year starter who as a junior led the Huskies to one of their greatest seasons, 23-5 in 1975-76, which included a 14-0 start and three losses decided by two points. As a senior the following season, he averaged 20.9 points and 10.4 rebounds per game.

The UW's most athletic 7-footer, Edwards was drafted in the third round of the NBA draft as the 46th player taken overall by the Los Angeles Lakers, which made him a teammate of the aforementioned Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, one of the game's greatest big men. He spent 19 seasons in the league and came away with three NBA championship rings, two with the Detroit Pistons and the other with the Chicago Bulls.

Petur Gudmundsson

Harshman saw the 7-2 Gudmundsson play for an Icelandic junior national team and coaxed him to come to Seattle, first placing him with Mercer Island High to finish his secondary schooling and then signing him for the UW. 

Gudmundsson was still a developing player and started only one season for the Huskies, as a sophomore in 1978-79. He averaged 10.1 points and 4.8 rebounds per game with a career-high 37 points against Cal. He left after coming off the bench in his junior year.

"He had athletic talent, but nobody could get it out of him," Harshman said. 

The big man spent the next dozen years playing sporadically in Europe, in the CBA and in the NBA for the Portland Trail Blazers, San Antonio Spurs and the Los Angeles Lakers. He had a career-high 21 points against the Atlanta Hawks while with the Spurs. Knee, back and Achilles heel injuries curtailed his career.

Ulrick "Uli" Sledz

The German was the biggest bust of the Huskies' 7-footers. Recommended by a Western Washington University basketball coach and arriving the same season as Gudmundsson in 1977-78, he stuck around just long enough to play in six UW games, score 6 points and return home.

The last anyone heard of the 7-foot Sledz was he was head of a basketball referees organization in his home country 

"He was not a hard worker," Harshman said.

Flosi Sigurdsson

Harshman tried the Icelandic pipeline again and didn't fare any better with the 7-foot Sigurdsson. The big man was placed at Capital High in Olympia, Washington, before he signed with the Huskies. He rarely got off the bench.

Sigurdsson pulled only mop-up duty, scoring 37 points in 56 games in 1982-85 for the UW. He was a soft player.

"He was just not strong enough," Harshman said. 

Christian Welp

The Huskies hit the European motherlode with Welp, the most decorated of the program's 7-footers on the college level. Another German import, he played for Olympic High School in Silverdale, Washington, and won a state championship before accepting a scholarship from Harshman.

Agile with a smooth shooting touch, he became a four-year starter for the UW in 1984-87, was named Pac-10 Player of the Year as a junior and helped the Huskies to three NCAA tournament appearances. He still ranks as the school's all-time leading scorer with 2,073 points. He averaged 20.8 points and 9 rebounds per game as a senior.

Welp went to the NBA in the first round with the 16th overall pick to the Philadelphia 76ers. He spent three seasons with three teams before embarking on a long career in Europe. Sadly, he died of a heart attack in 2015 at 51. Welp's son Collin currently is a 6-9 junior forward for UC Irvine and averages 11.4 points and 6.9 rebounds per game

Todd MacCulloch

Weak and pudgy at first, the Canadian 7-footer blossomed overnight into a feared and productive player with a deft touch in 1996-99. He led the nation in field-goal percentage for three consecutive seasons and finished as the Huskies' third all-time leading scorer with 1,743 points. He averaged 18.7 points and 11.9 rebounds per game as a senior.

Playing for coach Bob Bender, MacCulloch was a four-year starter and two-time, first-team All-Pac-10 player. He just missed putting the Huskies into the NCAA Elite Eight when Connecticut's Huskies beat his team with a buzzer shot. 

He was drafted in the second round by the Philadelphia 76ers and enjoyed steady work in the NBA until he was forced to retire after contracting Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, a genetic disorder that affects the feet. 

Patrick Femerling

Femerling came in with MacCulloch, but the German started just one season and returned home after three years at the UW. He was a first-teamer in 1997-98, averaging 5.7 points and 6.1 rebounds per game for that 20-10 Husky team that lost to UConn.

The 7-footer played several seasons of European basketball and developed his game to become a highly productive pro player.

"I remember watching him play as a Husky and every time he touched the ball he made an offensive foul or he traveled," Welp once said of Femerling. "He played with Todd, but he didn't play enough. In Berlin, they really made him play and he became experienced and a very solid player."

Joe Wolfinger

The Oregon native was the hard-luck Husky 7-footer, redshirting his first season in 2005-06 and sitting out his second with a broken foot. After playing in 41 games and starting just once over four seasons, he needed a change of scenery and transferred to the Citadel.

Wolfinger averaged 3.5 points and 1.1 rebounds for the Huskies, with a high game of 17 against Cal. In his lone season at the military school in Charleston, South Carolina, he started 17 games and averaged 6.6 points and 3.9 rebounds.

He spent most of the following decade playing pro basketball in Germany and Japan, and trying to move up from the NBA Developmental League, getting named player of the year in 2014-15.

Spencer Hawes

The son and nephew of former UW players, this Hawes was well regarded as a national recruit, signed out of nearby Seattle Preparatory School and considered a program-builder for coach Lorenzo Romar.

However, the 7-footer stayed just one season in 2006-07, battled some injuries and averaged 14.9 points and 6.4 rebounds per game for a 19-14 team that was considered hugely disappointing. 

Hawes turned to the NBA and was drafted 10th overall in the first round by the Sacramento Kings. He played 10 solid seasons for six franchises.

Robert Upshaw

The big Californian redshirted a season with the Huskies and then played 19 games in 2014-15 before he was dismissed from Romar's team. While a likable guy, he sent away for a positive drug test. He previously was let go at Fresno State for a similar offense. He had similar problems in the pros.  

Upshaw, who averaged 10.9 points and 8.2 rebounds per game for the UW, had his moments, leading the nation in blocked shots at the time with 4.5 per game.

To his credit, he has played pro basketball in Estonia, Lebanon, Venezuela, Poland, Turkey and Spain, and is still active. 

Robert Upshaw poses with a young fan for a selfie.  / Dan Raley

Riley Sorn

Sorn, who joined the Huskies for the 2018-19 season and redshirted, is the only one of this elite group of Husky big men who showed up without a scholarship. The walk-on could have played for smaller schools and had his schooling bills picked up.

He must have wondered whether he made the right decision to join the Huskies when he appeared in just one game, for less than a minute as a redshirt freshman, during the 2019-20 season. 

Sorn, however, has been steadily moving up the ranks. Trying to build up his body, he's 17 pounds heavier, up to 262. He's played in six out of seven games and been one of the few things to go right for a 1-6 team. He had a career-best 16 points against Colorado. He dunks a lot. He alters shots. With pandemic allowances, he could stay three more seasons and become a finished product.

"There was something about his energy and his presence in what he brought and what we were looking for as a team," UW coach Mike Hopkins said of the tallest Husky basketball player ever. "It was, 'Gosh, how can you not play this guy?' "

This is the second in a series of three stories explaining where Riley Sorn fits in size-wise nationally, in the conference and in Husky history.

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