Chester Dorsey, Husky Basketball Showman, Dies at 68

The point guard helped the UW beat John Wooden, return to the NCAAs.

Chester Dorsey cuts the net after a UW game. / UW Athletics

One of the University of Washington's greatest basketball playmakers in program history, Chester Dorsey was the first Husky point guard given the creative freedom to deliver behind-the-back and through-the-leg passes, though it still made his coach Marv Harshman greatly uneasy.

He had that memorable nickname bestowed on him by his father -- "Chet the Jet."

Dorsey was brash, flamboyant and never lacking for confidence when he played for the Huskies from 1974 to 1977, helping them advance to the NCAA Tournament following a 22-year absence and generally just making things fun for everyone on game night.

"I could get the ball wherever I wanted," he said. "I felt there was nobody on earth who could stop me."

On Tuesday, Dorsey, 68, died from a lingering undisclosed illness in his native Indianapolis, Indiana, according to former Husky teammates.

Gone was a colorful personality who left an impact not only on UW basketball but also across the city. He built up a family auto-detailing and car-wash business with multiple outlets, including his headquarters on East Madison Street. He had a great love for the automotive business and collected cars, acquiring 30, including a pair of coveted Mercedes S600s.

"It's a hobby, but it also makes money," Dorsey said in 2008. "It's like people who collect art; I collect cars. Growing up as a kid, I always saw cars that I would walk past and couldn't afford. Now I can afford them."

Chester Dorsey was a showman for UW basketball. / UW athletics.

He came to Montlake from Indiana as that rare Husky basketball player recruited from somewhere other than the West Coast. He would lead the then-Pacific-8 Conference in assists and set UW season and career passing records since broken.

Dorsey stands third on the UW career assists list with 466, trailing only Will Conroy with 515 and Abdul Gaddy with 469, and ranking ahead of Isaiah Thomas, who finished with 415. However, Dorsey still has a better per game average with 4.4, which tops Conroy's 4.3 and Gaddy and Thomas' 4.0 an outing.

His greatest Husky ballhandling performace came in a 103-81 upset of UCLA in 1975, in a game that would stand as coach John Wooden's final loss before he led the Bruins to another NCAA championship and retired. Dorsey, then a sophomore, was superb at a sold-out Edmundson Pavilion, dishing out 15 assists, one shy of the school record held by Rafael Stone -- the only playmaking standard that eluded him.

Dorsey was the floor leader for a 1975-76 Huskies team that began the season 14-0 and was ranked as high as sixth in the Associated Press poll before advancing to the NCAA Tournament, losing to Missouri 69-67 in Kansas City and finishing 23-6. He teamed with 7-foot-1 James Edwards and 6-foot-10 Lars Hansen, both future NBA players, and 6-foot-7 Kim Stewart and 6-foot-4 Clarence Ramsey, who were drafted by the pros but didn't stick.

"Chester was a great guy," said Edwards, who became a 19-year pro player and now lives in Detroit. "I remember when he got to Seattle, we became buddies right away. He loved to come over to my house and get some of my mom's good cooking."

Once his UW eligibility was used up, Dorsey failed to interest any NBA teams, which were intent on finding bigger guards at the time and didn't draft him. He played a season each with a pair of minor-league franchises in Indianapolis and Washington's Tri-Cities.

He would promote the basketball career of Regina Rogers-Wright, a UW standout, his niece and the daughter of the late Reggie Rogers, the Husky football and basketball player and an NFL first-round draft pick.

"He played a major part of my success in basketball," Rogers-Wright said. "He took me to my WNBA draft camp. He stepped up when my dad [died] and he did so much for me and my siblings."

Dorsey later used his UW connections to build his business, receiving entrepernuerial tips from several boosters who doubled as mentors, among them Jim Nordstrom, Dave Cohn, Jerome Farris and Mac McPherson.

For reasons not clear though the economy took a serious downward turn, Dorsey closed up his business in 2008 and moved back to the Midwest. Yet he had left his mark in Seattle with his ability to share the basketball and present unmatched confidence in whatever he did.

"People said I would make more money than the guys who played in the NBA," he said. "They were pretty much on target."

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington