Rich Pokorski, former Lobo and so much more, dies at 72

Rich Pokorski grew up in Maywood, California, a gritty east Los Angeles suburb.

Whenever he wasn’t studying or playing basketball, the gangly teenager would leave his landlocked community, take the 710 to the 105 to the 605 to the 405 to the 39 (or some other route) and spend the day at Huntington Beach.

Rich, his wife, Cindy said in a recent phone interview, “loved the outdoors.”

For that reason and many others, his wife and close friends say, the indoor game that he played so well and for so long never defined him.

Pokorski, a fan favorite as a UNM basketball player, a successful boys coach, athletic director and classroom teacher at Eldorado High School and always an enthusiastic outdoorsman, died Wednesday from complications of pancreatic cancer. He was 72.

Pat King, a high school and UNM teammate and a close friend for more than a half-century, expressed respect and admiration for Pokorski in all aspects of his life.

Above all, King said, “He was a tremendous husband, a tremendous father.

“Out of everything he’s done in sports, to me, that’s the most important thing.”

“Pork,” as he came to be known, arrived in Albuquerque in the fall of 1971 — recruited with King out of Bell High School, right next door to Maywood.

A classic late-bloomer, Pokorski hadn’t played basketball until he was in 10th grade.

“He was all arms and legs and wasn’t very good (at first),” King said.

As a junior, Pokorski, listed at 6 feet, 4 inches, had progressed enough to be a second-team LA Eastern League selection. King, a point guard, was a first-team pick.

As a 6-6 senior, King said, Pokorski “was killing everybody.”

On Feb. 9, 1971, Pokorski scored 44 points and hit the game-winning shot as Bell defeated a highly touted San Fernando High team whose roster included his future UNM teammate Bruce Battle.

Taking notice, Lobos coach Bob King and his assistants, Norm Ellenberger and Dennis Hodges, brought Pat King and Pokorski to Albuquerque for a recruiting visit. Joining them that weekend was a 6-4 shooting guard from Hillsdale, Illinois, named Bob Toppert.

Thus was minted “The Terrific Trio” of teammates and close friends whose relationships have endured.

“We just hit it off real big on our visit,” Toppert said. “… We roomed together for four or five years.”

Pat King, Toppert and Pokorski all signed with UNM. Beyond the Pit and the blandishments of coaches and teammates, said Cindy Pokorski, a classmate at Bell High, it was Albuquerque’s mountain and high-desert scenery that sold him.

After averaging nearly 29 points for the Lobo junior varsity as a freshman, Pokorski played sparingly for the varsity in 1972-73 — Ellenberger’s first year as head coach. He was the first player off the bench, averaging 8.3 points per game, for the ‘73-74 team that swept to the Western Athletic Conference title and advanced to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 before losing 64-61 to San Francisco in a regional semifinal.

As a senior, with four starters gone from the ‘73-74 team, Pokorski was the Lobos’ second-leading scorer (13.3 points per game) and rebounder (6.7).

Truly, though, it was as if his basketball career was just beginning. Playing high-level AAU ball for the Maloof Companies-sponsored Maloofmen, Pokorski became unstoppable.

In 1979, he scored 135 points in three games as the Maloofmen won their sixth straight state title.

“Pork was so smart around the rim,” Toppert said. “He was a lot smarter than those guys that could out-jump him and were faster. They could not outplay him.”

That same year, Pokorski was hired as Eldorado’s boys head coach after having served as an assistant to Jerald Snider the previous four seasons.

“Intensity and aggressiveness are No. 1,” he said in an Albuquerque Journal story. “… It’s going to take fundamental basketball and an intense attitude to win.”

Win, his Eagles did. In his third season, Eldorado made it to the big-school championship game before losing in heartbreaking fashion (58-56) to Farmington. The following year, the. Eagles won it all — taking down Los Alamos, 60-59, in the title game.

Barely a month later, he stunned the prep community by submitting his resignation.

“There are several reasons,” he told the Journal. “I can’t pinpoint any one.”

One compelling reason, though, was his growing family.

“We had our first child (daughter Becky) the first year he was the head coach at Eldorado,” Cindy Pokorski said. “Then when they won the state tournament, I was pregnant with our second (daughter Stacy).

“It was like (for Rich), ‘I’m missing my kids growing up. I’m coming home and it’s dark and they’re in bed, and I’m leaving for school and they’re not up yet.’

“It wasn’t the only reason, but it was a big reason.”

His departure, Pat King said, was Eldorado’s loss.

“They would have been the Hobbs (of Albuquerque),” King said, referring to the prep basketball dynasty that Ralph Tasker built in that community. “Every kid would have wanted to go there and have Pork coach them.”

Meanwhile, Pokorski hadn’t stopped playing basketball. In 3-on-3 leagues, he, King and Toppert, in their 40s, were beating players in their 20s — and beating them badly.

“We were a little bit smarter about the rotations and stuff,” Toppert said, “and Pork would dominate. … And then we had that combination. We all brought something nice to the game.”

Pokorski retired as Eldorado’s athletic director and as a classroom teacher in 2004. Their daughters grown, he and Cindy moved to Colorado, where Rich worked as a hunting and fishing guide.

They later divided time between Colorado and Tucson before returning to Albuquerque to be closer to their daughters and grandkids.

Some six weeks ago, Pokorski experienced some bloating and had it checked out. The prognosis was dire, and he opted not to undergo chemotherapy, instead entering hospice care.

Three days before his passing, King said, Pokorski went for a 10-mile bike ride.

“He was always looking for, always was eager for the next adventure,” Cindy Pokorski said. “‘What are we going to do next?’ He embraced all of that. I think he did things knowing that he’d done something well, and that he’d helped other people.”