Gig Harbor resident co-authors book on Gonzaga Kennel Club student section

A Gig Harbor resident is now a published author in the sports world.

Mike Shields, a 1984 graduate of Gonzaga University, recently co-authored a book titled “We are G.U.” It tells the story of the origins of the Kennel Club, the school’s famed basketball student section, which is often recognized as one of the rowdiest in the country for men’s basketball.

Shields, who has had his three kids go through Gig Harbor High recently (Charlie ‘14, Jack and Emily ‘17), co-authored the book with Aaron Hill, a 2001 graduate of Gonzaga.

The Kennel Club, which has grown to around 2,500 students for big games these days at the McCarthey Athletic Center, started modestly, with Shields and some members of the baseball team in 1984. Shields was the student manager for the baseball team.

“My roommates and I got a house party together and the only requirement to drink free beer was to paint your face and go to the game,” said Shields, now 56.

The club started organically and was never short on creativity in the days before Gonzaga’s rise to national prominence. The members of the club would often dig up “dirt” on the opposing players and use it during the game to get under their skin.

“One game, there was an opposing team, and one of the players had been accused of stealing pop,” Hill said. “So one of the guys in our club goes out onto the floor and wheels out a case of pop into their huddle.”

Or when one of the club’s members went out to the middle of a floor during a timeout to hand a referee a pair of glasses.

“In general, college students haven’t changed,” Shields said. “The rules of engagement have. Some of the stories we have, you’d be removed from the building now for some of the things we did.”

Gonzaga began its rise to national prominence in the mid-1990s. In 1999, the Bulldogs made a run to the Elite Eight. Since then, Gonzaga has been to every NCAA Tournament since then and have appeared in every final AP poll since the 2008-09 season. Gonzaga reached its first Final Four in school history in the 2016-17 season, advancing to the championship game.

Gonzaga opened the 6,000-seat McCarthey Athletic Center in 2003. Currently, Gonzaga is ranked No. 1 in the country early in the 2018-19 season.

“As far as the basketball program has come from absolute obscurity to being ranked No. 1 in the country, I think the Kennel Club has grown at that same pace, or maybe even greater,” Shields said.

The idea for the book started in a similarly modest fashion. While Hill was teaching abroad in Milan, Italy, he met a man from South Carolina in 2017, when the Zags and Gamecocks were matched up in the Final Four. The South Carolinian told Hill he was glad they weren’t playing at the Kennel in Spokane as he had heard about the reputation of the Kennel Club, “started by the rugby team.”

After hearing the slip up, Hill couldn’t let it pass. Soon thereafter, he got in touch with Shields through a mutual acquaintance.

At first, Shields and Hill intended to write a short pamphlet chronicling the history of the Kennel Club and addressing some of the misinformation that had spread.

“We thought it might end up being 30 pages or so,” Shields said. “The more we dug the layers, the more we realized there’s some cool stories to tell here.”

Shields and Hill had never even met each other before, but began working together on the book. The finished product is about 180 pages, and was designed and edited with the help of GU English assistant professor Jeff Dodd.

The book features quotes from College Gameday host Digger Phelps, ESPN analyst Dick Vitale and others.

Shields is currently working as the Director of Corporate Partnerships for Goodwill of the Olympics and Rainier Region, based in Tacoma. He is currently an executive committee member of the State of Washington Sports Hall of Fame and has held numerous sports management positions during his 30-year career, including Executive Director of the Tacoma-Pierce County Sports Commission and Vice President of Corporate Partnerships for the Tacoma Rainiers.

Shields said the book has sold better than the two authors could have imagined.

“There’s tons of Gonzaga alumns on this side of the state who would like to hear more about the Zag program,” Shields said. “Everyone who has gone to games in the last 30 years and has spent a game or two, or a hundred in the Kennel Club section.”

Have a Zag fan in your life and looking for a holiday gift? The book can purchased at gonzaga.edu/ZagShop.