Keith Gilbertson, Jr
Football Coach

Keith Gilbertson Jr. graduated from Snohomish High in 1966. He was an outstanding lineman in football. He continued playing football collegiately as an offensive lineman at Columbia Basin Junior College (now Columbia Basin College), Central Washington College (now Central Washington University), and University of Hawaii .

He was a graduate assistant football coach at Utah State for three years then in 1977, became Utah State’s offensive coordinator. He remained there until 1981 when he joined Dennis Erickson’s new staff at University of Idaho. He was there one season and helped turn the program around, going 8–3. The following spring, he became offensive coordinator for Los Angeles Express of the new U.S. Football League (USFL). He was there three years until the USFL folded in 1985. He then rejoined Coach Erickson and the Vandals and they won their first Big Sky Conference title in 14 seasons. When Erickson left for Wyoming, Gilbertson was promoted to head coach of the Vandals. He was at Idaho three seasons and his record was 28-9 winning consecutive conference championships and advancing to the Division I-AA national semifinals.

After Idaho, he became University of Washington’s (UW) offensive line coach under Don James and during 1991, was offensive coordinator for the Huskies national championship team. He then became head coach at University of California, Berkeley (1992-95), winning the Alamo Bowl in 1993. During 1996-98, he was an assistant coach for the Seattle Seahawks and in 1999, returned to UW as assistant head coach for Rick Neuheisel and after Neuheisel departed, Keith was UW’s head coach for the 2003 and 2004 seasons. After that, he returned to the Seahawks as an assistant coach under Mike Holmgren.