A former basketball star at Ballard High School who made headlines in the 1950s by leaving the University of Washington men’s basketball team just weeks before the end of his senior season passed away on April 27 at the age of 90. According to an obituary published in The Seattle Times on May 5, he died following a brief battle with cancer.
He played guard for the Washington Huskies from 1954 to 1958 under the leadership of head coach Tippy Dye, who guided the team during its Pacific Coast Conference days. Although Dye had previously led UW to its only Final Four appearance in 1953, his strict coaching methods reportedly caused friction with players—he in particular. Their contentious relationship eventually reached a boiling point.
“It was very exasperating to play for Tippy Dye,” he told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in a 2008 interview. That frustration culminated on January 31, 1958, when he walked away from the team after being benched during a game against Stanford.
His wife, Nancy Tuft, later shared how deeply that moment shaped her husband’s life. “What I heard over 53 years was that Tippy Dye ruined his basketball career,” she said. “Absolutely ruined it. Trashed it.”
Despite the early end to John Tuft’s college basketball career, Tuft left behind a modest stat line with the Huskies: 243 total points, 116 rebounds, and a career field goal percentage of 31.2% across 52 games. His sophomore season was his most productive, with 120 points and a 35.6% shooting clip.
Years later, Tuft and Dye encountered one another again—this time under more cordial circumstances. At a University of Washington reunion in the late 1990s honoring Dye, Tuft was surprised to be invited. Nonetheless, he attended and exchanged a few brief words with his former coach, marking the first time they had spoken in decades. “John had a few words to say with Tippy, very few, and that was about it,” Nancy recalled. “I mean, they didn’t sit there and talk a lot.”
Following his time on the hardwood, Tuft found immense success in a different arena: golf. Over the next several decades, he became one of the most accomplished amateur golfers in the Pacific Northwest. He racked up an incredible 125 tournament wins during his career, including Seattle Amateur titles in 1978, 1979, and 1982.
Tuft also etched his name into regional golf history by becoming the first person to win the Kitsap Amateur Tournament five times—with victories spanning from 1974 to 1994. His skill and precision on the course even earned him 11 holes-in-one.
His son, Brian Tuft, fondly recalled caddying for his father at Seattle Golf Club and hearing one story in particular. “Fred Couples was an amateur, and I know my dad actually beat him,” Brian said. “Not in a tournament, but they played golf and my dad beat him, which was pretty cool. I thought, you know, not too many people could say that they beat Fred Couples when he was an amateur.”
After hanging up his clubs at age 65 in 2000, Tuft channeled his passion and competitive nature into oil painting. Inspired by television icons like Bob Ross, Tuft threw himself into the hobby with intensity and joy. “The first year he painted, he got a couple of Bob Ross books, and he watched a lot of Bob Ross on TV,” Nancy said. “There were a couple of other painters he watched too, and that first year he painted 400 paintings.”
From a promising athlete to a prolific painter, John Tuft lived a life marked by both passion and reinvention. His legacy spans generations of sports and artistry, and he leaves behind a story of resilience, creativity, and quiet determination.
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