2024
Felix M. McGowan
Felix M. McGowan, 2024 Hall of Fame Inductee! A humble athlete, representing the Little Shell Band of Chippewa Indians, who battled hard in the early 90s for a Gonzaga team that was building a foundation of excellence that has been maintained all these years!
Date: October 2024 Written By: Don Wetzel
Felix started his athletic career in Poplar, Montana, and was coached by his father and 2020 Montana Indian Athletic Hall of Fame member Felix McGowan Sr.
During his junior and senior years of basketball, he averaged 21.5 points and 17 rebounds a game for Poplar, earning all-divisional and all-state honors for both seasons. Felix was selected to the Native East-West All-Star game his senior year for a two-game series. He was selected for an international all-star team where they toured Germany playing against clubs and military teams.
In addition to making all-state in basketball, he was awarded all-state honors in track finishing 3rd in the High Jump and making the finals in the 400. Felix still holds the 400 record for the high school set in 1988. He closed out his senior year in 1988 as a member of the National Honor Society and was an all-stater in Speech and Drama.
Upon graduation, Felix went to Montana State and trained with the team for that year. He decided that he wanted to find a different path for the remainder of his college career as he experienced a vast difference between high school and college. He felt college athletics is a business, and a player is a changeable piece that can be removed at any time for poor play. He was invited to visit North Idaho College (NIC) in Coeur d’Alene, ID. After playing a few tryout games, Hall of Fame coach, Rollie Williams, offered him a full ride. The decision ended up being the right one. NIC allowed him to meet his future wife who was also an athlete and was a NJCAA all-American during her sophomore year. Felix averaged 20.1 points per game and 7.4 rebounds during the two years spent at NIC, earning all-league honors during his sophomore year. Felix had multiple Division 1 offers to play after NIC & chose to be part of the group that developed the Gonzaga Men’s Basketball program into what it is today.
Felix’s senior year was a great year until breaking his thumb halfway through the season ending his basketball career there, as the injury required a reconstructive 4-hour surgery and intense rehabilitation. Before the injury, he was selected to two tournament all-star teams, one in Alabama and the second in Spokane. He finished the season averaging 15.4 points and 4.8 rebounds a game. Felix graduated from Gonzaga with a bachelor’s degree in 1994.
Felix continued playing basketball through the all-native circuit in the Pacific Northwest with a team from Lapwai, ID, the Nez Perce Tribe. He played with that team for the next 15 years and won countless tournaments all over the western United States and had the honor of being selected to the all-star team in Phoenix at the National Indian Basketball tournament. He was one of only two players who were allowed to play consistently with the Nez Perce who did not graduate from Lapwai High School.