Arizona Wildcats head coach Lute Olson reacts in the second half against the UCLA Bruins at Pauley Pavilion during the game on January 20, 2007 in Los Angeles, California. UCLA defeated Arizona 73-69. (Photo by Jeff Gross / Getty Images)
Hall of Famer and former Arizona basketball men, Lute Olson, died at the age of 85.
The Arizona Daily Star’s Greg Hansen reported Tuesday that Olson was earlier in a fight for his life Good Jeff Stadium en KOLD’s Dan Marries confirmed that Olson had died on Thursday.
Olson was the head coach of the Arizona men’s basketball program for 25 years, taking the job in 1983 before retiring in 2008. He is largely credited with founding the Wildcats as one of the dominant forces of the sports on the West Coast, and set a record of 589 -187 over nearly three decades.
Prior to Olson’s debut season, the Wildcats finished the 1982-83 season with four wins and 24 losses. After debuting an 11-17 record in his first year, Olson’s Arizona teams went on to make the NCAA Tournament for 24 straight seasons, ending with one-digit losses in 20 of those 24 campaigns.
Under Olson, Arizona won a regular-season championship campaign 11 times, four post-league conference tournaments, and made the NCAA Tournament Four on four different occasions.
That includes the 1997 NCAA Tournament that the Wildcats won.
The program also gained notoriety for developing NBA-caliber talent and helping them move on to success at the next level, with notable names such as Mike Bibby, Gilbert Arenas, Jason Terry, Sean Elliott, Andre Iguodala and Richard Jefferson.
Arizona was Olson’s last coaching stop after more than 10 years of coaching at the full school level until he moved to Long Beach Community College after 1969. job in Iowa, where he went from 1974-1983 167-91.
Olson was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002. He was named Pac-10 Coach of the Year seven different times.
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