Great Basketball Coaches (Part 4)
Adolph Frederick Rupp:
Adolph Frederick Rupp is a coach from basketball’s past, who was born on 2nd
of September, 1901, way before NBA League was even formed. He was one of the most successful coaches, ranking third in the total victories made by an NCAA Division I College coach with 876 wins under his belt.
He entered the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame on 13th of April, 1969. Rupp started his coaching career as a high school teacher at Burr Oak High School in Kansas. A year later, he left for a coaching job in Marshalltown, Iowa; however, he coached
wrestling rather than basketball then. Somewhere in between 1926 and 1930, Rupp went back to coaching basketball at Freeport High School as well as teaching history and economics there.
However, he was kicked out of the school, an incident that has controversy written all over it. Some people say that he had to leave because he had allowed William Mosely, an African American, to play basketball while others say that it was due to the fact
that he was not able to win the state championships. Rupp got a lucky break when Craig Ruby, head coach at University of Illinois, informed him of a coaching job in Kentucky as well as recommending him for it.
Rupp remained the basketball team coach at University of Kentucky from 1930 to 1972. He was given the titles “Baron of Bluegrass” and “The Man in the Brown Suit”. Rupp was an excellent motivator and an even better strategist. With his guidance, the Kentucky
team won 4 NCAA Championships, 1 National Invitation Tournament, 5 Sugar Bowl tournament championships and a lot more.
In 1972, Rupp was forced to retire due to age limit (70 at the time). He later passed away at the age of 76 on 10th of December, 1977. This was the same night when Kentucky had beaten Kansas (his alma mater) and it was designated as “Adolph Rupp Night”.
Gerald Eugene Sloan:
Gerald Eugene Sloan is the coach for Utah Jazz. He is known as one of the most successful coaches with a record of 1137-751 under his belt. This achievement puts him 4th on the all-time most winning NBA coaches' list. He is also the only coach
to reach 1000 wins with the same club.
Sloan is the only coach who has coached one team for the longest period of time- 22 seasons- but he never won an NBA Coach of the Year award or else led his team to an NBA championship. In 1976, Sloan took up the coaching job in his old alma mater, Evansville
High School but withdrew 5 days later.
He was lucky as in the same season, the plane with the whole team as well as the coaches crashed, killing them all. Two years later, Sloan was hired by the Chicago Bulls as an assistant coach but he moved up the ranks and soon became head coach. However,
after his three seasons there he was fired for not being able to get the Bulls perform well enough.
After Chicago, the dejected coach became a scout for Utah Jazz. In 1988, Coach Frank Layden retired, leaving the way open for Sloan to take his job. As their coach, Sloan led the Jazz to 6 division championships and twice to the championships only to lose
to the Bulls. In 2004, Jazz were up against NBA’s western conference for the 8th spot but they lost the game, which caused Sloan to lose his chance at the 17th playoff games.
Even though he is successful, Gerald Sloan has yet to win the NBA Coach of the Year Award. During 2009 season, he reached his 1000 wins after beating Oklahoma City Thunder. He is the only coach in history to do so. Sloan was inaugurated into the Hall of
Fame in April, 2009.
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