NCAA Basketball: Hall of Famer Lute Olson leaves behind elite legacy

Remembering the life of Hall of Fame coach Lute Olson, one of the greatest coaches in NCAA Basketball history.

One of NCAA Basketball’s most successful head coaches, Lute Olson has passed away at the age of 85. Olson sits among the best to coach the game in total victories and led both Iowa and Arizona to Final Four appearances during his career. The definite highlight of his career came in leading the Wildcats to their first national championship, and he’s touched thousands of players, coaches, and fans throughout his life.

Olson was born in 1934 in a small farming community in North Dakota. He grew up in the state, starring as a multi-sport athlete in high school and later at Augsburg University in Minnesota. Following graduation, Olson would spend the next thirteen years coaching and teaching at the high school level, first in Minnesota, before moving to the West Coast a few years later.

An opportunity arose for him to move into the college ranks, and Olson then spent four seasons leading the basketball program at Long Beach City College, winning more than a hundred games during his tenure. That success led to his hiring at Long Beach State, giving him his first NCAA coaching position, and he shined instantly, finishing 24-2 in his lone season with the 49ers. Olson would quickly parlay that success into an even bigger opportunity.

In 1974, he was hired as the new head coach at Iowa, moving him back across the country closer to where he grew up. Olsen inherited a Hawkeyes program that had recently struggled but built lasting success in Iowa. The Hawkeyes would make the NCAA Tournament in each of his final five years with the program, highlighted by a trip to the Final Four in 1980, the program’s most recent appearance. Olson won a Big Ten title, and would also add a Sweet Sixteen appearance in 1983 before a bigger job came calling.

Lute Olson’s move to Arizona

Citing the need to make a change, Olson departed for Arizona, inheriting a Wildcats squad that had just suffered through one of the worst seasons in program history. Within two years, Arizona was back in the NCAA Tournament, beginning a streak of appearances that would last more than two decades. Olson turned the Arizona program into a national powerhouse over the next 24 years, the final and most powerful touch to his Hall of Fame career.

Running through the accolades at Arizona briefly shows the impact Olson had with this program. In a Pac-10 dominated for decades by UCLA, the Wildcats won 76% of conference games and picked up eleven conference titles during his tenure. Olson led Arizona to the program’s first four Final Four appearances, a feat that has not been matched since his retirement in 2007.

Olson recruited and coached elite talent at Arizona, with the 1997 national championship team clearly standing out. With a roster that included Miles Simon, Mike Bibby, and Jason Terry, the Wildcats upended three #1 seeds en route to the program’s first national championship. In the Final Four alone, Olson’s squad eliminated North Carolina, in Dean Smith’s final game, and defeated defending champion Kentucky for the title.

Many other players came and went through Olson’s system, departing the Wildcats as stars. Players like Steve Kerr, Gilbert Arenas, and Andre Iguodala achieved great success under Olson’s coaching. Even in his final years with the Wildcats, his teams were always talented and ready to compete on college basketball’s biggest stage. Just a few years before retiring, his 2005 squad had top-seeded Illinois on the brink but fell just short of their fifth Final Four.

Olson dealt with health issues at the end of his career, choosing to sit out the 2007-08 season before retiring in October 2008. He left behind an incredible legacy and touched an innumerable amount of people in the basketball world. Olson remains among the winningest Division 1 coaches of all time and is responsible for incredible success at both Iowa and Arizona.

He worked his way up the coaching ladder, putting in more than a decade’s work at the high school level, but today everyone remembers the hard work and success he achieved at the college level, defining a legacy that will never be forgotten.