 |
LUTE OLSON BIOGRAPHY
As Lute Olson enters his 24th season at the
University of Arizona, he has established
both the Wildcat basketball program and
himself as two of the preeminent figures on
the collegiate basketball landscape.
Whether it’s the 1997 national championship,
four Final Four appearances, 22 consecutive
NCAA Tournament appearances, 11 Pacific-10
Conference titles, or the nation’s
second-best winning percentage over the past
19 seasons, basketball excellence and the
University of Arizona go hand-in-hand.
Olson, now in his fourth decade as a head
coach, also has a title that befits those
monumental accomplishments – Hall of Famer –
as he was selected for enshrinement into the
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on
June 5, 2002. In a career full of individual
and team accolades, this honor ranks among
the best. True to form, Olson shared the
recognition with his family, coaches and
players.
“I think it ranks right up there with the
NCAA Championship and the 1986 World
Championship,” said Olson. “This is
definitely one of the special things that
has happened in my career. I am very
thankful for the recognition and opportunity
for enshrinement. I want to thank Bobbi and
my family for their sacrifices in addition
to the former assistant coaches and former
players who also share in this honor as
well.”
Set to begin his 34th season as a head coach
on the NCAA Division I level with time spent
at Arizona, Iowa and Long Beach State, Olson
is one of just 25 head coaches in NCAA
history to win 700 or more games (all
divisions). He owns a career record 761-269,
which adds up to a gaudy winning percentage
of .739. He has tallied a mark of 569-177
(.763) in his 23 years at Arizona, while
being named the Pac-10 Coach of the Year
seven times (1986, ‘88, ‘89, ‘93, ‘94, ‘98,
2003). Olson also has guided Arizona to 19
consecutive 20-win seasons (the longest
active streak in the nation), and is one of
only three coaches in NCAA history to record
28 or more 20-win seasons.
Long considered one of the top coaches in
Pac-10 history, he has led Arizona to the
aforementioned 11 league titles, with the
last coming in 2005. He has a career Pac-10
mark of 316-94 (.771), and the 316
conference victories are the most in league
history. Olson is the No. 2 coach in Pac-10
history for career winning percentage for
conference games with more than two years
experience, trailing only the legendary John
Wooden (.810/304-74).
As for his Arizona career, he has the most
victories (569) in school history and the
second-best winning percentage (.763) in
school history (minimum two seasons) with
the former tally surpassing Fred Enke’s 509
from 1925-61 (36 years) during the 2003-04
season.
Olson, who was a finalist for Naismith
Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame induction
in 2000 and 2001, had success long before
his days on the collegiate level. In 11
years as a high school coach (1956-69), he
compiled a record of 180-76 (.703). After
that, there were four years in the junior
college ranks at Long Beach City College,
where he was 103-22 (.824). Factor in those
games, along with the contests as the head
coach at Arizona, Iowa and Long Beach State,
and he has 1,044 victories heading into
2006-07 and has a .740 winning percentage in
1,411 career games coached. Olson became the
16th coach in basketball history (covering
all levels) to register 1,000 career wins,
when his Wildcats defeated Utah, 67-62, on
Dec. 11, 2004.
His success not only happens on the court,
but also in the recruiting process and in
the number of former players that currently
play in the NBA. For instance, the 2003,
2004 and 2005 recruiting classes were each
judged as one of the top 10 in the nation by
some analysts. In fact, the two
highest-ranked recruits in school history
were signed to national letters-of-intent in
November 2002, and top-10 recruits have
regularly signed since. With 10 NBA Draft
picks in the last six seasons alone, Arizona
players routinely hear their names called on
Draft Day. Since the NBA Draft was shortened
to two rounds in 1989, Arizona leads the
nation with 27 total selections. In his
collegiate career, Olson has produced 52 NBA
Draft picks, including 31 at Arizona. Last
year, there were 10 Arizona alums on NBA
rosters, and Olson has had 13 former players
appear in the NBA Finals in the last 11
seasons. In that time span, nine former Cats
have earned world championship rings.
Bolstered by depth and experience, the
Wildcats rolled to a 30-7 record in 2004-05,
becoming just the third team in school
history to reach the 30-win plateau. Behind
the leadership of All-Americans Channing
Frye and Salim Stoudamire, UA grew into a
formidable opponent, at one point winning 21
of 23 games, claimed the Pac-10 championship
for the second time in three seasons and
advanced to an NCAA Regional final for the
eighth time in school history. Arizona
ranked among the nation’s leaders in free
throw percentage (4th), three-point field
goal percentage (8th) and scoring offense
(10th), while Stoudamire led the nation in
three-point field goal percentage (.504).
Along the way, Frye and Stoudamire earned
multiple All-America honors, the 18th and
19th Arizona players to earn such
distinction under Olson.
In the ebb-and-flow of college basketball in
which rosters seemingly grow younger each
year, Olson’s Wildcats continue to remain
among the game’s royalty. Arizona opened the
2003-04 campaign without a senior in its
projected 10-man rotation for the third time
in five seasons. Despite its relative youth,
the Cats posted a 20-10 overall record and
continued the nation’s longest streaks for
NCAA Tournament appearances (20) and 20-win
seasons (17). For the second year in a row,
UA led the nation in scoring (87.1 ppg) and
also ranked second in free throw percentage
(.786). All told, two players garnered
all-conference accolades, three were
all-region picks and one garnered
All-America kudos, marking the seventh
straight year with at least one Wildcat
All-American. Olson posted career win No.
700 on Jan. 3 and became UA’s winningest
coach (510 wins) on Jan. 17.
Lofty expectations have become commonplace
for the Wildcats, and such was the case in
2002-03. Beginning the season as the
Associated Press’ top-ranked team for the
second time in three seasons, the Olson-led
charges held that ranking for 13 of 19
polling periods, while never falling lower
than No. 4 in the AP poll. UA won 28 games
(sixth-highest in school history) and
advanced to the NCAA Tournament’s “Elite
Eight” for the seventh time in school
history. Along the way, Arizona earned the
school’s 10th Pac-10 championship in the
last 20 years with a 17-1 league mark that
featured a spotless 9-0 road record.
Boasting a lineup that had seven players
tally at least 200 points, Arizona led the
nation with an 85.2 points-per-game average.
Any doubts about Olson’s ability on the
sidelines were put to rest in 2001-02. He
quickly rebuilt a roster that had been
decimated by graduation and the NBA Draft,
molded a team made primarily of three
juniors and six freshmen, and turned it into
one of the nation’s best. That young Arizona
squad exceeded nearly everyone’s
expectations by winning 24 games, capturing
the Pac-10 Tournament title (the school’s
fourth consecutive), and advancing to the
NCAA West Regional semifinal. After starting
the year unranked in the Associated Press
poll for the first time since November 1995,
the Olson-led Wildcats served notice by
stunning second-ranked Maryland and
fifth-ranked Florida in its first two games.
UA would rise as high as No. 3 in the polls
and remained nationally ranked for the
entire season.
Olson guided his charges through a season
full of distractions in 2000-01 to one of
his most rewarding results. Opening the year
as the nation’s top-ranked team in five
different polls, the 2000-01 Wildcats
overcame two NCAA suspensions, the untimely
passing of Olson’s wife, Bobbi, and his own
five-game leave of absence to amass a 28-8
record, earn a berth in the school’s fourth
Final Four and play in the national
championship game. After struggling to an
8-5 start, the Cats finished the regular
season with 15 wins in 17 games to emerge as
a title contender. The team rolled through
the first five games of the NCAA Tournament
dispatching four conference champions and
stretching its season-long win streak to 11
games, before falling to Duke, 82-72, in the
NCAA Final. Through it all, the Wildcats
displayed a toughness and determination seen
in few teams across the country.
In a career that has been dotted with
terrific coaching jobs, the 1999-2000 season
may have been one of the best. Whether it
was an injury to a key player, someone who
left the program or the fact that there were
three freshmen in the starting lineup, he
was at his best all year in leading the team
to a 27-7 record and the program’s ninth
Pac-10 Conference championship. The season
was also highlighted by his 600th career
win, his 400th victory as Arizona’s head
coach and the renaming of the McKale Center
playing surface, “Lute Olson Court”.
Arizona fans have grown accustomed to
success when basketball season rolls around,
but believe it or not, this same attitude
did not exist before Olson’s arrival in the
“Old Pueblo” prior to the 1983-84 campaign.
When Olson took the reigns in Tucson on
March 29, 1983, after nine successful
seasons at Iowa, he was given a program that
finished just 4-24 the season before. A
quick and rapid rise to the top would ensue,
much to the delight of the legions of
hoop-crazed fans in the Sonoran desert.
Simply put, the 71-year-old Olson has
created a basketball‑rich tradition at the
University of Arizona and made the Wildcats
one of the programs that others attempt to
emulate.
In 1997-98, he put together what may have
been the best team in Arizona history. His
silver anniversary season as a collegiate
coach, Olson won his sixth Pac-10
Coach-of-the-Year honor after directing
Arizona to the program’s eighth Pac-10
Championship during his tenure. That
defending national champion club took
everyone’s best shot throughout the season,
and still managed to post a 30-5 record,
thanks in part to a school-record-tying
winning streak of 19 consecutive games. The
Wildcats, who were a last-second,
desperation three-pointer away from becoming
the first team in Pac-10 history to complete
the league schedule 18-0, would get one step
away from the school’s fourth Final Four
before falling to Utah in the NCAA West
Regional final in Anaheim, Calif.
In a career that has produced one major
achievement after another, it was the
1996-97 season that proved to be the year
when Olson reached the pinnacle of on-court
coaching achievements.
After seeing his squad finish with a regular
season record of 19-9 and its lowest Pac-10
finish (fifth) since his first year at the
UA (eighth), he rallied the troops for one
of the most remarkable runs in the NCAA
tournament’s history. Going in as a No. 4
seed and with a two-game losing streak, the
Wildcats proceeded to do what no team has
ever done — beat three No. 1 seeds on the
way to the national title.
By the way, the trio of wins didn’t come
against just any group of teams — they came
against the three winningest programs in
college basketball history.
The excitement started when Arizona knocked
off everyone’s favorite to win it all,
Kansas, in the regional semifinal in
Birmingham, Ala. Then, after going into
overtime to beat Providence in the Southeast
Regional final (96-92), the UA advanced to
the Final Four in Indianapolis, where it
beat its second No. 1 seed, North Carolina.
This win set up the title game against
defending national champion, Kentucky.
The Wildcats vs. Wildcats match-up proved to
be a battle of epic proportions, one that
resulted in the first NCAA overtime title
game in seven years. When the dust settled,
Olson’s club came away with an 84-79 win, a
conquest that took place just two days after
his 14-year anniversary of being named the
head coach at Arizona. The monumental win
set off a wild celebration at the RCA Dome,
and back home on the streets of Tucson.
That national championship team was built
out of the same mold as the man who was in
charge — forged with a competitive fire,
intensely driven and dedicated to be the
best. Following the year, Olson was awarded
with the second annual Chase Winged Foot
Award, an honor that is presented to the
coach of the national champions by the New
York Athletic Club.
In the year prior to the national
championship campaign (1995-96), Olson
reached a pair of head coaching milestones,
as he won his 300th game as the UA mentor
and attained his 500th career victory as a
college head coach.
Following the initial season as the
Wildcats’ leader, the Arizona basketball
program began its trek into the local,
regional and national spotlight. The
excitement that Olson brought to McKale
Center has been parlayed into sellout season
ticket crowds for the past 19 consecutive
years and well-earned respect for Olson
among his peers in the coaching profession.
Olson’s Wildcat squads have finished the
season ranked in the top 10 in one or both
major college basketball polls in eight of
the last 10 seasons and 14 times overall. In
fact, Arizona has finished the season with a
national ranking in 18 of the last 19 years.
As a testament to his long-term greatness,
CBS-TV included Olson on its list of the
“Ten Greatest Coaches in College Basketball
History” during the 2003 Final Four.
He continues to put his stamp on the NCAA
and Pac-10 coaching record books with each
passing season. He has coached in the NCAA
Tournament 27 times in the last 28 years,
including the 22 consecutive appearances at
Arizona, and overall he has a 46-27 (.630)
NCAA Tournament record. In addition to the
appearances with his Arizona clubs from
1985-2006, he led Iowa to trips in each of
his final five years in Iowa City, including
the 1980 Final Four.
Olson’s Arizona teams are 39‑21 (.650) in
NCAA play with trips to the 1988, 1994,
1997, and 2001 Final Fours. His Iowa teams
were 7‑6 in NCAA action, including a Final
Four trip in 1980. His 46 NCAA Tournament
wins place him fourth on the NCAA
Tournament’s all-time victory list, and he
is one of just 11 coaches who have coached
in five or more Final Fours. Further, his 27
appearances in the NCAA Tournament ties him
for the top of the all-time head coaching
list.
Some teams rebuild, but Olson reloads his
Wildcat program — always giving his players
the right to approve or disapprove any
prospective recruit.
“I have been a firm believer that you build
a successful program with good people, Olson
said. “We never recruit the great players
who are questionable people. Hopefully, they
will be great players as well.”
Many of these players have utilized the
Arizona program to hone their skills and
move onto the next level. Under Olson, 31
players have been selected in the NBA Draft
(12 in the first round), while numerous
others have gone onto play overseas.
It most assuredly has been a successful run
at Arizona for Olson. After coming to
Tucson, it took just one season for him to
ignite a dormant program.
In 1984-85, his second season, the Wildcats
finished the year at 21‑10 and made the
first of many visits to the NCAA Tournament
under Olson. It had been eight years since
an Arizona team had won 20 games and the new
head coach was just beginning to scratch the
surface.
National recognition came with the 1986
season as the Cats won its first Pac‑10
title and put together a 23‑9 record. That
was the first of 11 Pac‑10 titles that
Arizona has won since Olson’s arrival. The
four titles won from 1988‑91 marked the
first time a Pac‑10 team won four
consecutive titles since the league
expansion in 1979.
With the 1988 Pac‑10 title in hand, the
season culminated with Arizona’s first trip
to the Final Four as the Cats put together
the finest season in school history with a
35‑3 record.
Since that 1987-88 Final Four season,
Arizona has won an average of 26 games per
season (averaging just under seven losses),
and the overall record of 499-131 during
that same period is the nation’s second-best
in terms of winning percentage (.792).
The numbers get even better when you look at
what the Cats have done at home for Olson.
In the last 23 years under Olson, Arizona
has amassed a record of 333-35 (.905) in
McKale Center, lost only 11 non-conference
games and won 261 of its last 280 games. In
that span, the Cats had an amazing run of 71
consecutive victories without a defeat,
making it the 10th-longest homecourt winning
streak in NCAA history.
The streaks haven’t built around a light
schedule, as Olson does not avoid tough
games. Since his arrival, Arizona has played
45 non‑conference, regular season games
against teams that played in the Final Four
later that same season. Further, the
Wildcats have matched wits with a team that
played in the NCAA title game in 10 of the
past 12 seasons.
With the success of the Wildcats throughout
the years, the accolades for Olson continue
to grow. His resume includes
Coach-of-the-Year honors from both the
Pac-10 (1986, 1988, 1989, 1993, 1994,1998,
2003) and the Big Ten (1979 and 1981) in
addition to a variety of regional and
national honors. He earned the John R.
Wooden “Legends of Coaching” and the Clair
Bee Coach-of-the-Year awards in 2001. In the
summer of 1999, he was also inducted into
the Pima County (Ariz.) Sports Hall of Fame.
Olson’s success at Arizona mirrors his
earlier work at Iowa where in nine years in
Iowa City from 1975 to 1983 he became the
then-winningest coach in school history
(168‑90/.651) and took the Hawkeyes to the
NCAA five straight times including a Final
Four trip in 1980.
Olson was born on a farm just outside
Mayville, N.D., on Sept. 22, 1934, and would
go on to attend high school in Grand Forks,
N.D., for the 1951-52 season, where he led
the team to the 1952 state basketball
championship.
In college, he was a three‑sport athlete
(basketball, football and baseball) at
Augsburg (Minn.) College from 1953‑56. As a
senior in 1956, Olson was recognized with
the Augsburg Honors Athlete Award, which is
given annually to the top male
student-athlete. Since that time he also has
been honored by his alma mater with
induction into the Augsburg Athletic Hall of
Fame in 1977 and received the Augsburg
College Distinguished Alumni Award in April
1986.
After five years of prep coaching in
Minnesota, he moved west and coached for six
years in Anaheim and Huntington Beach,
Calif., high schools. Olson was inducted
into the Two Harbors, Minn., Sports Hall of
Fame in July 2001.
He then guided Long Beach City College to
three league titles and the 1971 state
junior college crown and was the conference
coach of the year in three of his four
seasons. Olson followed that with a one-year
stint as the head coach at Long Beach State
(1973-74), where he led the 49ers to a 24‑2
record. That got the attention of Iowa,
which hired him for the next season.
Olson was married the former Roberta (Bobbi)
Russell for 47 years. Bobbi passed away in
January 2001. Olson has five grown children
– daughters Vicki, Jody and Christi, and
sons Greg and Steve – and 14 grandchildren.
On April 12, 2003, Olson married the former
Christine Toretti of Indiana, Pa. She has
three sons, Joe, 20; Max, 18; and Matthew,
15. The couple first met at the 2002 Final
Four in Atlanta.
|
|
