Louis Ray Henson was an American college basketball coach.
16 Facts About Lou Henson
1.
2.
Lou Henson retired as the all-time leader in victories at the University of Illinois with 423 victories and New Mexico State with 289 victories.
3.
Lou Henson was one of only four NCAA coaches to have amassed at least 200 total wins at two institutions.
4.
On February 17,2015, Lou Henson was selected as a member of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.
5.
Lou Henson began his coaching career at Las Cruces High School in Las Cruces, New Mexico, in 1956.
6.
Lou Henson started coaching in the college ranks in 1962 at Hardin-Simmons University.
7.
In 1970, Lou Henson would help lead the Aggies to the Final Four for the only time in the school's history.
8.
Lou Henson coached at New Mexico State for nine seasons, with six trips to the NCAA Tournament and four twenty-win seasons.
9.
In 1975, Lou Henson moved to the University of Illinois to replace Gene Bartow, after Bartow left Illinois to replace John Wooden at UCLA.
10.
At Illinois, Henson coached many future NBA players, including Eddie Johnson, Derek Harper, Ken Norman, Nick Anderson, Kendall Gill, Kenny Battle, Marcus Liberty, Steve Bardo, and Kiwane Garris, and was known for his trademark Lou-Do.
11.
In 1997, Lou Henson returned to New Mexico State as interim head coach after Neil McCarthy was abruptly fired before the start of the season.
12.
Lou Henson wanted to donate his time, but was told that state law didn't allow him to coach for free.
13.
Lou Henson finally accepted a nominal salary of $1 per month.
14.
In July 2007, Lou Henson announced that he was again undergoing chemotherapy for the same strain of lymphoma that he had battled four years previously.
15.
Lou Henson was undergoing treatment in Champaign, Illinois, where he lived in the summer.
16.
Lou Henson "returned to coaching" at age 82 as coach of the New Mexico House of Representatives team in a charity contest versus the New Mexico State Senate team on February 7,2014.