Robert Luther "Lute" Olson was an American basketball coach, who was inducted into both the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.
52 Facts About Lute Olson
2.
Lute Olson was the head coach of the Arizona Wildcats men's team for 25 years.
3.
Lute Olson was head coach for the Iowa Hawkeyes for nine years and Long Beach State 49ers for one season.
4.
On October 23,2008, Olson announced his retirement from coaching.
5.
Lute Olson was born on a farm outside Mayville, North Dakota on September 22,1934, and was of Norwegian-American parentage.
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At Grand Forks, Lute Olson played in his senior year for Coach Fritz Engel in both summer American Legion baseball and basketball, playing football for Coaches Bob Peskey and Louis King.
7.
Lute Olson enrolled at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, Minnesota after completing high school.
8.
Lute Olson graduated in 1956 with double major in history and physical education and Lute Olson was awarded the "Augsburg Honors Athlete Award," given annually to the top Augsburg male student-athlete.
9.
In 1961, Lute Olson and Bobbi moved west, first to Boulder, Colorado, where Lute Olson was a middle school guidance counselor.
10.
In 1963 Lute Olson became the varsity coach at Loara High School, in Anaheim.
11.
In summer 1969, Lute Olson became Head Coach at Long Beach City College.
12.
Lute Olson took the position after desiring to coach in college and seizing the opportunity when Coach Rex Hughes left LBCC for the University of Nebraska.
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Lute Olson was 35 years old with 5 children when making the career change from high school to college.
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Lute Olson had been working side jobs working for Wright Driving School and driving a gas truck for Texaco.
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Lute Olson's success was noticed in Long Beach, leading to an opportunity to enter the NCAA coaching ranks in 1973.
16.
Lute Olson had been content to stay at LBCC, but was pursued by LBSU.
17.
Lute Olson followed Jerry Tarkanian as coach, and Tarkanian had built the program into a National power, before leaving for the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.
18.
Lute Olson left Long Beach for the University of Iowa and later remarked, "People didn't go from Long Beach to Iowa, they went from Iowa to Long Beach," Lute Olson said.
19.
Lute Olson survived, but was badly injured and did not return to coaching that season.
20.
When Lute Olson was asked years later about Iowa's chances to win the NCAA Tournament had Lester not been injured, "My feeling was yes, I feel we could have won," Lute Olson said.
21.
Lute Olson said he left Iowa because life there had become a "fishbowl" and he needed a change.
22.
In 2002, Lute Olson was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
23.
Lute Olson coached the US national team in the 1986 FIBA World Championship, the last all-collegiate US basketball team to win in international competition.
24.
Fewer Arizona big men have made such a big impact in the NBA, but Lute Olson has coached several notables: forward Tom Tolbert and centers Brian Williams, Sean Rooks, Loren Woods, and Channing Frye have made careers in the NBA.
25.
Bobbi Lute Olson died on January 1,2001, of ovarian cancer, aged 65.
26.
On December 6,2007, Lute Olson filed for divorce from her.
27.
On March 15,2005, Lute Olson's granddaughter, Julie Brase, is a coach in the WNBA.
28.
Lute Olson's grandson Matt Brase was a basketball player at Arizona from 2003 to 2005 and is an assistant coach for the Houston Rockets.
29.
Lute Olson's behavior became erratic in 2007, beginning with the dismissal of 27-year associate head coach Jim Rosborough in April 2007.
30.
Lute Olson replaced Rosborough with former Toronto Raptors head coach Kevin O'Neill.
31.
On November 4,2007, Lute Olson was absent from the Wildcats' preseason opener.
32.
However, during an April 2008 press conference in which he appeared visibly annoyed and defensive with reporters, Lute Olson announced that O'Neill would never coach at the University of Arizona again.
33.
Lute Olson met with the Tucson media during Arizona's annual preseason media day on October 21; in contrast to his April appearance, he seemed in relatively upbeat and positive spirits and ready to coach in 2008.
34.
On October 28,2008, five days after Olson announced his retirement, Olson's personal physician, Steven D Knope, held a press conference in Tucson alongside Olson's daughters and grandson, in which he showed signs of emotion at times; Olson himself was not in attendance.
35.
Lute Olson had apparently suffered from atrial fibrillation for several years, which could have produced a blood clot resulting in the stroke.
36.
Knope became concerned about "changes in behavior and trouble handling his increasing workload" and advised Lute Olson to retire as a result:.
37.
Knope said that Lute Olson was "devastated" upon being informed of the MRI results and remained at home in Tucson; Lute Olson has so far declined to comment publicly on his condition.
38.
In retirement, Lute Olson has visited the University of Iowa on numerous occasions, calling it "a special place" to him, having been inducted into the Iowa Athletics Hall of Fame in 2000.
39.
On December 8,2016, Lute Olson attended the Iowa-Iowa State basketball game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, alongside his former Iowa player Ronnie Lester.
40.
At one point, Lute Olson arranged for Arnold to be flown to Arizona so he could be examined and treated at the facilities where Lute Olson's wife Bobbi had once undergone cancer treatment.
41.
At home in Arizona, Lute Olson recently said he tries to go to all home Arizona basketball games, and travels to road games at California and UCLA.
42.
Lute Olson attends some NBA games to see his former Arizona players Steve Kerr and Luke Walton coach their respective NBA teams.
43.
Lute Olson plays more golf than before, "If I were lucky I might get in 10 rounds of golf a year when I was coaching," he said.
44.
Lute Olson was hospitalized in 2019 after suffering a stroke, and was moved into hospice care in August 2020.
45.
Lute Olson is regarded as one of the greatest coaches in the history of college basketball.
46.
Arizona now stands in the company of great college basketball programs, and we have Lute Olson to thank for that.
47.
Lute Olson is one of the greatest college basketball coaches of all time.
48.
Lute Olson took over Arizona at rock bottom and built it into an incredible program.
49.
Across the last quarter-century, Lute Olson made our city feel good about itself.
50.
In 2000, Lute Olson received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.
51.
On February 11,2012, Lute Olson was initiated into the Pi Kappa Alpha International Fraternity by Gamma Delta Chapter at the University of Arizona.
52.
Lute Olson was chosen as a special initiate due to his loyalty to the University of Arizona and his dedication he showed to his players.