Legendary Louisville hoops coach Crum passes away at 86

Denny Crum, the Hall of Popularity college basketball coach who led Louisville to 2 national championships in the 1980s, died Tuesday at the age of 86.

Crum played college basketball under John Wooden at UCLA in the late 1950s, then signed up with the Bruins’ staff as an assistant under Wooden, helping the program to three national titles throughout his time there. Louisville worked with the California local as its coach in 1971, and the program rose to national prominence under his watch.Crum led the

Cardinals to the Last Four 6 times– gaining nationwide titles in 1980 and ’86– and made the NCAA tournament 23 times in his 30 seasons. He managed Louisville’s relocation from the Missouri Valley Conference to the Metro Conference to Conference USA, and his teams won 15 regular-season championship game throughout the two different leagues.In 1993, Crum became the 2nd fastest coach to win 500 games. Nicknamed” Cool Hand Luke”for his calm temperament, he had a 675-295 mark at Louisville before retiring in 2001. “They do not make them like Coach anymore.

Coach Crum was the kind of coach that everybody gravitated to,”previous Louisville star Darrell Griffith told WDRB in 2022.” He was just so personalized. … He opened up this program to the city. Everybody was welcome. People feel that. “Crum was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Popularity in 1994

. Some 25 years later, he was among six coaches to be bestowed a commemorative bench around a statue of Dr. James Naismith outside the Springfield, Massachusetts-based hall. Naismith authorities said the acknowledgment was for a group that exemplified the worths of the hall’s name: teamwork, determination, self-respect, leadership, effort and perseverance.Upon retirement, Crum started the”Denny Crum Scholarship Fund

, “which awards scholarships to Louisville for students who reveal a”dedication to leadership and social work, academic achievement and volunteer participation.”Louisville’s home court at the KFC Yum! Center is named after him.Crum was hospitalized in 2017 after physicians said he suffered a moderate stroke while fishing in Alaska. Two years later, he again was hospitalized after another stroke.