big league player, passed away on Wednesday at the age of 47, according to his agent.
During a lengthy Hall of Fame coaching career, Denny Crum won two N.C.A.A. men’s basketball titles and transformed the University of Louisville into one of the top schools of the 1980s. Crum passed away on Tuesday at his Louisville, Kentucky, home. He was eighty-six.
His wife Susan notified the university, which then made the announcement of his passing. There was no explanation provided. Crum suffered two small strokes two years ago and in August 2017 while fishing in Alaska.
Referred to as “Cool Hand Luke” due to his unwavering on-field persona, Crum concluded his career at Louisville in March 2001 following 30 seasons, finishing with a 675-295 record and two titles in 1980 and 1986.
As an assistant under the legendary U.C.L.A. coach John Wooden, Crum guided Louisville to 23 N.C.A.A. tournaments and six Final Fours. He frequently donned a red blazer and carried a rolled-up stat sheet like a bandleader’s baton. Three times, he was chosen as the college coach of the year.
In May 1994, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, accompanied by Wooden, his longtime mentor and collegiate coach at U.C.L.A. Crum was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in Kansas City, Missouri, in 2006, having finished with 11 more wins than Wooden had at U.C.L.A.
On March 2, 1937, Denzel Edwin Crum was born in San Fernando, California. Before going to U.C.L.A. in 1956, he played guard for two seasons at Pierce Junior College in Los Angeles.
Crum played for the Bruins for two seasons, going 38-14 each time. Before taking over as Pierce’s coach in the middle of the 1960s, he worked for a short time as Wooden’s graduate assistant.
When the Bruins were winning ten N.C.A.A. titles in a row in 1968, Wooden chose Crum to be his primary recruiter and assistant. The future Hall of Famer Bill Walton is said to have been drawn to U.C.L.A. by Crum, and during Crum’s three seasons there, the Bruins went 86-4 and won three N.C.A.A. crowns.
In April 1971, he took over as Louisville’s coach from John Dromo.
Louisville had only made it to the 1959 N.C.A.A. Final Four and the 1956 N.I.T. title before that, with minimal postseason success. The Cardinals fell to Florida 70-69 in Crum’s opening game, but they went on to win 15 straight games after that.
Wooden once told The Courier Journal of Louisville, “I knew I wasn’t going to keep him very long because he was so good.” “I was happy to hear that he was hired by Louisville. When I retired, I always imagined he would be the one to take over, but he left and turned out to be exactly who I had assumed he was.
Picture
