Hall of Fame basketball coach Denzil “Denny” Crum, who led the University of Louisville to a pair of national championships during the 1980s, died Tuesday. He was 86.
The school’s sports information director and friend of Crum’s announced the coach’s death, saying Crum died at his home, WLKY reported.
We are saddened to share the passing of legendary UofL Basketball Coach Denny Crum.
— Louisville Men's Basketball (@LouisvilleMBB) May 9, 2023
Our thoughts & prayers are with his loved ones.https://t.co/ceEJstxbw6 pic.twitter.com/hZlfKf04xM
Crum spent decades as the coach of the Univerity of Louisville’s men’s basketball team — from 1971 to 2001 — bringing the team their first national championship in 1980, the television station reported.
The repeated again six years later.
He also brought the Cardinals to six Final Fours and won 675 games.
Crum was inducted into the NCAA Basketball Hall of Fame and was elected coach of the year three times.
He was born in San Fernando, California, the son of an aircraft mechanic and seamstress, WDRB reported. His parents split when he was 10 and he lived with his father.
Crum started playing football and basketball but basketball was the sport that stuck when a tall kid moved onto their street and Crum started playing against him, starting him on the legacy Crum would leave behind, WDRB reported.
Before becoming coach, Crum played for two years at UCLA where he then became a graduate assistant coach in 1959.
In 1961, he was hired by Pierce Junior College as head coach and spent eight years there before returning to his alma mater as an assistant to John Wooden, the Hall of Fame said.
Instead of becoming head coach at UCLA as Wooden’s successor, the Hall of Fame said Crum became head coach at Louisville, taking them to the NCAA tournament 23 times. He is also the fastest coach to reach 600 wins.
Crum was also on the National Association of Basketball Coaches Board of Directors starting in 1989 and served as president from 1999-2000.
Despite the program’s and the coach’s success, the school was investigated twice by the NCAA, The Associated Press reported.
“You try to remember all of the things that you did, things that happened,” Crum said in 2020, the AP reported. “Some was bad, but most of it good. It just makes you really proud that you were a part of it.”
He retired from Louisville in March 2001.
Despite retiring, he never lost his connection to Louisville’s program, starting The Denny Crum Scholarship Fund, raising more than $1.5 million to endow scholarships, WDRB reported.
Crum helped more than 425 students through the scholarship, WLKY reported.
The court where the Cardinals play was named after Crum, first at Freedom Hall in 2007 and then their new arena in 2010, USA Today reported.
He had suffered from several strokes in 2017, 2019 and 2022, WDRB reported.
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