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Coaching Legend Newell Dies

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The Associated Press

The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 18, 2008

Updated: 11/18/2008 12:11 am

BERKELEY, Calif. - Pete Newell, the Hall of Fame basketball coach who won an NCAA championship and Olympic gold medal and later tutored some of the game's greatest big men, died Monday. He was 93.

His death was confirmed by the University of California, the school Newell coached to a national title in 1959.

He died at about 10:45 a.m. in Rancho Santa Fe, at the home of retired Earl Schultz, who played for Newell at Cal and had watched over him for the last several years.

Schultz said Newell had a meeting scheduled with Jerry West and a writer who was working on a book on West, who played for Newell's 1960 U.S. Olympic basketball team.

"He's 93. He had a wonderful life, and it was just old age," Schultz said. "His health was not good, because they had removed two-thirds of his lung and he had smoked for many years."

Newell coached for 14 years at San Francisco, Michigan State and California. His final coaching job came in the 1960 Olympics, when he took a U.S. team led by Oscar Robertson, West and Jerry Lucas to a gold medal in Rome.

Newell later returned to prominence with his famous "big men" camps. He instructed some of the game's greatest stars, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Walton, Shaquille O'Neal and Ralph Sampson.

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