The man who all-but exemplified college basketball in the late 1980s and early 90s is gone. Jerry Tarkanian, who led the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels to four Final Four appearances and one national title, died Wednesday at 84. He is survived by his wife Lois and four children.
RIP, Coach #Tark. pic.twitter.com/agvXuO1TYw
— UNLV Athletics (@UNLVathletics) February 11, 2015
“Coach Tarkanian’s contribution to UNLV and Southern Nevada stretches far beyond the game of basketball,” UNLV President Len Jessup said in a statement. “Many in Southern Nevada and around the nation were introduced to UNLV through Coach Tarkanian and the Runnin’ Rebels. He made Runnin’ Rebel basketball a brand name during his 19 years on campus, inspiring our community and creating a legacy that endures to this day. He will be deeply missed though fondly remembered as a college basketball icon and as one of the greats in our university’s history.”
Takanian, nicknamed “The Shark” is to this day the reason the University of Nevada Las Vegas is even on the map. Tarkanian took over the program in 1973, just three years after it had moved up from NCAA Division II. Four years later Tarkanian was chewing his towel on the sidelines of the team’s first Final Four appearance where they lost to Dean Smith’s North Carolina team by one point, 84-83.
It would be 10 years before UNLV would make it back to the Final Four, this time losing 97-93 to eventual national champion Indiana. Three years later the Runnin’ Rebels would finally break through, beating Georgia Tech 90-81 in the semifinals and then running Duke off the floor, 103-73, in the national title game.
UNLV made it back to the Final Four the following year, but Duke got some payback, knocking them out in the semis 79-77 on the way to their own national championship.
While Tarkanian teams dominated the NCAA especially from 1987-1991, Tarkanian was always at odds with the organization, feeling they were hypocritical in the way they treated amateur athletes and the bigger basketball programs. Tarkanian was a merciless recruiter who paid little mind to the rules and regulations, especially since he felt the large conferences got to recruit by a completely different set.
Tarkanian once said, “I always like to get transfers, especially from the Pac-10. They already have their cars paid for.”
Needless to say the NCAA hardly saw him as an ambassador and hounded him, finally taking him down after three of his players were photographed in a hot tub with Richard Perry, a famous gambler with two sports bribery convictions. Already on suspension for Perry’s help in recruiting Lloyd Daniels the year before, and then UNLV president Robert Maxson forced Tarkanian to resign.
Tarkanian didn’t go quietly into the night. After a one-year stint as the head coach of the San Antonio Spurs, Tarkanian return to the college ranks and finished his career with Fresno State from 1995-2002. Tarkanian even got his revenge on the NCAA, suing them for violating his due process and in 1998, the NCAA settled out of court with the Shark for $2.5 million. A win Tarkanian called “My greatest victory.”
Tarkanian took Fresno State to the NCAA tournament twice before retiring in 2002. In its usual fashion, the NCAA immediately put the Bulldogs on probation for multiple violations as soon as the then 71-year-old Tarkanian was out the door. Tarkanian ended his coaching career with a record of 729-201.
Tarkanian was named to the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in 2013. A statue of Tarkanian sits outside the Thomas & Mack Center at UNLV, sitting on a metal folding chair and chewing on a towel. No one would know who it was otherwise. Wednesday, the flags in Las Vegas were at half-staff.
“I knew right from day one I wanted to be a coach,” Tarkanian once said. “Coaching has been my entire life.”
Few have done it better.
