Lou Henson, John Havlicek among those headed into college hoops Hall
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – When he arrived at Illinois in 1975, the first thing Lou Henson did was preach patience.
The new coach wanted to build the Fighting Illini into a national contender, but he wanted to do it with in-state prospects, even if it’d take a while. So that first year, Henson and his young assistants met with more than 400 high school coaches, building relationships for the future.
It took five years before they paid off, and even then it was a trip to the NIT. It wasn’t until 1981 that Henson finally took his team to the NCAA tournament. But with the foundation laid, Henson would take them to 11 more tournaments and a Final Four appearance in 1989.
On Tuesday, he learned he was headed for the College Basketball Hall of Fame.
Henson will be joined in this year’s class by fellow coaches Don Donoher of Dayton and C. Felton “Zip” Gayles of Langston, and five players: Ohio State All-American John Havlicek, Indiana standout Quinn Buckner, Kansas State star Rolando Blackman, North Carolina trailblazer Charlie Scott and Long Beach State star Ed Ratleff.
They will be enshrined Nov. 20 during a ceremony in Kansas City, Missouri.
“Don Donoher and Lou Henson took their teams to the NCAA Final Four while Zip Gayles was a trailblazer and role model for athletes and coaches,” said Reggie Minton, the deputy executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches and chair of the Hall of Fame selection panel. “The men selected as players include some great all-around athletes who helped lead their teams to championships in the NCAA, Olympic Games and the NBA.”
Henson began his coaching career at Hardin-Simmons, then built a perennial winner at New Mexico State. By the time he took the Fighting Illini to the Final Four, where they fell to Big Ten rival Michigan, all of his starters had grown up in Chicago or elsewhere in the state.
Henson had plenty of opportunities over the years to coach against Donoher, his fellow Hall of Fame inductee. Donoher spent his entire 25-year career at Dayton, leading the Flyers to eight NCAA tournaments and the 1967 title game, where they lost to John Wooden and UCLA.