John Robert Wooden was an American basketball coach and player. Nicknamed the "Wizard of Westwood", he won ten National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) national championships in a 12-year period as head coach for the UCLA Bruins, including a record seven in a row. No other team has won more than four in a row in Division I college men's or women's basketball. Within this period, his teams won an NCAA men's basketball record 88 consecutive games. Wooden won the prestigious Henry Iba Award as national coach of the year a record seven times and won the Associated Press award five times.
Denzel Edwin Crum was an American men's college basketball coach at the University of Louisville from 1971 to 2001, compiling a 675–295 (.696) record. He guided the Cardinals to two NCAA championships and six Final Fours. Honored in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame since 1994, Crum was one of the major figures in the history of sports in Kentucky and in college basketball.
Benjamin Clark Howland is an American college basketball coach who most recently served as the men's head coach at Mississippi State University from to 2015 to 2022. He served as the head men's basketball coach at Northern Arizona University from 1994 to 1999, the University of Pittsburgh from 1999 to 2003, and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) from 2003 to 2013. Howland became the first men's coach in modern college basketball history to be fired shortly after winning an outright power-conference title. He is one of the few NCAA Division I coaches to take four teams to the NCAA tournament.
Leslie Henry Hunter was an American professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the American Basketball Association (ABA). Hunter played college basketball for the Loyola Ramblers and was the starting center on their NCAA championship team in 1963. He was a two-time ABA All-Star.
Bobby Gene Bartow was an American men's college basketball coach. The Browning, Missouri, native coached 36 years at six universities after coaching two high schools in Missouri for six years. In 1972 Bartow coached the Puerto Rico national basketball team in the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.
Jerald B. Harkness was an American professional basketball player. He played for the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Indiana Pacers of the American Basketball Association (ABA). Harkness played college basketball for the Loyola Ramblers, where he was captain of the 1962–63 team that won the 1963 NCAA national championship. A consensus first-team All-American, Harkness was selected by the Knicks in the second round of the 1963 NBA draft. He was also a civil rights activist.
The UCLA Bruins men's basketball program represents the University of California, Los Angeles in the sport of men's basketball as a member of the Pac-12 Conference. Established in 1919, the program has won a record 11 NCAA titles. Coach John Wooden led the Bruins to 10 national titles in 12 seasons, from 1964 to 1975, including seven straight from 1967 to 1973. UCLA went undefeated a record four times. Coach Jim Harrick led the team to another NCAA title in 1995. Former coach Ben Howland led UCLA to three consecutive Final Four appearances from 2006 to 2008. As a member of the AAWU, Pacific-8 and then Pacific-10, UCLA set an NCAA Division I record with 13 consecutive regular season conference titles between 1967 and 1979 which stood until tied by Kansas in 2017. UCLA is scheduled to join the Big Ten Conference in 2024.
Stephen Greg Hawkins is an American college basketball coach and the former head men's basketball coach at Western Michigan University. He had previously served as the head coach at Quincy University.
The Loyola Ramblers are the varsity sports teams of Loyola University Chicago. Most teams compete in the Atlantic 10 Conference, which the school joined in 2022 after leaving the Missouri Valley Conference. They previously played in the Horizon League. Notable athletes from Loyola have included middle-distance runner Tom O'Hara, volleyball player Thomas Jaeschke, and basketball players Mike Novak, Jerry Harkness, Les Hunter, Wayne Sappleton, Alfredrick Hughes, LaRue Martin, and Blake Schilb. The nickname "Ramblers" was first used in 1926. The Loyola Ramblers departed from the Missouri Valley Conference and joined the Atlantic 10 Conference effective July 1, 2022.
Indiana State Sycamores basketball is the NCAA Division I men's basketball program of Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Indiana. They currently compete in the Missouri Valley Conference. The team last played in the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament in 2011.
The 1962–63 Loyola Ramblers men's basketball team represented Loyola University Chicago. The head coach was George Ireland. The Ramblers were the 1963 NCAA tournament champions, defeating top-ranked and two-time defending champion Cincinnati Bearcats in a 60–58 overtime contest. The 1962–63 Ramblers were one of the first NCAA men's basketball teams to have broken the so-called "gentlemen's agreement" among coaches in which no more than two black players would be on the floor at one time : the Ramblers would regularly have three or four black starters, paving the way for the 1965–66 Texas Western Miners men's basketball team who would finally put the "agreement" to rest and have an all-black starting five. They played in the Game of Change, in which a Mississippi State team defied segregationists to play against Loyola, breaking the unwritten law that Mississippi teams would not play against black players.
The Loyola Ramblers men's basketball team represents Loyola University Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. The Ramblers participate as members of the Atlantic 10 Conference. The Ramblers had joined the Missouri Valley Conference in 2013, and stayed until 2022. Prior to 2013, the team had spent 34 seasons as a charter member of the Horizon League.
Porter Andrew Moser is a college basketball coach who is the current head coach of the University of Oklahoma men's basketball team. Moser spent 10 years (2011–2021) at Loyola University Chicago, helping lead the Ramblers to the Final Four in 2018.
Lisa Ryckbosch is the current director of Professional, Corporate & Community Relations at DePaul University. She previously served as the head coach of the UIC Flames women's basketball team from 2002 to 2011 and holds the record for most wins in UIC women's basketball history. In her fifth season as head coach, the Flames made their first post-season appearance in the WNIT following their best-ever finish in the Horizon League. Upon completion of the 2010–11 season, her record with the flames was 128–139. Ryckbosch came to UIC after eleven seasons as an assistant coach at Depaul, from 1991 until 2002, and one season as an assistant coach at UIC from 1990 to 1991. Ryckbosch graduated from Loyola in 1984 after starting for the Ramblers for four years and serving as a team captain for two seasons, and in 2006 was inducted in Loyola's Athletics Hall of Fame. After graduation she began her coaching career at Hillcrest High School in Country Club Hills, Illinois, where she served as the Head Girls' Varsity Basketball Coach and a math teacher for three years.
Jerry Lyne is a South Side Chicagoan, who played for, captained and coached the Loyola Ramblers men's basketball team over the course of several decades that he was affiliated with the Loyola University Chicago.
David Bailey is an American professional basketball player. He is most notable for his time spent as point guard for the Loyola Ramblers men's basketball team from 1999 to 2003. He was a three-time All-Horizon League selection, a Horizon League scoring champion, a Horizon League assists champion and Horizon League All-Tournament team selection. He is the older brother of crosstown Horizon League foe and former George Westinghouse College Prep teammate Martell Bailey. The brothers' tenure in the league overlapped for two seasons, including one in which they were both All-League honorees. They played head-to-head several times, including a Horizon League men's basketball tournament championship game in which both were key performers.
James Joseph "Big Jim" McCafferty was an American basketball coach for the Loyola Wolf Pack and Xavier Musketeers.
Jack Hirsch is an American former college basketball player for the UCLA Bruins. He was the starting forward on the Bruins' national championship team in 1964, when he served as co-captain along with Walt Hazzard. Hirsch also earned all-conference honors that season. He later became an assistant coach in college, and served as the top assistant to Hazzard. Hazzard and Hirsch coached at UCLA from 1984 to 1988. Hirsch was inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame in 2012.
John "Jack" Egan is an American retired basketball player. His playing career is best remembered for his role on the 1962–63 Loyola Ramblers men's basketball team, which won the 1963 NCAA Championship. Egan was the lone white starting player on a team that broke racial barriers by starting four black players in an era when two or three was considered the maximum.
As head coach at Northridge Preparatory School for the past 19 seasons, Will Rey has helped establish a standard of basketball excellence with the Knights. Despite typically competing against schools with larger enrollments, the Knights have amassed a 371-172 (.683) overall record and a sparkling 174-44 (.813) mark in conference games since Coach Rey’s arrival in 2004.
