Lute Olson

For 25 years, Lute Olson was head coach of the University of Arizona Wildcats, the most successful coach in Arizona's basketball history. Robert Luther ("Lute") Olson was born on a farm in North Dakota. His father died when he was only five, and he lost a brother only six months later. His mother struggled to support the three surviving children, and Lute learned the value of hard work at an early age, but still found time to lead his high school basketball team to a state championship. He played football, baseball and basketball at Augsburg College in Minnesota, and coached high school hoops in Minnesota and California before taking his first college coaching job, at Long Beach City College, where his ream won three consecutive league titles and a state junior college championship. In 1983, when Olson rook the reigns of Arizona's Wildcats, the team was considered one of the worst in the nation. Only three years later, Olson led the team to its first Pac 10 title. For the last 20 years of his career at Arizona, The Arizona team made the NCAA tournament for the last 20 years of Olson's career, wining the championship in 1997. Lute Olson retired from coaching in 2008 after suffering a debilitating stroke. In this podcast, recorded at the Academy of Achievement's 2000 gathering in Scottsdale, Arizona, Lute Olson recounts his life and early struggles, and his lifelong enthusiasm for coaching.