Rick Majerus

Rick Majerus ( born February 17, 1948 in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, † December 1, 2012 in Los Angeles, California ) was an American basketball coach. He served 1987-2012 as head coach at Marquette University, Ball State University, the University of Utah and the Saint Louis University. With the Runnin ' Utes of the University of Utah he reached eleven times to participate in the NCAA national championship, including the 1998 championship final in 15 seasons. In addition, he won a total of eleven Conference Championships in the Mid- American Conference, the Western Athletic Conference and the Mountain West Conference. The news agency UPI and the magazine Basketball Times named him 1991 National Coach of the Year.

Life

Rick Majerus was born in Sheboygan, Wisconsin in 1948 and completed in 1970 a study of history at Marquette University from. He then worked at the University from 1971 to 1983 as assistant coach and from 1983 to 1986 as head coach of the Marquette Golden Eagles basketball team. Subsequently, he served in the years 1986/1987 as assistant coach of the Milwaukee Bucks in the NBA before he took over as head coach of the basketball team at Ball State University from 1987 to 1989.

From there he moved to the University of Utah, where he worked from 1989 until his retirement for health reasons in January 2004 as head coach of the Runnin ' Utes. Among his players during this period included, among other things, Keith Van Horn and Andre Miller. In December of the same year he first signed at the University of Southern California a contract as head coach of the USC Trojans. Five days later he entered, however, again stating health reasons back of this obligation. Subsequently he worked until 2007 as a commentator for ESPN, before he took over the position of head coach at Saint Louis University in the same year. A year before the end of his contract he retired in August 2012 due to health problems returned by this function.

Rick Majerus was married in 1987, but was divorced two years later, and had no children. In December 2012, he died in a hospital in Los Angeles, waiting for a heart transplant, due to a long-standing heart disease.

Sporting successes

Rick Majerus was involved as assistant coach of the basketball team of Marquette University in the season 1976/1977 on winning the national championship, the NCAA, and took over as head coach with the Marquette Golden Eagles of the National Invitation Tournament in part three (NIT ). With the team of Ball State University in 1989, he won the championship of the Mid- American Conference, in addition, the team achieved the same year the second round of the NCAA national championship.

In the 15 years of his work at the University of Utah, the Runnin ' Utes won in the Western Athletic Conference and the Mountain West Conference ten Conference Championship title. The team also took eleven times at the national championship and arrived in 1991 and 1996, the Round of 16 teams (Sweet Sixteen), 1997, the round of the last eight teams ( Elite Eight ) and 1998 final, which the team but against the Kentucky Wildcats lost from the University of Kentucky. 1992 took the team also took third place in the NIT.

Rick Majerus was nominated five times for Coach of the Year in the Western Athletic Conference, and in 1991 by the United Press International and the journal Basketball Times National Coach of the Year during this time. In addition, he won the gold medal during this time at the basketball world championship in 1994 as assistant coach of the U.S. national team under Don Nelson.

With the team of Saint Louis University in 2012, he reached the third round of the national championship. In total Rick Majerus won 517 games at 215 defeats during his coaching career. In 25 years as a basketball head coach at four different universities, he had only one season with a negative balance.