April 4, 2011
EVANSTON, Ill. - Tex Winter, who served as the head coach of the Northwestern men's basketball team from 1973-78, is one of 10 individuals named Monday as inductees into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
The class will be formally inducted in Springfield, Mass., in August.
Also named to this year's class are Dennis Rodman, Chris Mullin, Artis Gilmore, Arvydas Sabonis, Teresa Edwards, Reece "Goose" Tatum and Tom "Satch" Sanders as well as coaches Tara VanDerveer and Herb Magee.
Winter was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010.
Best known as the innovator of the triangle offense, Winter also served as the head coach at Marquette, Kansas State, Washington and Long Beach State. The University of Southern California graduate was the first full-time assistant coach at Kansas State and helped Coach Jack Gardner and the Wildcats reach the 1959 national championship game.
He became the head coach at Marquette at the age of 28 and stayed for two seasons before returning to Kansas State as the head coach. Winter guided the Wildcats for 15 seasons, won eight Big Eight titles and was the national coach of the year in 1959, when K-State was rated the No. 1 team nationally by both wire services.
He joined Northwestern for the 1973-74 season after serving for two years as the head coach of the NBA's Houston Rockets. In five seasons at the helm, Winter guided the Wildcats to a 44-87 record. Under his guidance, Billy McKinney became the school's all-time leading scorer with 1,900 career points and earned three All-Big Ten accolades.
Winter later carried his coaching expertise back to the NBA, where he helped the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers win 10 NBA titles as an assistant coach.
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