Tex Winter

Winter was born on February 25, 1922,^[2] near Wellington, Texas, (a fact which later provided him with his nickname when his family moved to California^[3]) 15 minutes after twin sister Mona Francis.^[4] He grew up in an unpainted shack just outside of Wellington, located in the Texas panhandle, during the Dust Bowl.^[5] The Winter family moved to Lubbock, Texas, in 1929, where his mechanic father died of an infection after being speared by a marlin while fishing, when Tex was seven or eight years old.^[4][5]

Winter had to work while in elementary school to help his family, one such job being to collect boxes for a local baker in exchange for day-old bread.^{[citation needed]} In 1936, Winter and his sister moved to Huntington Park, California with their mother, who would work as a clothing store sales manager. His older football star brother Ernest remained in Texas to finish high school, while his older sister Elizabeth had already married and moved to California first and encouraged them to move there.^[4] Winter worked on a truck farm when he first arrived in California, bringing overripe fruit home to the family.^[5]

While attending Huntington Park High School, the Loyola University of Los Angeles (now Loyola Marymount University) basketball team practiced at his high school. Winter carefully studied coach Jimmy Needles’s reverse action offense, which was an early template of the later triangle offense.^[5] Along with Phil Woolpert and Pete Newell, Winter was a ball boy for Loyola University.^[6] Both Woolpert and Newell would become Hall of Fame head coaches.^[7][8]

After graduation from high school in 1940, Winter attended college at Compton Junior College for two years, where he became a renowned pole vaulter and earned a pole-vaulting scholarship to Oregon State University.^[2][9] He was on the basketball and track teams at both schools.^[9] As a pole vaulter, Winter competed against Bob Richards, a 1948 and 1952 Olympian.^[6] He was considered a strong candidate for the US Olympic team in 1944, but the Olympics were cancelled by World War II.^[9]

Winter met his wife Nancy at Oregon State.^[5] Both of them entered the United States Navy in early 1943, with Winter going into fighter pilot training and his wife into WAVES.^[4] After his pilot's wings were conferred he was assigned to fighter pilot duty in the Pacific. However, his orders were rescinded after his brother's plane was shot down, and Winter remained at Naval Air Station Glenview in Illinois for the duration of the war.^{[citation needed]} After the war, he was assigned to NAS Corpus Christi as a test pilot for an experimental jet craft. While in the navy, Winter was a starting guard for his basketball team under the commanding officer Chuck Taylor.^[10] He left the Navy with the rank of Ensign in 1946.^{[citation needed]}

Winter returned to college after the war at the University of Southern California (1946-1947), where he learned the triangle offense from his coach Sam Barry,^{[11][citation needed]} or as stated elsewhere, Winter learned the fundamentals of Barry's system from which Winter himself would devise the triangle offense.^[3] The Naismith Hall of Fame has said the triangle offense evolved in part from Barry's center-opposite offense.^[12] He was a basketball teammate of Bill Sharman, Alex Hannum, and Gene Rock, future professional basketball players.^[13][3][2] Like Winter, Sharman and Hannum would go on to be Hall of Fame coaches,^[14][15] though Winter, in a rarity, went in for his contributions as an assistant coach.^[16]

At USC, Winter was also on the track team, and was named an All-American as a pole vaulter.^[2]

After graduating college in 1947, Winter immediately entered the coaching profession as an assistant to Hall-of-Famer Jack Gardner at Kansas State University (K-State or Kansas State), a position he held from 1947 to 1951.^[17][18][19] It was as an assistant at Kansas State where he began to devise the triangle offense.^[3] He was Gardner's assistant in 1948 and 1951 when the team went to the final four of the NCAA tournament.^[20] He would work as a basketball coach for the next 61 years.

In 1952, Winter began a two-year stint as head coach at Marquette University, becoming the youngest coach in major college basketball.^[10][5][21] In 1953, Winter returned to Kansas State as its head coach; at 31, still the youngest major college coach.^[18][22][23] Winter served as Kansas State's head coach for the following 15 years, posting a 261–118 (.689) record,^[3][21] though his record has also been reported as 262-117.^[20][19] He still owns the record for most league titles (eight) in school history and twice led the Wildcats to the Final Four (1958 and 1964).^[3][24][19] Winter guided K-State to postseason play seven times overall, including six trips to the NCAA Tournament, and boasts one of the highest winning percentages in K-State's history.^[25][19]

Winter was named UPI National Coach of the Year in 1958,^[19] after he led Kansas State to the Final Four by knocking off Oscar Robertson and second-ranked Cincinnati in an 83–80 double-overtime thriller.^[26] Junior center Bob Boozer was one of three Wildcats to be named a first-team All-American,^[27] along with teammates Jack Parr^[28] and Roy DeWitz who were also named All-Americans.^[29] Boozer, Parr and DeWitz were all named to the Midwest-Lawrence All-Regional NCCA team that year.^[30] Earlier in the season, on February 3, 1958, No. 4 ranked Kansas State defeated Wilt Chamberlain and the No. 2 ranked University of Kansas in double overtime, using a defensive scheme Winter devised to impede Chamberlain's offense.^[31]

K-State advanced to their fourth Final Four in 1964. Winter's Wildcats knocked off Texas Western and Wichita State to reach Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri.^[32] Two-time Big Eight selection Willie Murrell averaged 25.3 points per game during the run,^[33][34] which ended in a 90–84 loss to eventual national champion UCLA.^[35] It was the first of UCLA's 9 NCAA championships over the next 10 years.^[32]

In 1962, Winter also wrote the book The Triple-Post Offense, about the triangle offense – the offense which he developed and utilized with such success at Kansas State.^[5] Following his leaving Kansas State, turning over the head coaching position to his assistant Cotton Fitzsimmons,^[36] Winter also served as head coach at the University of Washington (1968–1971, where he was hired by then Athletic Director Joseph Kearney), Northwestern University (1973–1978), and Long Beach State. In 1982, LSU's Dale Brown, who Winter befriended when Brown was a high school coach, hired Winter as an assistant for one year 1983–84.^[37][19]

In 30 years as a college head coach, Winter compiled a career record of 453–334.^[3]

Leones de Ponce (1952–1954)

Winter coached Leones de Ponce (basketball) from 1952 to 1954, earning consecutive BSN finals appearances and winning the first two championships in franchise history in 1952 and 1954.

NBA

Winter was hired by Pete Newell as head coach of the Houston Rockets for two seasons, 1971–1973, posting a 51–78 (.395) record. Winter replaced his old USC teammate, Alex Hannum. He was fired and replaced by assistant coach Johnny Egan on January 21, 1973. The trading of Elvin Hayes to the Baltimore Bullets prior to the 1972–73 season and the Rockets' subsequent subpar performance were factors in his dismissal.^[38][39]

In 1985, Winter started another chapter of his life after contemplating retirement, serving as an assistant coach with the Chicago Bulls, and teaching the triangle offense to Michael Jordan. He was hired to the position by General Manager Jerry Krause, an old friend he had met while at Kansas State. As an assistant to Phil Jackson, who took over as the Bulls' head coach in 1989, Winter and his ball-movement offense were an integral part of the Bulls' NBA championships in 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, and 1998.^[40][19]

Winter followed Jackson to the Los Angeles Lakers. Led by Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, the Lakers won three championships using the triangle system in 2000, 2001, and 2002.^[40] Winter was also a consultant for the NBA champion 2008–09 Los Angeles Lakers team.^[41]

Winter had a bond with Bryant, helping Bryant understand the value to Bryant of playing within the team's system, and watching hours of film together.^[6] Jordan respected Winter because of Winter's only being satisfied if things were done correctly.^[5] Jordan learned a deal from Winter, finding him to be a teacher and tireless worker, with a focus on details and preparation.^[3]

On April 25, 2009, Winter suffered a stroke in Manhattan, Kansas, while attending a Kansas State basketball reunion.^[42]

He lived near Kansas State in Manhattan, Kansas with his Alzheimer's-stricken wife^[43] and son Brian. He suffered from the after-effects of his 2009 stroke, including an uncooperative right side and nerve pain in his neck and shoulder.^[44] He has two other sons, Russ and Chris.

Winter died on October 10, 2018, at the age of 96.^[45]

Winter is a member of several Halls of Fame, including the Kansas State Athletics Hall of Fame (1991),^[19] Kansas Sports Hall of Fame (1997),^[20] and the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, and he was awarded the John Bunn Award for lifetime achievement from the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.^[46][47] In June 2010, he was given the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award, along with Hall of Fame coach Dr. Jack Ramsay, by the NBA Coaches Association.^[48][9][49] In 2003, Kansas State fans voted him the Kansas State basketball coach of the century.^[18]

In 2002, after the Lakers' third consecutive championship, the team made rings for the players and coaches honoring Winter. On the front of the jewel-encrusted ring was a design with several triangles, honoring Winter’s triangle offense.^[18]

On his eighth time on the final ballot for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, it was announced on April 2, 2011, that Winter had been elected. He was formally inducted on August 12, with his Boston-based physicist son Chris giving a speech in his behalf.^[50][12]

In 2016, the NBA established The Tex Winter Assistant Coach Lifetime Impact Award, presented annually to a storied assistant coach who has consistently made a substantial impact over at least fifteen years. The award "honors the career of Hall of Famer Tex Winter who over an outstanding NBA coaching career set a standard of loyalty, integrity, competitive excellence and tireless promotion of NBA basketball."^[49]

On May 26, 2012, Winter was inducted into the Compton Community College Athletics Hall of Fame, under the category of Basketball.^[9]

College

More information Season, Team ...

Statistics overview

Season	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Postseason
Marquette Golden Eagles (Independent) (1951–1953)
1951–52	Marquette	12–14
1952–53	Marquette	13–11			Won the National Catholic Invitational Tournament (NCIT)
Marquette:		25–25 (.500)
Kansas State Wildcats (Big Seven / Big Eight Conference) (1953–1968)
1953–54	Kansas State	11–10	5–7	T–4th
1954–55	Kansas State	11–10	6–6	T–3rd
1955–56	Kansas State	17–8	9–3	1st	NCAA Sweet 16
1956–57	Kansas State	15–8	8–4	2nd
1957–58	Kansas State	22–5	10–2	1st	NCAA University Division Final Four
1958–59	Kansas State	25–2	14–0	1st	NCAA University Division Elite Eight
1959–60	Kansas State	16–10	10–4	T–1st
1960–61	Kansas State	22–5*	13–1*	1st	NCAA University Division Elite Eight
1961–62	Kansas State	22–3	12–2	2nd
1962–63	Kansas State	16–9	11–3	T–1st
1963–64	Kansas State	22–7	12–2	1st	NCAA University Division Final Four
1964–65	Kansas State	12–13	5–9	T–6th
1965–66	Kansas State	14–11	9–5	3rd
1966–67	Kansas State	17–8	9–5	4th
1967–68	Kansas State	19–9	11–3	1st	NCAA University Division Sweet 16
Kansas State:		261–118 (.689)	154–57 (.730)
Washington Huskies (Pacific-8 Conference) (1968–1971)
1968–69	Washington	13–13	6–8	4th
1969–70	Washington	17–9	7–7	5th
1970–71	Washington	15–13	6–8	5th
Washington:		45–35 (.563)	19–23 (.452)
Northwestern Wildcats (Big Ten Conference) (1973–1978)
1973–74	Northwestern	9–15	3–11	9th
1974–75	Northwestern	6–20	4–14	T–9th
1975–76	Northwestern	12–15	7–11	T–7th
1976–77	Northwestern	9–18	7–11	T–7th
1977–78	Northwestern	8–19	4–14	T–9th
Northwestern:		44–87 (.336)	25–61 (.291)
Long Beach State 49ers (Pacific Coast Athletic Association) (1978–1983)
1978–79	Long Beach State	16–12	7–7	4th
1979–80	Long Beach State	22–12	11–3	2nd	NIT second round
1980–81	Long Beach State	15–13	9–5	T–3rd
1981–82	Long Beach State	12–16	7–7	T–4th
1982–83	Long Beach State	13–16	6–10	7th
Long Beach State:		78–69 (.531)	40–32 (.556)
Total:		453–334 (.576)
National champion         Postseason invitational champion         Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion       Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion       Conference tournament champion

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*1960–61 record reflects one win by forfeit over Colorado.

NBA

Legend

Regular season	G	Games coached	W	Games won	L	Games lost	W–L %	Win–loss %
Playoffs	PG	Playoff games	PW	Playoff wins	PL	Playoff losses	PW–L %	Playoff win–loss %

More information Team, Year ...

Team	Year	G	W	L	W–L%	Finish	PG	PW	PL	PW–L%	Result
Houston	1971–72	82	34	48	.415	4th in Pacific	–	–	–	–	Missed Playoffs
Houston	1972–73	47	17	30	.362	3rd in Central	–	–	–	–	–
Career		129	51	78	.395		–	–	–	–

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• Winter, Fred (1962). The Triple-Post Offense. Prentice-Hall.

• List of NCAA Division I Men's Final Four appearances by coach