Lou Henson left his unique stamp on college basketball
The Amazing Aggies and the Flying Illini.
The Lou-do and the Orange Krush.
Lou Henson left his stamp on college basketball in a number of ways.
He took two teams to the Final Four - Illinois in 1989 and New Mexico State in 1970. Both teams now play on "Lou Henson Court" at their respective arenas, the State Farm Center in Champaign and the Pan American Center in Las Cruces.
Henson passed away at age 88 over the weekend and was buried in Champaign on Wednesday morning. The family withheld information about Henson's death since large crowds at his funeral would be forbidden during the pandemic.
Henson had endured significant health problems since being diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 2003. He fought off setbacks a few times in the ensuing 17 years and made occasional appearances around Champaign.
In 2019, Henson stopped by Kendall Gill's charity event at the University of Illinois golf course in Savoy.
"It means everything to have coach Henson here," Gill told the Champaign News-Gazette. "Coach Henson is one of the toughest humans I have ever been around. We all know about his health struggles over the past couple years, but coach finds a way, even when he's not feeling well, to come out to the golf outing."
Gill was a key piece to Henson's best team at Illinois, the Flying Illini, along with Nick Anderson, Kenny Battle, Stephen Bardo, Lowell Hamilton and Marcus Liberty. That group finished second in the Big Ten and reached the Final Four in 1989 before losing to Michigan in the semifinals.
"We all still stay in touch with coach and Mrs. Henson because they are our family," Gill said last year. "We came in as boys and we left as men. A big reason for that is because of Coach Henson and his wife Mary."
Henson was hoping to attend a 50th anniversary gathering of the New Mexico State team in February. He couldn't make it, but provided a video greeting.
His 1970 New Mexico State team included three future NBA players, Jimmy Collins, Sam Lacey and Charlie Criss. Collins later became his top assistant at Illinois.
A look back at the 1970 team by the Las Cruces Suns News spoke to Henson's longtime assistant Pat Hill-Yandel.
"He really related to people," Hill-Yandel said. "I never heard the man ever lose his temper. He would speak strongly but never cursed or was angry."
One exception was when Lacey went out with an ankle injury early in the 1970 national semifinal against UCLA, a game NMSU lost 93-77.
"It was like the ship was sinking and he became just crazed on the sideline," Hill-Yandel said. "He was running up and down the sideline trying to decide who he was going to put in the game. He just kind of lost focus. That's the only time I really ever saw him get rattled."
A native of Okay, Okla., Henson played at New Mexico State from 1953 to 1955. and began his coaching career at Las Cruces High School. His first college job was at Hardin-Simmons in 1962. He was at New Mexico State from 1966 to 1975, Illinois from 1975 to 1996, then he returned to New Mexico State for eight more seasons from 1997 to 2005, when health issues forced him to resign.
Henson won 779 games, which ranks 24th on the all-time NCAA wins list. He is one of 13 coaches in NCAA history to record 200-plus wins at two Division I schools, totaling 423 at Illinois and 289 at New Mexico State. He is also one of just 15 coaches to lead at least two different teams to the Final Four.
"It is a sad day for the Illinois Basketball family and Illini Nation as we mourn the passing of Lou Henson, the greatest coach in our program's proud history," Illinois basketball coach Brad Underwood said in a statement. "His achievements are legendary, but what is immeasurable are the countless lives he impacted during his 21 years in Champaign and 41 years in coaching."