Hall of Famer Lou Henson, winningest coach in Illinois basketball history, dies at 88

The man from Okay, Okla., who made an orange blazer an instantly recognizable part of the Illini brand, was hired by the school in 1975 and coached there until 1996. He was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015.

SHARE Hall of Famer Lou Henson, winningest coach in Illinois basketball history, dies at 88
Illinois Hall of Fame basketball coach Lou Henson has died at age 88.

Illinois Hall of Fame basketball coach Lou Henson has died at age 88.

Rick Danzl/AP

No high school player in Chicago in the 1986-87 season could touch King’s Marcus Liberty. He was the state’s Mr. Basketball and a McDonald’s All-American. Sports Illustrated called him the best player in the country. He was a straight-up superstar.

And then Illinois coach Lou Henson got his hands on him.

“He said, ‘It’s my way, my team, and either you buy into it or you won’t play,’ ” Liberty recalled. “He knew what was best for the team.”

Henson, who coached Illinois to more victories — 423 — than anyone else, was buried Wednesday, four days after dying peacefully in his Champaign home. He battled health problems, including cancer, late in life.

The man from Okay, Oklahoma, with a “Lou ’do” hairdo and an orange blazer that became instantly recognizable pieces of the Illini brand, was hired by the school in 1975 and coached there until 1996. He was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015.

Henson ranks fifth all-time among Big Ten coaches in total wins and conference wins (214). He took the Illini to 12 NCAA Tournaments and 11 20-win seasons. He won a Big Ten title in 1984 and most famously led the team nicknamed the Flyin’ Illini to the Final Four in 1989.

Liberty was Henson’s highest-rated recruit ever, but he fell in behind Kenny Battle, Nick Anderson, Kendall Gill and others in the pecking order of that Final Four team. A 6-8 forward, Liberty wanted to bring the ball up the court and have the offense run through him. Henson wouldn’t have it. In time, Liberty appreciated him for it.

“He never treated me like I was ‘that guy,’ ” Liberty said. “I think that took a lot of the pressure off me. I respect him for that. I think he made me a better person, and I’ll always remember that.”

Before and after his stint in Champaign, Henson coached at his alma mater, New Mexico State. One of only 14 coaches who have taken two schools to the Final Four, he got the Aggies there in 1970. He also leads all New Mexico State coaches in victories, with 289 of them, and ranks 15th in Division I history with 779 wins.

But his greatest years — unforgettable ones — were at Illinois. From 1984 to 1990, they were a top-five NCAA Tournament seed seven straight times. With help from his former New Mexico State player Jimmy Collins, who’d been a first-round draft pick of the Bulls, he had major recruiting success in Chicago and the attention of hoops fans throughout the state.

The pinnacle of it all came in 1989. Stephen Bardo, the point guard of that team, hosted a Zoom gathering with former Illini players Wednesday and shared stories about butting heads with Henson. Both were “hardheaded” about winning, but Bardo needed occasional pushes — like the time at an airport when he dropped enough coins for one newspaper into a machine and grabbed a few extra copies for teammates. Henson wouldn’t let him on the plane until he’d returned to the machine and paid for them.

“He would say, ‘We’re creatures of habit,’ ” Bardo said. “And, ‘How you do anything is how you do everything.’ ”

Henson never cursed. He lavished players with praise rarely. He certainly didn’t dance in the locker room after big wins like today’s coaches do.

But he was Illinois’ answer to DePaul’s Ray Meyer — an ever-humble, unmistakable-looking star and, to many, quite lovable.

“Our Orange and Blue hearts are heavy,” Illini athletic director Josh Whitman said in a statement. “We have lost an Illini icon. We have lost a role model, a friend and a leader. We have lost our coach. Coach Henson may be gone, but the memories he provided us, and the legacy he created, will last forever.”

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