RIP Tark the Shark

[Old School 44]

Tarkanian Dies At Age 84
Hall of Fame coach Jerry Tarkanian, who led UNLV to the 1990 national le and won 729 games at the Division I level, died at age 84 after being hospitalized for a respiratory ailment and infection.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-bask...tarkanian-dies

[Dex]

RIP to the great towel chewer

[Old School 44]

From Wikipedia...

Tarkanian was offered the Los Angeles Lakers head coaching job in 1977, but declined, continuing to coach college basketball. Tarkanian was signed to coach the San Antonio Spurs in 1992, not long after leaving UNLV. However, he disagreed with Spurs owner Red McCombs over the need for experience at point guard. The Spurs had lost Rod Strickland to free agency in the offseason (he signed with Portland), leaving the Spurs without a point guard with significant NBA experience. The Spurs had signed Vinny Del Negro, a combo-guard from the Italian League, to replace Strickland. They also signed NBA journeyman Avery Johnson, formerly of the Houston Rockets, to a one-year contract. Tarkanian felt that the Spurs wouldn't be compe ive without an experienced point guard, but McCombs disagreed. As a result, Tarkanian was fired after only 20 games with a 9–11 record. He received a $1.3 million settlement, which he used to fund a lawsuit against the NCAA.

[wildbill2u]

Tark, we hardly knew ye! RIP

[Budkin]

RIP Tark.

[Silver&Black]

RIP to the great towel chewer

Exactly....I can't picture him without a towel in his mouth.

RIP Tark

[Beaverfuzz]

Many Spurs fans on this board would have to google his name to find out anything about him. The great towel chewer, Honeymoon In Vegas!

[FromWayDowntown]

The New York Times story the morning after Tark's firing:

http://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/19/sp...-by-spurs.html

It's such a marked difference between the chaos of that era of Spurs basketball and what followed with the change of ownership from McCombs to McDermott's group and then to Holt's group, which ultimately led to the gut-based decision to make an unheralded Golden State assistant coach the Spurs' general manager and VP of basketball operations:

http://www.expressnews.com/news/loca...6054675.php#/0

[cantthinkofanything]

those UNLV teams were great.

reminds me how much I used to love watching college bball back in the day.

[baseline bum]

Sucks man, I loved his UNLV teams.

[BillMc]

I grew up near Las Vegas. Tark once yelled at me to get out the road from his car window when I was wandering through the Thomas and Mack Parking lot one summer after an AAU swim practice. Also, met him briefly once in a mall. Nice enough. He was absolutely worshiped by my friends who attended UNLV.

[SupremeGuy]

Many Spurs fans on this board would have to google his name to find out anything about him. The great towel chewer, Honeymoon In Vegas!

[JWest596]

Great college coach.....RIP......as a Spurs coach....<shudders>

[elbamba]

I remember attending a meet and great for season ticket holders right before the season where he addressed the crowd with Sean Elliott. There was only about 50 people there so I don't think it was all season ticket holders. Both of them were really nice and posed for pictures. The only thing I remember from his talk was hyping up Lloyd Daniels. Daniels had a pretty good first year and then flamed out after that. Tark was a real nice guy though, from what I could remember.

[cantthinkofanything]

I remember attending a meet and great for season ticket holders right before the season where he addressed the crowd with Sean Elliott. There was only about 50 people there so I don't think it was all season ticket holders. Both of them were really nice and posed for pictures. The only thing I remember from his talk was hyping up Lloyd Daniels. Daniels had a pretty good first year and then flamed out after that. Tark was a real nice guy though, from what I could remember.

HBO did a do entary on UNLV basketball starting from Tark's hiring. Entertaining show...Jimmy Kimmel who grew up in Vegas spoke quite a bit. Anyway, Tark does seem like a good guy that took care of his players. No matter how he recruited them. LOL.

[DMC]

RIP

[RD2191]

Many Spurs fans on this board would have to google his name to find out anything about him. The great towel chewer, Honeymoon In Vegas!

And? Sorry we aren't all 75.

[EVAY]

The very first Spurs game I ever saw in person was at the Hemisfair Arena and Tarkanian was the Spurs' coach. I didn't follow pro basketball much then and was surprised that the former UNLV coach was in the Pros.

Favorite memory of a Tarkanian basketball team when he was at UNLV: They were playing Duke and there had been a big stink about fans in the college games calling out and trashing members of the opposing teams. So the entire Student body section of Duke held up huge signs to the UNLV players saying "Welcome, Fellow Scholars"!

[baseline bum]

From Wikipedia...

Tarkanian was offered the Los Angeles Lakers head coaching job in 1977, but declined, continuing to coach college basketball. Tarkanian was signed to coach the San Antonio Spurs in 1992, not long after leaving UNLV. However, he disagreed with Spurs owner Red McCombs over the need for experience at point guard. The Spurs had lost Rod Strickland to free agency in the offseason (he signed with Portland), leaving the Spurs without a point guard with significant NBA experience. The Spurs had signed Vinny Del Negro, a combo-guard from the Italian League, to replace Strickland. They also signed NBA journeyman Avery Johnson, formerly of the Houston Rockets, to a one-year contract. Tarkanian felt that the Spurs wouldn't be compe ive without an experienced point guard, but McCombs disagreed. As a result, Tarkanian was fired after only 20 games with a 9–11 record. He received a $1.3 million settlement, which he used to fund a lawsuit against the NCAA.

Wow, who would have guessed that Vinny Del Negro would be a piece of starting point guard? Red McCombs is such a ing got.

[BatManu20]

Tark the Shark....


RIP. Great coach and that 1990 UNLV team was special.

[Maddog]

From Wikipedia...

Tarkanian was offered the Los Angeles Lakers head coaching job in 1977, but declined, continuing to coach college basketball. Tarkanian was signed to coach the San Antonio Spurs in 1992, not long after leaving UNLV. However, he disagreed with Spurs owner Red McCombs over the need for experience at point guard. The Spurs had lost Rod Strickland to free agency in the offseason (he signed with Portland), leaving the Spurs without a point guard with significant NBA experience. The Spurs had signed Vinny Del Negro, a combo-guard from the Italian League, to replace Strickland. They also signed NBA journeyman Avery Johnson, formerly of the Houston Rockets, to a one-year contract. Tarkanian felt that the Spurs wouldn't be compe ive without an experienced point guard, but McCombs disagreed. As a result, Tarkanian was fired after only 20 games with a 9–11 record. He received a $1.3 million settlement, which he used to fund a lawsuit against the NCAA.

The New York Times story the morning after Tark's firing:

http://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/19/sp...-by-spurs.html

It's such a marked difference between the chaos of that era of Spurs basketball and what followed with the change of ownership from McCombs to McDermott's group and then to Holt's group, which ultimately led to the gut-based decision to make an unheralded Golden State assistant coach the Spurs' general manager and VP of basketball operations:

http://www.expressnews.com/news/loca...6054675.php#/0

Wow, who would have guessed that Vinny Del Negro would be a piece of starting point guard? Red McCombs is such a ing got.

Brings up the whole meddling owner bit. It's really hard to imagine now as pointed out above how the Spurs where then.
Some of the decisions, you had an owner making impulsive moves (hiring Larry Brown, Tark) Letting Strickland go and replacing him with Del Negro.
Players with bad behavior. It was a mess.

[Beaverfuzz]

And? Sorry we aren't all 75.

It's ok, you can admit you're a bandwagon fan.

[RD2191]

It's ok, you can admit you're a bandwagon fan.

no, just not old as dust.

[Phenomanul]

From Wikipedia...

Tarkanian was offered the Los Angeles Lakers head coaching job in 1977, but declined, continuing to coach college basketball. Tarkanian was signed to coach the San Antonio Spurs in 1992, not long after leaving UNLV. However, he disagreed with Spurs owner Red McCombs over the need for experience at point guard. The Spurs had lost Rod Strickland to free agency in the offseason (he signed with Portland), leaving the Spurs without a point guard with significant NBA experience. The Spurs had signed Vinny Del Negro, a combo-guard from the Italian League, to replace Strickland. They also signed NBA journeyman Avery Johnson, formerly of the Houston Rockets, to a one-year contract. Tarkanian felt that the Spurs wouldn't be compe ive without an experienced point guard, but McCombs disagreed. As a result, Tarkanian was fired after only 20 games with a 9–11 record. He received a $1.3 million settlement, which he used to fund a lawsuit against the NCAA.

And yet everyone glosses over this fact when criticizing San Antonio's shortcomings in the post season during the Robinson years...

[Beaverfuzz]

no, just not old as dust.

You sound as if the 90's are so long ago. 1992 Fleer Tarkanian card!