As we all learned this week, Lute Olson has been in hospice care and Thursday he passed away. He leaves behind an immense legend.
Born in North Dakota to a Norwegian family, Olson started out in high school coaching before moving to Long Beach City College. He was highly successful there and quickly moved to Long Beach State, where he inherited one of the first messes left by Jerry Tarkanian. After one 24-2 season he was off to Iowa where he lasted nine years before the fishbowl environment got to him.
When he got to Arizona the joke was that McKale Center was the best place to study on campus because it was so quiet during games.