Legendary UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian dies at 84

[alp227]

Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal

Jerry Tarkanian loved a good fight.

It could be on the basketball court matching wits head-to-head against Bob Knight, Mike Krzyzewski, Lute Olson or John Thompson. Or it could be in a courtroom taking on the NCAA with a boatload of lawyers in tow.

Tarkanian wasn’t the type to back down, and he always scrapped and fought. Even when his health failed him in the latter years of his remarkable life, he showed a willingness to fight in a hospital intensive care unit.

Tarkanian, the iconic towel-chomping coach who put UNLV on the map as a national college basketball power and repeatedly clashed with the NCAA during his career, died Wednesday morning at Valley Hospital Medical Center.

Read more: http://www.reviewjournal.com/sports/unlv-rebels/basketball/legendary-unlv-basketball-coach-jerry-tarkanian-dies-84

---

Other obits from Fresno Bee (he was also HC at Fresno State), LA Times and Long Beach Press Telegram (he was also HC at Long Beach State), and a rather negative one from the San Antonio Express-News (because Tarkanian had a bad time with the San Antonio Spurs). Also the AP.

[outside]

1. I remember

seeing the Tark and Yankee manager Billy Marten drinking in the bar at Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach in the 80s. The story was every night ended in a fight.

[jmowreader]

2. Two big-time college basketball coaches in one week?

It hasn't been seven days since we lost Dean Smith.

Whoa.

[KeepItReal]

3. Rest in peace, Coach