‘Tark the Shark’ put UNLV on NCAA map

Associated Press

LAS VEGAS

He couldn’t stop fighting the NCAA any more than he could give up chewing towels courtside. Jerry Tarkanian built a basketball dynasty in the desert, but it was his decades-long battle with the NCAA that defined him far more than the wins and losses.

The coach who won a national title at UNLV and made the school synonymous with basketball died Wednesday after several years of health issues. He was 84.

Tarkanian put the run in the Runnin’ Rebels, taking them to four Final Fours and winning a national championship in 1990 with one of the most dominant college teams ever. His teams were as flamboyant as the city, with light shows and fireworks for pregame introductions and celebrities jockeying for position on the so-called Gucci Row courtside.

He ended up beating the NCAA, too, collecting a $2.5 million settlement after suing the organization for trying to run him out of college basketball. But he was bitter to the end about the way the NCAA treated him while coaching.

‘’They’ve been my tormentors my whole life,” Tarkanian said at his retirement news conference in 2002. ‘’It will never stop.”

Tarkanian’s wife, Lois, said her husband — hospitalized Monday with an infection and breathing difficulties — fought health problems for the last six years with the same “courage and tenacity” he showed throughout his life. His death came just days after the death of Hall of Fame North Carolina coach Dean Smith.

“Our hearts are broken but filled with incredible memories,” Lois Tarkanian said in a family statement. “You will be missed Tark.”

His teams at UNLV were national powerhouses almost every year, yet Tarkanian never seemed to get his due when the discussion turned to the all-time coaching greats.

That changed in 2013 when the man referred to as Tark the Shark was elected to the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame, an honor his fellow coaches argued for years was long overdue. Though hospitalized in the summer for heart problems and weakened by a variety of ills, he went on stage with a walker at the induction ceremony.

“I knew right from day one I wanted to be a coach,” Tarkanian said. “Coaching has been my entire life.”

His overall record is listed several different ways because the NCAA took away wins from some of his teams, but the family preferred to go with his on court record of 784-202.

The sad-eyed Tarkanian was born to Armenian immigrants Aug. 8, 1930, in Euclid, Ohio, and attended Pasadena City College before transferring to Fresno State, where he graduated in 1955. He coached high school basketball in Southern California before being hired at Riverside City College, where he spent five years before moving on to Pasadena City College.

He was hired at Long Beach State in 1968 and went 23-3 in his first year, then led the school to four straight NCAA tournament appearances, including the 1971 West Regional final, where Long Beach led UCLA by 12 points at halftime only to lose by two. While at Long Beach he got into his first dispute with the NCAA, writing a newspaper column that questioned why the organization investigated Western Kentucky and not a powerful university like Kentucky.

Never shy about challenging the NCAA, Tarkanian once famously said: “The NCAA is so mad at Kentucky, it’s going to give Cleveland State two more years’ probation.”