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Lute Olson

University of Arizona basketball coach Lute Olson: the city's biggest celebrity.

CORKY SIMPSON
Citizen Sports Columnist
Jan. 19, 2001
"Lute, Lute, Lute." That's not only a cheer for the University of Arizona basketball coach, who is known nationwide, but also the title of a book honoring the head Wildcat.
Olson is Tucson's biggest celebrity, bar none.
Tall, immaculately dressed and perfectly coifed, Olson cuts a most distinctive figure in this community or wherever he goes.
Born on a farm in North Dakota, he attended tiny Augsburg College in Minneapolis and went on to become one of the greatest basketball coaches in NCAA history.
In 1983, Olson became coach of a Wildcats team that had struggled to a record of 4-24 overall, 1-17 in the Pacific-10 Conference, the previous season.
In two years, he took the Wildcats to the NCAA Tournament, and they've gone every season since.
Lute has guided the Cats to three Final Fours and in 1997 won the NCAA championship by defeating Kentucky in overtime at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis.
Tucson mourned when his beloved wife of 47 years, Bobbi Olson, died on New Year's Day 2001 after a 2 1/2-year battle with ovarian cancer.
During the late stages of her struggle, Lute took an indefinite leave of absence from the basketball team.
Olson has won numerous Coach of the Year awards and is among a handful of truly elite college coaches around the country.