Former UCLA Coach Gene Bartow Passes

Someone at UCLA was going to have to follow a legend, and that man would be Gene Bartow.

The coach who took over for Coach died on Tuesday evening in Birmingham, Ala., after a two-year fight with stomach cancer, survived by his wife of 59 years, Ruth Huffine Bartow.

Bartow assumed the head coaching duties at UCLA in 1975-76 after the retirement of John Wooden and led the Bruins to back-to-back Pac-8 titles before joining the University of Alabama-Birmingham as athletic director and head coach.

“The UCLA family has suffered a great loss today with the passing of former Bruin men’s basketball coach Gene Bartow,” UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero said. “Gene had the unenviable task when he arrived at UCLA of following the greatest coach in college basketball history, John Wooden, and did so admirably. In fact, he led each of his Bruin teams to the Pac-8 title and a berth in the NCAA Tournament, including a Final Four appearance in 1976, and compiled an astounding 52-9 overall record. More importantly, he was a wonderful man and a pleasure to be around, both during his time on campus and after. He will be sorely missed. Our heartfelt condolences go out to the entire Bartow family.”

Bartow, who was survived by his brother, Russell, his daughter Beth B. Long, sons Mark and Murry Bartow and eight grandchildren, led UCLA to a 28-4 record and the Final Four in his first season after Wooden abruptly retired, then followed with a 24-5 record in 1976-77 behind senior forward and team captain Marques Johnson.

Bartow arrived in Westwood after a one-year stint at Illinois, which followed previous stops at Memphis State (now Memphis), Valparaiso and Central Missouri.

“Everyone in the Bruin family is saddened by the loss of Gene Bartow,” UCLA head coach Ben Howland said. “We celebrate the life he lived, which he did so in exemplary fashion. He was a wonderful person and an outstanding coach and family man and will be dearly missed.”

After his brief run at UCLA, Bartow guided UAB until 1996, when he finished with 647 wins, which still ranks in the top-50 in NCAA Division 1 history. Bartow ceded the coaching duties to his son, Murry, but remained athletic director until 2000. He would later serve as interim athletic director at San Diego State and as president of basketball operations for the Memphis Grizzlies and was named to the National Collegiate
Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009, the same year he was diagnosed with stomach cancer.

“Coach Bartow is a beloved figure in college basketball and in the lives of many players and fans,” said UAB athletic director Brian Mackin in a statement. “He was a great man and dedicated leader who set a standard of excellence for UAB athletics.”
Ultimately, though, Bartow was known best for being the man who replaces Wooden, something that he carried with him for years.

“I think I was treated fairly,” Bartow told The Los Angeles Times in 1996. “I just didn’t understand it at that point. I had been in programs – Memphis, Valparaiso, Central Missouri State – where I probably never had a critical thing said about me in coaching. I didn’t understand the big-city press. And in my mind we were winning big. We were recruiting extremely well.
“Still, it wasn’t very good. I didn’t understand that.”