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."
It was a sad commentary on what happened to Bartow - UCLA alumni/fans in power at that time had no clue that they were spoiled. Many like me were young and naive and hadn't built up that crust of supremacy that required the dynasty to continue with a championship every two years, so we were absolutely content with what Gene Bartow provided. It was baffling that he left to many of us, but there remained some in power who will always give UCLA a bad name by trying to eliminate a basketball coach because he *only* does the second best job ever at UCLA, or third best even. Yeah, we are the best ever, we can ignore those unfortunate enough to have never seen John Wooden coach when they say - "that was then", no offense Jon. But we needed to come to terms with reality, then *and* now, that it has been a long-azz time since we have even won one championship, and some 20 odd years before that since we dominated the sport in a decade.
Bartow was a good Southern gentleman who was not prepared for the vitriolic reception he received at ucla for "only" winning the Pac-8 in his 2 year stint at the school.
Greed begets greed, and after Wooden had won 10 of the last 12 national titles, anything less would not do in Westwood.
Bartow basically was tarred, feathered, and driven out of town by the bruin faithful.
This was not an indictment against bruin fans in particular, some might generously say, but a general egregious statement against all spoiled sports fans.
"Clean Gene" was a very good man. Following in the footsteps of a Legend (Lombardi, Wooden) is not the easiest route. Gene wasn't expected to be as successful as Wooden, it was DEMANDED he be better.
how many times did people say...."He's no John Wooden".
RIP "Clean Gene"
The "folowing Wooden" meme is one the press ran with. The bigger problem fans had with Coach Bartow was his style of play. Wooden maintained an up tempo high post offense, a tough man-to-man defense and the use of the 2-2-1 zone press. UCLA not only had great players, but they were fun to watch. Bartow's slow and deliberate half court offense was boring to watch.
That said, Bartow was a classy individual and never really talked bad about his experieince at UCLA.
Gene Bartow was handed a championship team and he bungled it. When his team lost his second year to Idaho State 76-75 in the second round of the NCAA regionals in Provo, students set off fire alarms and threw couches off Dykstra Hall and frat boys stood out on the balconies of the Beta, Sigma Nu and SAE houses and wailed. Bartow was hardly a victim. Nobody forced him to come in. But the UCLA AD at the time JD Morgan is the real goat by not bringing in former top Wooden assistant Denny Crum. The dynasty would have continued, but instead Crum built one at Louisville while the UCLA dynasty imploded and never truly recovered its old glory.