He directed Louisville to the 1980 and the 1986 NCAA Championships, ranking him as one of only 14 coaches in NCAA history to win two or more titles. Six times he guided the Cardinals into the NCAA Final Four, including four times in the decade of the ’80s. Only five coaches all-time coached more Final Four teams than Crum.

“The University of Louisville,��our community and college basketball fans everywhere have lost a legend��in Coach Denny Crum,” said UofL President Kim Schatzel.��“Whether he was leading his beloved Cardinal teams, representing the university with alumni and friends or supporting the many community organizations that counted on his generous spirit and enthusiasm, Coach Crum left a legacy that is unmatched. He will be remembered not only for the many wins and championships, but also for his calm demeanor, warm sense of humor and deep love for his adopted hometown and its people. Our lives are better for having known him.��Our hearts go out to Susan and the entire Crum family.”��

The man admirably labeled “Cool Hand Luke” by former commentator Al McGuire was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on May 9, 1994.

Crum guided the Cardinals to 23 NCAA Tournament appearances, 10th-most by a coach all-time. Crum’s teams regularly faced one of the nation’s toughest schedules and he amassed a 675-295 career coaching record, including an impressive 42-22 NCAA Tournament mark.�� Three of his squads participated in the NIT, reaching the NIT semifinals in 1985. The Cardinals captured or shared 12 Metro Conference regular season titles and 11 post-season tournament championships under Crum’s guidance. Crum engineered UofL to 20 or more victories in 21 of his 30 seasons.

After his retirement following the 2000-01 season, Crum continued to work as a special assistant to the UofL president for several years. The KFC Yum! Center court has been named in his honor. Since 2001, The Denny Crum Scholarship Foundation and the Denny Crum Scholarship Fund at UofL have awarded over a million dollars benefiting over 425 students. The San Fernando, Calif., native made Louisville his home and has lent countless hours of his time for charitable causes throughout the community for over 50 years.

A new residence hall on the UofL campus was recently named in his honor. Denny Crum Hall made possible by L&N Federal Credit Union opened in the fall 2022 semester and houses a mixture of student-athletes and non-student athletes. Men’s and women’s basketball and women’s lacrosse student-athletes – who each train in the adjoining facility, live in the residence hall.

Free tickets can now be claimed for the University of Louisville’s public Celebration of Life in honor of legendary basketball coach Denny Crum on Monday, May 15 at the KFC Yum! Center. The event is free and open to the public. Doors open at 6 p.m. and the Celebration of Life begins at 7 p.m.

Those who wish to attend may claim free tickets at the following link:��

Assistant Men’s Basketball Coach����will serve as Interim Head Coach for the remainder of the season.

“Coaching transitions are always difficult, especially during the course of the season, but Chris and I agreed that it is in the best interests of our student-athletes that he step aside immediately,” said Heird. “We will always prioritize our student-athletes and do all that we can to ensure that they have an incredible experience at Louisville. I want to thank Chris and his family for their service to the University and we wish them the very best in their next chapter.”

Mack ends his tenure at UofL with a 63-36 record over three and a half seasons, including 38-23 in the Atlantic Coast Conference and an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2019. Mack came to Louisville after leading Xavier to eight NCAA Tournaments, including an appearance in the Elite Eight in 2017.

“To wake up every day these last four years as the head coach of the University of Louisville has been an opportunity that I will cherish,” said Mack.����“Over the past 50 years, this position has been among the most coveted in all of college sports and I count myself lucky to have been a part of this university’s storied history.

“It is with that sense of appreciation that I have made the decision to no longer be your coach.����I know that I will miss the daily interactions with our student-athletes, coaches and my university colleagues, but after 25 years of coaching, including the last 13 as a head coach, it is time for me to focus on my family and spend more time being a dad.����I don’t know what my future holds, but I do know that I take away from here only the cherished memories and friends we have made in this community and this university.

“Any of us who is given the opportunity to represent this great university knows that we are only in this position because of the passion, support and pride of Cardinal Nation, and I know that the University of Louisville basketball program’s best days remain ahead of it.����Coach Pegues is ready to lead this program through the home stretch of the season, and I encourage everyone to pack the KFC Yum! Center to show our players how much the Louisville community cares about Cardinal Basketball.

“With all of our hearts, my family and I thank you for your passion and support and wish Cardinal Nation and the University of Louisville nothing but the best moving forward. Go Cards!”

Pegues (pronounced puh-GEESE) is in his fourth year at UofL after working six seasons at Xavier (2012-18).����Before his time at Xavier, Pegues spent two seasons as an assistant coach at his alma mater, the University of Delaware. Pegues had a stellar collegiate career at Delaware, where he earned a degree in communications in 2000. The all-time leading scorer in Delaware men’s basketball history with 2,030 points, Pegues led the Blue Hens to two NCAA Tournament appearances from 1996-2000.����A native of Washington, D.C., Pegues played professionally in Italy, New Zealand, England and Argentina, as well as one season in the Continental Basketball Association. He guided the Cardinals to a 5-1 record in the first six games of this season while serving as acting head coach.

“I have complete confidence in��, who did a tremendous job leading the team in November and I am comforted that he has agreed to lead us the rest of the season,” said Heird. “We have set a high bar for expectations for our basketball program, on and off of the court, and we will continue to strive to meet those goals. We have world-class student-athletes, academics, facilities, tradition and fan support, and I am confident that we will be able to find the right new leader of our cherished men’s basketball program. As we conduct a deliberate and targeted search, our focus will continue to be on our student-athletes and I am confident that Cardinal Nation will rally around them.”

Louisville Metro Council honored Griffith with a naming ceremony on Thursday, Dec. 2. , he said, “This neighborhood was such a great neighborhood. Reason why I say that is because we did so many things together in this neighborhood.”��

Griffith started playing basketball with his friends at Chickasaw Park nearby. He went on to play at Louisville Male High School and was heavily recruited by colleges across the country. He ended up at the University of Louisville, leading the Cardinals to four consecutive NCAA appearances and a 1980 championship. He was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four during that 1980 season.��

After college, Griffith played for the Utah Jazz. However, he maintained his Louisville roots, giving back through his nonprofit organization, the Darrell Griffith Foundation, and as a founding board member of the West End School, which is also home of the Darrell Griffith Athletic Center.��

Thursday’s ceremony was attended by , Denny Crum, former teammate Roger Burkman, President Neeli Bendapudi and others.

“Louisville Live,” the University of Louisville’s annual preseason basketball event featuring the Cardinals’ men’s and women’s teams, will be staged at legendary Churchill Downs Racetrack on Saturday, Sept. 18 during an evening of thoroughbred horse racing.
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Gates open at 5 p.m. for��Downs After Dark: Horses and Hoops, a partnership between UofL and Churchill Downs presented by Budweiser.�� The first race starts at 6 p.m. with Louisville Live launching at 7:15 p.m.�� A portable court will be placed outdoor on the Plaza inside Gate 1 of Churchill Downs with multiple team activities planned.
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General admission and first floor seating tickets for the evening of racing and Louisville Live start at $12 and may be purchased��.�� The event is free for UofL students, with additional information on claiming those tickets to be provided later.
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UofL’s 1986 NCAA Championship men’s basketball team will participate in Louisville Live, signing autographs at the event before the current Cardinals take the court. ��The 1986 team will also be honored on the previous night at the Cardinals’ Sept. 17 football game against UCF in Cardinal Stadium.
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UofL’s 1985-86 team posted a 32-7 record, winning its last 17 games to earn the NCAA title.�� The ’86 Champs were guided by then future Hall of Fame Coach Denny Crum and featured four starters that currently rank among the top 11 scorers all-time at UofL:�� Pervis Ellison (2,143 career points), Milt Wagner (1,836), Herbert Crook (1,723) and Billy Thompson (1,685); and starting guard Jeff Hall was also a career 1,000-point scorer (1,294).�� Louisville defeated Duke 72-69 in the 1986 title game (3-31-86) in Dallas, Texas, as Ellison became the second freshman in NCAA history to be named the Most Outstanding Player after producing 25 points and 11 rebounds against the Blue Devils.
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The 2020-21 season marked the 35th anniversary of UofL’s 1986 NCAA Championship, the Cardinals’ second NCAA title.�� The pandemic did not allow for gatherings or on-court presentations during the past basketball season, so the team planned to gather for a reunion at a later date.

His No. 31 is one of just four retired numbers in UofL history, and he is one of just five Cardinals to earn over 1,000 rebounds during his career. That’s on top of his 1,686 points.

that Unseld was the player who changed the Cardinal program, quoting fellow UofL legend Darrell Griffith, who said, “He paved the way for everybody that came after him at the University of Louisville, that first true African-American superstar.”��

Unseld’s legacy extends well beyond Louisville.

He was selected as the second player overall in the 1968 NBA Draft by the Baltimore Bullets. The Seneca High School graduate went onto play 13 years for the Baltimore/Capital/Washington Bullets, where he became the second player in NBA history to be chosen NBA Rookie of the Year and the Most Valuable Player in the same season. He was a five-time NBA All-Star and was named the Championship Series MVP when he led the Bullets to the 1978 NBA title.��

Unseld earned a spot in the Hall of Fame in 1988 and was selected among the 50 Greatest Players in NBA history in 1996 to honor the 50th anniversary of the league. He served as head coach of the Bullets from 1988-1994.��

His impact on the Washington Wizards/Bullets franchise was recently featured on as part of a Black History Month series. The story examines Unseld’s leadership and unselfishness on and off the court. In 1979, Unseld and his wife, Connie, opened Unselds’ School in Baltimore, which features small classes, personalized instruction and a focus on social and emotional learning, according to .��

His son, Wes Unseld Jr., an assistant coach with the Denver Nuggets, told NBC Sports that his father did whatever he could to make sure the school was a success, including cooking lunches and cleaning the floors.��

“How many lives he directly or indirectly impacted, I think those are the things that are most meaningful,” Unseld Jr. said.��