PROVO — Stan Watts, whose name is synonymous with BYU basketball greatness and a man considered one of the preeminent and most respected coaches in NCAA history, died Thursday evening following surgery at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center. He was 88.
The legendary Watts guided the Cougars to National Invitation Tournament championships in 1951 and 1966, won eight conference titles and posted a 372-254 record in his 23 seasons (1949-1972).
His place in college basketball was secured in 1986, when he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.
But those numbers and achievements don't begin to tell the story of what Watts meant to BYU, says senior associate athletic director Pete Witbeck.
"I think Stan put BYU on the map athletically, when football wasn't what it is today," said Witbeck, a former assistant under Watts, who was with Watts when he died. "He won two NIT championships, which were equivalent to national championships at that time."
The spacious, 22,700-seat home of Cougar basketball, the Marriott Center, has often been referred to as "The House That Stan Built."
"He was the finest man I ever met," Witbeck said. "He was one of the great men in the world and one of the greatest coaches basketball ever had. He was just revered. I was at the Final Four last week and everyone asked about how Stan was doing. He was a Who's Who in the world of basketball. In coaching, there's Adolph Rupp, Henry Iba and John Wooden. Stan was in that class."
From 1969-70, Watts was the president of the National Association of Basketball Coaches. In 1971, Watts battled cancer and underwent 14 hours of surgery that he was not expected to survive. He did. Watts coached the Cougars one more season, in 1971-72 — the same season the Marriott Center opened — and then retired from coaching. He later served as athletic director from 1972-76 and chaired the 1976 U.S. Olympic Basketball Committee. He remained a staunch supporter of the BYU basketball program. Confined to a wheelchair after he lost the use of his legs, Watts tried to attend as many games as he could. Through Witbeck, Watts wished BYU coach Steve Cleveland's team the luck before it departed to play Notre Dame in the NIT quarterfinals last month.
"There's no question he left a legacy unlike any other basketball coach here," said Cleveland., who is reminded of Watts' legacy every time he walks into the Marriott Center. "I always felt his support. It didn't matter who was coaching, he always supported BYU basketball. He definitely made his mark. It's quite a building we play in and he had a lot to do with it being built."
Cleveland compares Watts' achievements to those of football coach LaVell Edwards. "They have lived parallel lives in terms of what they accomplished at BYU," he said.
Watts also coached football, baseball and track for the Cougars. But it is his basketball teams that made the greatest impact. "He was the master of fast break, high-scoring basketball," remembered former BYU sports information director Dave Schulthess. "He also loved to bring the big teams to campus. He was responsible for San Francisco and Bill Russell playing in Provo. He also took his teams abroad, to South America and the Orient. He just had a remarkable career."