As good as BYU basketball was in 2011, as loud the crowd, there was another time things got just as wild.
In 1981, coach Frank Arnold led the Cougars to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. Now Frank 2.0 is running the show, but not at BYU. The trim gray hair, the lean frame — don't we know this guy?
The head basketball coach at the University of Hawaii last season was Gib Arnold, son of ex-BYU and Hawaii coach Frank Arnold. By all indications, the younger Arnold's career is looking up.
GIB ARNOLD According to Honolulu Star-Advertiser writer Ferd Lewis, the university got itself into a fix. It put together a temporary agreement when it hired Arnold last year but never got around to making a formal agreement. Now he is coming off a 19-win season — excellent by Warrior standards — and his reps are looking for an enhanced final contract, so this could get expensive.
I don't hear the elder Arnold's name often these days, yet he had some great years. The Cougars had losing seasons his first three years, but then (thanks largely to Danny Ainge), he posted 20-, 24- and 25-win seasons. After two more mediocre seasons, he was fired.
Frank Arnold always entertained me. He would get wound up during games and stamp his feet. But on a personal level, he was likable and candid. I talked to him a couple of times by phone from his home near Show Low, Ariz. deseretnews.com since then.
While Dave Rose deserves much credit for representing BYU so well, Frank Arnold too did a nice job during that 1981 spring when BYU was in the news.
After serving as an assistant coach at Provo High, UVU, Loyola Marymount, Vanderbilt, Pepperdine and USC, and as head coach at Southern Idaho, Gib Arnold has also put in his dues. The former LDS missionary (Germany) is now in a position of strength.
FRANK ARNOLD