Jim Calhoun is retiring as coach of the University of Connecticut”™s men”™s basketball team, after winning three NCAA titles while becoming a major ambassador in elevating UConn”™s profile and by extension that of Connecticut.
NBC Connecticut first reported that Calhoun scheduled a 2 p.m. news conference to announce his retirement.
Former UConn player and current assistant coach Kevin Ollie reportedly will become head coach on a one-year contract. UConn has been barred from the 2013 NCAA tournament for recruiting violations, and the team lost three key players heading into this season: Jeremy Lamb and Andre Drummond, who were selected in the first round of the June NBA draft, and Alex Oriakhi, who transferred to the University of Missouri.
Inducted into the National Basketball Hall of Fame in 2005, Calhoun grew up in Braintree, Mass. and was a star player for American International College in Springfield, Mass., where the Hall of Fame is located.
Starting his coaching career at Old Lyme High School, he got his big break in 1971, getting the head coaching job at Northeastern University in Boston and eventually recruiting Reggie Lewis who would go on to star for the Boston Celtics.
UConn hired Calhoun in 1986. In 1990 he was named national coach of the year leading UConn to the “Elite Eight” of the NCAA tournament, featuring Tate George”™s memorable buzzer beater in the “Sweet 16” to down Clemson University, followed by a heartbreaking, one-point loss to Duke University.
In 1999, UConn would beat Duke in the NCAA final for the first of three national championships, also winning in 2004 and 2008 while sending a parade of players to the NBA, including Ray Allen, the all-time leader for three-point goals.
Calhoun ranks 10th on the all-time list of NCAA Division I coaching victories.
In recent years, Calhoun has been beset with health problems, getting diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2003, breaking ribs in a 2009 bike accident, and fracturing his hip in another bike fall in early August.
Calhoun has pursued philanthropic activities over the years, having donated money to create the Pat and Jim Calhoun Cardiology Center at UConn, sponsoring an annual holiday food drive, and organizing a cancer challenge bike ride to benefit the Carole and Ray Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center at the UConn Health Center.
