TULSA - One of the most legendary coaches in the history of basketball has died. Eddie Sutton, who led the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Kentucky Wildcats, and the Arkansas Razorbacks passed away after a long illness at the age of 84.
Sutton had recently been notified that he would be inducted into the incoming class of the College Basketball Hall of Fame.
Brian Montonati, now head basketball coach at Owasso High School, played for Sutton at Oklahoma State and said Saturday night that he would go down personally as a man who changed his life in multiple ways.
“We’re all ecstatic that he finally got the call for the Hall of Fame, but we knew this time was coming. In a way you are happy for him because now he is with Mrs. Sutton, his body is no longer failing him,” Montonati said. “But at the same time, it puts a lot of great memories of him and the lessons he instilled in us as players and people. It was a great privilege and honor to play for Coach.”
The 6’11 standout played under Sutton from 1997 to 2000, and said that sometimes he didn’t fully appreciate what he was learning until later in life.
“At a young age, you don’t put things in perspective, the lessons that he is teaching you until you are a little bit older and you have your own family,” Montonati said. “Those battles you had with him and the discipline you have. Being accountable and being true to who you are. Those are the things that you appreciate as a 43-year-old man. It wasn’t always about wins and losses with Coach, it was about the bigger picture. He always looked in us and looked down the road as to what kind of men we were going to develop into.”
Sutton was a Kansas native who played his college basketball at Oklahoma State University. After beginning his career as a head coach at Central High School in Tulsa, he embarked on a career at the college level that sent him to some of the most legendary university programs in the country.
He would coach at Creighton University (1969-1974), the University of Arkansas (1974-1985), and Kentucky (1985-1989) before coming back to Stillwater in 1990. In Arkansas, he was credited with taking over a nearly dormant basketball program from former coach Lanny Van Eman and turning Barnhill Arena into one of the most feared places in the country to play basketball.
But the storied career didn’t come without setbacks along the way.
At Kentucky and Oklahoma State, his winning ways continued despite difficulties that plagued both programs. In Lexington, his tenure was mired by a scandal that ended up placing the Wildcats under a postseason ban. In Stillwater, tragedy fell on the Cowboys in 2001 when a plane carrying ten members of the program crashed outside of Limon, Colorado. Toward the end of his career, Sutton faced a public battle with alcohol.
Despite those obstacles, Sutton was able to end his career on a high note, taking an interim coaching position at the University of San Francisco that pushed him into the 800 win club, one extremely exclusive among NCAA Division One coaches. He would retire in 2008 with an 804-328 record.
Montonati says that while his basketball career will define him to sports fans, it was the respect with which he treated his players through his final years that would define him to his players.
“The biggest thing for me was that after we graduated, we always would come to Stillwater, even when I was playing in Europe. My memories of Coach was how he was with my kids,” Montonati said holding back tears. “He wanted to know his player’s kids. When Mya was born, we were in Siciliy, She got a nice long letter and a pair of baby Air Jordans that Coach shipped over to us. Those are the things that mean the most to him.”
The former Cowboy recalled that when he first met Sutton at his home in Michigan, Sutton was all business, laying out a plan of discipline and accountability that was second to none. But ultimately, it was a relationship that transcended beyond the Cowboy athletic program.
“He wasn’t just a coach,” Montonati noted. “He was a father figure, and we were part of his family.”
