Nolan Richardson

For the baseball player, see Nolen Richardson.

Coach Nolan Richardson
Born	December 27, 1941 (1941-12-27)
Nationality	American
WNBA career	2010–2011
Regular season	7–38 (.156)
Profile	WNBA Info Page
WNBA Head Coach of
Tulsa Shock (2010–2011)

Nolan Richardson
Sport(s)	Basketball
Current position
Title	Head coach
Biographical details
Born	December 27, 1941 (1941-12-27) El Paso, Texas, USA
Playing career
1960–1964	Texas Western
Position(s)	Forward
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1968–1978 1978–1981 1981–1985 1985–2002 2005–2007 2007–present 2009-2011	Bowie High School West Texas Junior College University of Tulsa University of Arkansas Panamanian National Team Mexican National Team Tulsa Shock
Head coaching record
Overall	508-206 (.711)
Accomplishments and honors
Championships NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship: (1994) Regional Championships - Final Four (1990, 1994, 1995) 1981NIT title 1980 NJCCA title MVC Regular Season Championship (1984, 1985) MVC Tournament Championship (1982, 1984) SWC Regular Season Championship (1989, 1990, 1991) SWC Tournament Championship (1989, 1990, 1991) SEC Regular Season Championship (1992, 1994) SEC Division Championship (1992, 1993, 1994, 1995) SEC Tournament Championship (2000)
Awards 1994 NABC National Coach of the Year 1994 Naismith Coach of the Year

Nolan Richardson (born December 27, 1941) is an American basketball head coach, who was elected to the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. He has coached teams to winning a NCAA Men's Division I Basketball National Championship, an NIT championship, and a Junior College National Championship. Richardson is the only coach to win all three championships. He previously coached college basketball at the University of Tulsa and the University of Arkansas here he led the Razorbacks to the NCAA title in 1994. Richardson coached the Arkansas team to a second-place finish in the NCAA Tournament in 1995.

On October 20, 2009, Richardson was named head coach of Women's National Basketball Association's Tulsa Shock, formerly known as the Detroit Shock, a position he held until July 8, 2011. Most recently he coached the Mexican National Team.

Early life

Richardson was born in El Segundo Barrio in El Paso, Texas, United States to Nolan Richardson Sr. and Clareast Richardson. Clareast died from a mysterious disease in 1944, leaving behind three children: Shirley, age 5, Nolan Jr., three, and Helen, six months. Eventually they moved in with the children's grandmother, Rose Richardson or Ol' Mama. Ol' Mama had a profound impact on Nolan by helping instill the drive and determination to succeed. Nolan's father, would visit, but often did not live with the family, battling alcoholism for much of his adult life.

Nolan Richardson played collegiately at Texas Western College, now the University of Texas at El Paso, playing his senior year under the school's new coach, future Basketball Hall of Famer Don Haskins.

Coaching start

Richardson began his coaching career at Bowie High School in El Paso. He then moved to Western Texas Junior College, where he won the National Junior College championship in 1980. He was the head coach at Tulsa from 1981 to 1985, leading Tulsa to the NIT championship in 1981. This was the first time an African American coach won an NIT championship. Nolan Richardson is credited with bringing the Tulsa program to national prominence when hired in 1980, and he led the school to the aforementioned 1981 NIT Championship as well as season conference championships in '84 & '85, along with conference tournament titles in '82 & '84. Nolan had an incredible .763 winning percentage at the school. He became the first coach in NCAA history to win 50 games in his first two seasons. While coaching at Tulsa, Richardson became known for wearing an assortment of polka dot ties. This trademark eventually led Tulsa students to don polka dots during home games. In 1985 Richardson became the head coach at the University of Arkansas, where he gained national recognition, winning the National Championship in 1994.

University of Arkansas

Nolan Richardson inherited a team and program that was used to a walk it up the court slow tempo style that his predecessor Eddie Sutton had implemented. Nolan's style of up tempo was something new to Arkansas fans and people questioned it after finishing 12-16 his first season. However, by year two he had Arkansas back in the post season with an NIT berth. By year three he had Arkansas dancing in the NCAA Tournament. The Hogs would stay there for 13 of the next 15 seasons. In all Arkansas under Richardson enjoyed 15 post season appearances during the 17 seasons of his tenure. Nolan Richardson built the Razorback program into a national power and spoke out often about the unjust stereotyping that he and other black coaches faced. Nolan's teams were the winningest team of the '90's until 1996. Richardson took the University of Arkansas to the Final Four three times, losing to Duke in the semifinals in 1990, winning the National Championship in 1994 against Duke University, and losing in the Championship game to UCLA in 1995. He was named the National Coach of the Year in 1994. Nolan's legendary Arkansas teams recorded 20 win seasons twelve times as well as four 30 win seasons. His teams typically played an up tempo game with intense pressure defense - a style that was known as "40 Minutes of Hell." In 2012 his coaching philosophy was featured in the documentary "40 Minutes of Hell" on ESPN as part of the network's SEC Storied series. He is the winningest Basketball coach in Arkansas history, compiling a 389-169 (70%) record in 17 seasons. He is the only head coach to win a Junior College National Championship, the NIT Championship, and the NCAA Championship. Nolan Richardson is also among an elite group including Roy Williams, Denny Crum, Jim Boeheim, and Tubby Smith as the only head coaches to win 365 games in 15 seasons or less.

University of Arkansas controversy

In February 2002, Richardson spoke out against the administration at the University of Arkansas and its fans. He claimed that he was being mistreated because he was African American, and challenged Athletic Director Frank Broyles to ruffled feathers by declaring "if they go ahead and pay me my money, they can take my job tomorrow.” Shortly thereafter, Arkansas dismissed Richardson as head coach. In December 2002, Richardson filed a lawsuit against the University, the Board of Trustees, and the Razorback Foundation, citing a racially discriminatory environment. Coach Richardson's lawsuit was dismissed in July 2004. The Razorbacks have not been back to the sweet 16 since Richardson's dismissal. Arkansas had reached the Sweet 16 six times in seven years under Richardson between 1990 and 1996.

After the University of Arkansas

From 2005 to 2007, Richardson, who speaks fluent Spanish, served as the head coach of the Panamanian national team. In March 2007, Richardson was named as the head coach of the Mexican national team.

In the middle of 2009, Richardson was named as head coach and general manager of a prospective WNBA expansion team in Tulsa. While it seemed unusual to hire a coach before securing an actual berth in the league, the investors behind the expansion effort claimed this proved they were serious about wanting a team. On October 20, 2009, the Tulsa group bought the Detroit Shock and moved it to Tulsa as the Tulsa Shock. It was Richardson's first time as a professional head coach, as well as his first time coaching women.

Richardson's tenure with the Shock was far from successful. His first season ended before it began when key players who had led the Shock to three WNBA titles opted, for various reasons, not to make the move to Tulsa. This forced Richardson to try to build the team around disgraced Olympic track star Marion Jones, who hadn't played a meaningful basketball game since her college days 13 years earlier. The players also found it difficult to adjust to Richardson's frenetic style. A lack of continuity plagued the team as well; all of the players who had come from Detroit had left the team by the middle of the season, and Richardson seemingly juggled the roster on a game-by-game basis. The final result was a dreadful 6-28 record, dead last in the league. Richardson tried to rebuild the team by coaxing Sheryl Swoopes out of retirement, but after a 1-10 start, Richardson resigned on July 8, 2011.

Head coaching record

Season	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Postseason
Tulsa (MVC) (1980–1985)
1980-1981	Tulsa	26-7	15-0	T-2nd	NIT Champions
1981-1982	Tulsa	24-6	12-4	T-2nd	NCAA 1st Round
1982-1983	Tulsa	19-12	11-7	T-3rd	NIT 1st Round
1983-1984	Tulsa	27-4	13-3	T-1st	NCAA 1st Round
1984-1985	Tulsa	23-8	12-4	1st	NCAA 1st Round
Tulsa:		119-37 (.763)	63-18 (.778)
Arkansas (SWC) (1985–1991)
1985-1986	Arkansas	12-16	4-12	7th	None
1986-1987	Arkansas	19-14	8-8	5th	NIT 2nd Round
1987-1988	Arkansas	21-9	11-5	T-2nd	NCAA 1st Round
1988-1989	Arkansas	25-7	13-3	1st	NCAA 2nd Round
1989-1990	Arkansas	30-5	14-2	1st	NCAA Final Four
1990-1991	Arkansas	34-4	15-1	1st	NCAA Elite 8
Arkansas:			65-31 (.677)
Arkansas (SEC) (1991–2002)
1991-1992	Arkansas	26-8	13-3	1st-Western	NCAA 2nd Round
1992-1993	Arkansas	22-9	10-6	1st (West)	NCAA Sweet 16
1993-1994	Arkansas	31-3	14-2	1st-Western	NCAA Champion
1994-1995	Arkansas	32-7	12-4	T-1st (West)	NCAA Runner-Up
1995-1996	Arkansas	20-13	9-7	T-2nd (West)	NCAA Sweet 16
1996-1997	Arkansas	18-14	8-8	2nd (West)	NIT Final Four
1997-1998	Arkansas	24-9	11-5	2nd (West)	NCAA 2nd Round
1998-1999	Arkansas	23-11	9-7	2nd (West)	NCAA 2nd Round
1999-2000	Arkansas	19-15	7-9	3rd (West)	NCAA 1st Round
2000-2001	Arkansas	20-11	10-6	2nd (West)	NCAA 1st Round
2001-2002	Arkansas	13-14†	5-10†	T-4th (West)	None
Arkansas:		389-169 (.697)	108-67 (.617)
Total:		508-206 (.711)
National champion         Conference regular season champion         Conference tournament champion       Conference regular season and conference tournament champion       Conference division champion

†Was replaced by interim before end of season.

See also

• NCAA Men's Division I Final Four appearances by coaches