Basketball coaching legend Pete Newell died Monday morning in Racho Santa Fe, California, at the age of 93 years old.  Newell is only one of three coaches to win a NCAA title, NIT title, and Olympic gold medal.

Newell died at about 10:45 a.m. in Rancho Santa Fe at the home of retired Dr. Earl Shultz, who played for Newell at Cal and had watched over him for the last several years.

Shultz said Newell had a meeting scheduled with West and a writer who was working on a book on West, who played for Newell’s 1960 U.S. Olympic basketball team.

Newell coached for 14 years at San Francisco, Michigan State and California before doctors advised him to give it up because of the emotional toll. His final coaching job came in the 1960 Olympics, when he took a U.S. team led by Oscar Robertson, West and Jerry Lucas on a dominant run to a gold medal in Rome.

I first hear of Newell in the late 80’s and 90’s when his Pete Newell’s Big Man Camp was always mentioned in the news.  It was a camp for coaches and for big men where Newell would teach them footwork and how to score, reboud, and defend in the post.

Newell later returned to prominence with his famous “big men” camps. He instructed some of the game’s greatest stars, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Walton, Shaquille O’Neal and Ralph Sampson.

Newell will be missed by the thousands of players he coached over the years and thousands of basketball fans across the country as well.

Newell is surived by his sons: Pete Jr., Roger, Tom and Greg along with his grandchildren.