By FRANK LITSKYPublished: August 24, 2007
Butch van Breda Kolff, a happy-go-lucky nonconformist who from 1951 through 1994 coached more than 1,300 college, professional and high school basketball games, died Wednesday in Spokane, Wash. He was 84 and had lived in Spokane for the last year.
He died of multiple illnesses, including Parkinson’s disease and pneumonia, his son, Jan, said.
Van Breda Kolff used to say that except for a chosen few, coaching basketball was a vagabond profession, and he was a prime example. He held 13 head-coaching jobs and for one season, when he was 61, he coached a high school team.
“I’ve had some good jobs that I’ve left, or they fired me,” he once said. “At the time, I thought it was the right thing for me to do. Whether it turned out right later, who cares?”
He coached Bill Bradley as a collegian and Wilt Chamberlain as a professional and never seemed fully satisfied with either player. When Bradley played for him at Princeton, he said, “Bill is not hungry.” He felt the same way about Chamberlain, who played for him with the Los Angeles Lakers.
In the final minutes of the seventh and deciding game of the National Basketball Association’s 1969 championship playoffs, Chamberlain benched himself during the fourth quarter with what van Breda Kolff considered a minor knee injury. When Chamberlain asked to return to the game, van Breda Kolff refused, and the Lakers lost to the Boston Celtics by 2 points.
We played better when he was out,” van Breda Kolff said. “I have no regrets because in my mind at the time I thought it was the right thing to do. The only regret I’ll have would be if I don’t have a team.”
Shortly after, van Breda Kolff resigned, but as usual he soon had another team.
His coaching style never changed. When he was 71 and coaching his final season, The New York Times described him as the “animated, nonstop-gesticulating, chair-kicking, sideline-pacing, expletive-spewing Butch of days gone by.” But his teams were well-schooled, emphasizing teamwork, a patient offense and a tough defense.
Willem Hendrik van Breda Kolff was born Oct. 28, 1922, in Montclair, N.J., and grew into a 6-foot-3, 185-pound playmaking guard. After World War II service in the Marines, he returned to Princeton and became the basketball and soccer captain.
His coaching career (always as a head coach) began in 1951 at Lafayette (1951-55). He left after four years because, he said, “They wouldn’t give me a $200-a-year raise.” Then came seven years (1955-62) at Hofstra and five (1962-67) at Princeton. Next were 10 seasons with the pros: the Lakers (1967-69), the Detroit Pistons (1969-72), the Phoenix Suns (1972-73), the Memphis Tams of the American Basketball Association (1973-74) and the N.B.A.’s expansion New Orleans Jazz (1974-77).
He then coached the University of New Orleans men (1977-79) and the New Orleans Pride of the Women’s Professional Basketball League (1979-81). When the women’s league collapsed, he became a door-to-door salesman, but as he recalled: “Guys wanted to talk basketball. I don’t think I ever sold anything.”
Next came four seasons of pro basketball, all with the Knicks. He averaged 4.7 points a game.
After spending two years away from the sport and being desperate to coach again, he accepted a job coaching basketball and teaching world history to 10th-graders at Picayune (Miss.) Memorial High School. He said it was “sometimes very humbling, but I’m glad I did it.”
When Lafayette asked for recommendations for its coaching vacancy, he nominated himself. He returned there for four seasons (1984-88) and then returned to Hofstra, his final coaching stop, for six more seasons (1988-94).
When his last team started its season with a 1-14 record, he said, “I was embarrassed to have my friends see them play.” The team then won 8 of its last 14 games and the East Coast Conference tournament title in double overtime. He retired with a 483-272 record for 28 college seasons and 287-316 for 10 pro seasons.
“People are always asking me if you had the chance to do it all over again, would you do anything different?” he said. “I say, not a bit. I wouldn’t change one thing. You do what you’re going to do and make the best of it.”
He was legally separated from his wife, the former Florence Smith. In addition to his son, Jan, a former head coach at Cornell, Vanderbilt, Pepperdine and St. Bonaventure, he is survived by three daughters: Karen Young of Columbus, Ohio; Kristina, of Spokane; and Kaatje, of Cleveland; and seven grandchildren.
“All my grandchildren call me Uncle Butch,” he said years ago, “because I don’t want nobody calling me grandpa. I’m too old.”
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