Tarkanian, Jerry
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Wikipedia-Article "Jerry Tarkanian"
Jerry Tarkanian (born August 8, 1930), known as "Tark the Shark", was a college basketball coach. He was a colorful, emotional coach, known for habitually chewing on a towel during games, and his public criticisms and clashes with the NCAA.
Tarkanian was born in Euclid, Ohio, and attended Pasadena City College in California. He later transferred to Fresno State where he played basketball for the Bulldogs in 1954 and 1955. He graduated in 1955. Later, he earned a master's degree in educational management from the University of Redlands.
He began coaching high school basketball in California in 1956, and moved to college ball at Riverside City College (California) from 1961-66 and Pasadena City College from 1966-68. His teams won three California junior college championships.
He moved to Division I basketball as coach at Long Beach State from 1968-1973, and became famous at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas from 1973-1992. In 1990 Tarkanian's UNLV Runnin' Rebels won the NCAA basketball championship, 103-73 against Duke. However, there had been numerous NCAA accusations against Tarkanian and the UNLV program, which he denied and claimed were motivated by his public criticism of the NCAA. The accusations led to clashes with new UNLV president Robert Maxson, and he was forced to resign.
He coached the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA briefly in 1992, but was fired after only 20 games with a 9-11 record. He received a $1.3 million settlement, which he used to fund a lawsuit against the NCAA. Although the NCAA did not admit harassing Tarkanian, they settled out of court paying him $2.5 million in 1998.
He returned to college coaching at alma mater Fresno State from 1995-2002 and led them to six consecutive 20 win seasons. He retired from coaching in 2002 with 778 career Division I wins. Following his retirement, Fresno State was placed on probation by the NCAA for violations committed by its men's basketball team under Tarkanian's watch.
Tarkanian has the distinction of being one of few college coaches to lead three different schools to 20-win seasons. He accomplished this task at each school in his first year. With 988 career college victories he has the most wins of any coach, counting all divisions.
His colorful autobiography, "Runnin' Rebel: Shark Tales of "Extra Benefits", Frank Sinatra and Winning it All" was released in October 2005.
Jerry Tarkanian is married to Las Vegas city councilwoman Lois Tarkanian. They have four children and seven grandchildren. One of their sons, Danny Tarkanian, was an All-American college basketball player while playing for Jerry Tarkanian at UNLV.