- Johnny Orr
John M. "Johnny" Orr (born
June 10 ,1927 in Yale,Kansas ) is a retired Americanbasketball player and coach, best known as the head coach of men's basketball at theUniversity of Michigan and atIowa State University .Life as a player
Johnny grew up in the central
Illinois town of Taylorville during the great depression. Orr attended Taylorville High School under coach Dolph Stanley and in his senior year led the Purple Tornadoes to a state championship and undefeated season. After high school Orr went to the University of Illinois and was the youngest freshman to compete in three sports. After joining theUnited States Navy for the end ofWorld War II , Orr returned to the college game atBeloit College .Orr was initially drafted in 1948 BAA draft by the
Minneapolis Lakers of theBasketball Association of America , the precursor to the NBA. Orr did not play for the Lakers, and was again drafted the next year in the 2nd round by the St. Louis Bombers. In 1950, Orr played 21 games for the Bombers before moving to theWaterloo Hawks for 13 more games.Early coaching career
During the 1950s, Orr was the head coach at Dubuque Senior High School in
Dubuque, Iowa .After a long time as an assistant coach, including at Wisconsin, Orr attained a head coaching position in 1963 at the
University of Massachusetts Amherst , commonly known as UMass, and guided the team to 15-9 record in 1963-64.University of Michigan
Shortly afterward, Orr moved to the
University of Michigan as an assistant under Dave Strack, and was named head coach in 1969. His 1973-74 team made it to the Elite Eight in the NCAA tournament and Orr was named Big Ten Coach of the Year. In 1976, Michigan was the NCAA tournament runner-up (to the undefeatedIndiana Hoosiers ) and Orr was named National Coach of the Year. Orr remains the winningest coach in Michigan history with 209 wins and only 113 losses.Iowa State University
Orr joined the
Iowa State Cyclones in 1980. The move came about when the Iowa StateAthletic Director called him to inquire about Orr's assistant,Bill Frieder . When Orr learned how much Iowa State was willing to pay Frieder, Orr negotiated the job for himself (Frieder then succeeded Orr at Michigan). In Orr's fifth season in Ames, he led the Cyclones to their first NCAA Tournament berth in 40 years. The following season, Orr's Cyclones reached theSweet Sixteen of the1986 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament with a second round victory over the number five ranked team in the nation, Michigan. Orr claims this was the greatest victory of his career. Orr led Iowa State to four more NCAA tournament berths before retiring from Iowa State in 1994. He remains the winningest coach in Iowa State history with 218 wins and 200 losses.External links
* [http://www.databasebasketball.com/players/playerpage.htm?ilkid=OrrJo01 player bio] at databaseBasketball.com
* [http://nabc.collegesports.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/022603aaa.html Where's Coach Now?]
*Here's Johnny Orr. ISBN 0-8138-1291-7
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