O. B. Cowles

College coach infobox
Name = O. B. Cowles
Sport = Basketball


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DateOfBirth = 1901
Birthplace = flagicon|United States Browns Valley, Minnesota
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College = University of Minnesota
Title = Head coach
Awards =
Championships = Big Ten Regular Season Championship (1948)
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Player = *
Years = 1918-1922
Team = Carleton
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Coach = *
CoachYears = 1924-1930
1930-1931
1931-1942
1943-1946
1946-1948
1948-1959
CoachTeams = Carleton
River Falls
Dartmouth
Dartmouth
Michigan
Minnesota
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Osborne "O.B." Cowles (born 1901 in Browns Valley, Minnesota) was the head men's basketball coach at the University of Minnesota. Cowles coached the Gophers basketball team for eleven seasons from 1948 to 1959. Cowles also was the head coach at the University of Michigan, Dartmouth College, and Carleton College.

Cowles attended Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota and was a basketball star before graduating in 1922. Cowles also lettered in football and baseball at the school, winning 11 letters in total. [Perlstein, Steve. "Gopher Glory: 100 Years of University of Minnesota Basketball." Minneapolis: Layers Publishing, 1996, pg. 34] In 1924, he returned to Carleton as its head basketball and baseball coach, leading the programs from 1924 to 1930. He coached for a season at Wisconsin-River Falls, then known as River Falls State Teachers College, before moving to Dartmouth. He led the Dartmouth program from 1931 to 1946, not coaching in the 1942-43 campaign. Cowles brought Dartmouth to the NCAA Championship game of the 1941-42 season, where they finished second to Stanford

In 1946, he departed for the University of Michigan and led the Wolverines to the 1947-48 Big Ten Championship. In 1948, Minnesota hired him away from Michigan, and he coached the Gophers through 1959. The University of Minnesota was Cowles last coaching stop, and his tenure is regarded as one of significant success for Minnesota, described by some as the "golden age" of the program. [Hugunin, Mark and Stew Thornley. "Minnesota Hoops: Basketball in the North Star State." St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2006, pg. 76]

As a coach, Cowles was known for his deliberate style of play. His teams had a defensive focus and played "control basketball." [Hugunin and Thornley, pg. 77] He had significant success at all of his stops despite his somewhat anachronistic style of play.

References