Tex Winter
Winter in 2009
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| Sport(s) | Basketball |
|---|---|
| Biographical details | |
| Born |
February 25, 1922 Near Wellington, Texas |
| Playing career | |
| 1940–1942 | Compton Junior College |
| 1942–1943 | Oregon State |
| 1946–1947 | USC |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| 1947–1951 | Kansas State (Asst.) |
| 1951–1953 | Marquette |
| 1953–1968 | Kansas State |
| 1968–1971 | Washington |
| 1971–1973 | Houston Rockets |
| 1973–1978 | Northwestern |
| 1978–1983 | Long Beach State |
| 1985–1998 | Chicago Bulls (Asst.) |
| 1999–2008 | Los Angeles Lakers (Asst.) |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 486–235 (.674) |
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Basketball Hall of Fame Inducted in 2011 |
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College Basketball Hall of Fame Inducted in 2010 |
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Morice Fredrick "Tex" Winter (born February 25, 1922) is an American retired basketball coach, and innovator of the triangle offense.
Winter was born near Wellington, Texas (a fact which later provided him with his nickname when his family moved to California) fifteen minutes after twin sister Mona Francis. The Winter family moved to Lubbock, Texas in 1929, where his mechanic father died of an infection when Tex was ten years old. Winter had to work while in elementary school to help his family, one such job was to collect boxes for a local baker in exchange for day-old bread. In 1936, Winter and his sister moved to Huntington Park, California with their mother, who would work as a clothing store sales manager. His older football star brother Ernest remained in Texas to finish high school while his older sister Elizabeth had already married and moved to California first and encouraged them to move there. While attending Huntington Park High School, Winter worked with Phil Woolpert and Pete Newell as a ball boy for Loyola University.
After graduation from high school in 1940, Winter attended college at Compton Community College in Los Angeles for two years, where he became a renowned pole vaulter and earned a scholarship to Oregon State University. He was on the basketball and track teams at both schools. As a pole vaulter, Winter competed against Bob Richards, a 1948 and 1952 olympian. He was considered a strong candidate for the US Olympic team in 1944, but the Olympics were cancelled by World War II.
Winter met his wife Nancy at Oregon State. Both of them entered the United States Navy in early 1943, with Winter going into fighter pilot training and his wife into WAVVES. After his pilot's wings were conferred he was assigned to fighter pilot duty in the Pacific. However, his orders were rescinded after his brother's plane was shot down, and Winter remained at Naval Air Station Glenview in Illinois for the duration of the war. After the war, he was assigned to NAS Corpus Christi as a test pilot for an experimental jet craft. While in the navy, Winter was a starting guard for his basketball team under the commanding officer Chuck Taylor (salesman). He left the Navy with the rank of Ensign in 1946.
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Wikipedia