[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 4 (Friday, January 13, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E15]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF FORMER MEMPHIS STATE COACH, GENE BARTOW

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. STEVE COHEN

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, January 13, 2012

  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the life and 
legacy of former Memphis State men's basketball coach and President of 
Hoops, L.P., Gene Bartow. Coach Bartow was born on August 8, 1930 in 
the tiny town of Browning, Missouri. Mr. Bartow graduated from Browning 
High School in 1948 and Northeast Missouri State College in 1952. After 
serving in the U.S. Army for two years, Mr. Bartow earned his master's 
degree from Washington University in St. Louis and did additional 
graduate work at the University of Southern California.
  Mr. Bartow began his coaching career at the high school-level before 
moving first to Central Missouri State University and later to 
Valparaiso University. In 1970, the Memphis State Tigers, who had 
posted a dismal 3 and 45 conference record since joining the highly 
regarded Missouri Valley Conference in 1967, hired Mr. Bartow as their 
head coach. The Tigers went 18-8 in Bartow's first season as head coach 
and made the National Invitational Tournament, NIT, the following year. 
Despite never having won an National Collegiate Athletic Association, 
NCAA, tournament game, the Tigers reached the NCAA Championship Game in 
1973, playing valiantly but ultimately falling to the John Wooden-
coached and Bill Walton-led UCLA Bruins. That same year Bartow was 
voted NCAA Coach of the Year by his peers.
  Coach Bartow left Memphis State in 1974 to coach the Fighting Illini 
at the University of Illinois for one season before succeeding the 
revered John Wooden at UCLA in 1976. After amassing a 52-9 record and 
leading the UCLA Bruins to the Final Four all in just two seasons, he 
left for the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who had offered him 
complete control in building an athletic program as athletic director 
and head basketball coach. At the time, UAB had no teams in any sport. 
In just its second year of existence, Coach Bartow's UAB team made the 
NIT tournament; they followed it up with seven consecutive NCAA 
tournament appearances. Birmingham Southern athletic director Joe Dean, 
Jr. stated, ``Coach Bartow started an entire Division 1 athletic 
program from scratch, and by his fourth year he had the basketball 
program in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. No other school in 
the history of college athletics has done anything like that in such a 
short period of time.'' It is no wonder that he was dubbed ``The Father 
of UAB Athletics.''
  Coach Bartow's storied 36-year coaching career produced 647 wins and 
353 losses, and only two losing seasons. He was elected to 10 different 
Halls of Fame, including the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of 
Fame, and he will be inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 
May. UAB renamed its basketball arena the Bartow Arena in 1997.
  Gene Bartow was loved and revered by many for his contributions to 
the city of Memphis. University of Memphis basketball coach Josh 
Pastner commented, ``The best description I can give of Coach Bartow is 
he was as nice a human being and as good a human being as you'll 
find.'' George Lapides, former sports editor of the defunct Memphis 
Press-Scimitar and a longtime friend of Bartow, observed, ``When you 
consider what a gentleman Gene was, in addition to what he did for this 
city in the early '70s when this city was so racially divided after the 
assassination of [Dr.] Martin Luther King, Jr., he might be the top 
sports figure in Memphis history.'' His contribution to cancer research 
will continue, for each year the University of Memphis and UAB play the 
Gene Bartow Classic, which donates 2 dollars for every ticket sold to 
the Coach Gene Bartow Fund for Cancer Research.
  I will remember Gene Bartow as a class act, a gentleman and one of 
the finest people to ever grace our city. Mr. Barlow passed away on 
January 3, 2012 at 81 years of age. He is survived by his wife of 59 
years, Ruth, daughter, Beth B. Long, sons Mark and Murry, brother, 
Russell and eight grandchildren. Beloved throughout the basketball 
world, Mr. Bartow is perhaps best remembered for his class, humility, 
integrity, and genuine love not just for his players but for every 
person he met. Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in 
recognizing the life, contributions, and legacy of Gene Bartow. His was 
a life well-lived.

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