BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The man who led the the Memphis State Tigers to the men's basketball program's first national title game has died. Gene Bartow was 81-years-old.
Gene Bartow took over as Tigers head basketball coach in 1970 after leading the programs at Central Missouri State and Valparaiso. That's the same year another memorable Memphis State coach, Larry Finch, arrived on campus as a freshman player.
Bartow's most notable season was in 1973. That's when he and Finch led the former Memphis State program to the 1973 NCAA national title game against UCLA. The Tigers lost 87-66. Bartow was named NABC National Coach of the Year.
He left the Tigers program in 1974 and spent one year at the University of Illinois before taking over at UCLA following legendary coach John Wooden.
In 1978, Bartow headed to Birmingham to create an athletic program at UAB while serving as head coach. He spent 18 seasons with the Blazers before retiring from coaching in 1996 and handing over the program to his son, Murry.
Over the span of his entire coaching career, Gene led his college teams to seven conference championship titles.
UAB Arena was renamed Bartow Arena in 1997. Gene remained Blazers athletics director until 2000.
That same year he became president of short-lived ABA team the Memphis Houn-dawgs and then joined the Grizzlies organization. Most recently, he served as president of Hoops LP, which is the ownership and operations side of the Memphis Grizzlies.
Gene Bartow was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 1989 and the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009.
He was originally diagnosed with stomach cancer during the spring of 2009.
Gene Bartow died Tuesday. He is survived by his wife, Ruth, three children and at least seven grandchildren.
