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Newell attended both high school and college in Los Angeles, California and was a classmate of Phil Woolpert at Loyola Marymount University (then called Loyola University). After serving in the United States Navy from 1942 to 1946 , Newell was appointed head men's basketball coach at the University of San Francisco in 1946. During his four-year tenure at USF, Newell compiled a 70-37 record and coached the Dons to the 1949 National Invitation Tournament championship. In 1950 he accepted an appointment as head coach at Michigan State University where he stayed until 1954 . Newell returned to the West Coast in 1954 when he was hired as head coach at the University of California, Berkeley. Newell was very successful at Cal, compiling a 119-44 record, winning four consecutive Pac-8 titles from 1957 to 1960 and leading the Golden Bears to two straight appearances in the NCAA Tournament championship game--which they won in 1959 . Newell himself earned national Coach of the Year honors in 1960 . Newell also coached the U.S. Men's Olympic basketball team to a gold medal in the 1960 Olympics , making him one of only three coaches to win the "Triple Crown" of NCAA, NIT and Olympic championships. After retiring from coaching, Newell served as team executive or scout for several NBA teams, among them the Houston Rockets , the Los Angeles Lakers and the Golden State Warriors . Considered "America's Basketball Guru", Newell conducts an annual training camp for centers and forwards known simply as "Big Man Camp". An annual college basketball tournament is held in his honor in Oakland, California , and frequent participants in the Pete Newell Challenge include USF and Cal--the very schools where Newell coached. In 1987 Cal dedicated the court in Harmon Gym as "Pete Newell Court". His son, Pete Newell Jr., led the Santa Cruz High School boys' basketball team to the California state championship in 2005. EXTERNAL LINK |
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