Former UH Basketball Coach Guy V. Lewis, looking pretty much as he did that day we spoke together at UH back in 2009.
The fall of 1956 will always be a special time for both Coach Guy V. Lewis and yours truly. Coach Guy was beginning his 30-year career (1956-1986) as the head basketball coach for the University of Houston Cougars. I was starting my life as an undergraduate student at UH (1956-1960) and fixing my red and white corpuscled soul firmly as a Cougar forever.
Since we didn’t grow up playing basketball in Pecan Park, it was only when I got to UH that I saw my first college game. There was no local NBA club in those days, just occasional stories in the Houston Post about some tall white guy who had been a former player named George Mikan, some nice feeds about former UT, NBA star, and fellow Houstonian Slater Martin, another couple of white guys named Bob Pettit and Jerry West, and a high rising new giant player at the University of Kansas named Wilt Chamberlain who apparently both hung the moon and also lowered the baskets for easy delivery.
UH played their home games in the Jeppesen (later Robertson) Stadium Field House on Cullen and Wheeler south of the football field in those days. It didn’t hold many fans, but it was loud, and Cougar students were just starting to get behind what Coach Guy V. was setting in motion. With early Cougars stars like Ted Luckinbill and Gary Phillips leading the way, folks were beginning to get behind the ball-bouncing Coogs of that early period. I remember big games we played and barely lost or won over Chet Walker and the Bradley Braves and Oscar “Big O” Robertson of the Cincinnati Bearkats.
The excitement was emanating from the spirit and skill of Coach Guy V. Lewis.
By the early to mid-1960s, Coach Lewis of UH basketball was doing exactly what Coach Bill Yeoman of UH football was doing – making sure that UH was leading the way in the recruitment of black athletes to their formerly all-white university athletic program. By the time that schools like UT and AM had awakened to what was happening, UH was light years ahead of most southern/southwest schools in that regard.
Naming those recruits today is a virtual trip to the Basketball Hall of Fame and NBA All Star Annals in itself. The great Elvin Hayes and Don Chaney were the two earliest Lewis recruits. It was around these two stars that Coach Lewis built his “Game of the Century” at the Astrodome against Lew Alcindor and the UCLA Bruins in January 1968. “The Game” drew 50,000 fans and changed the face of basketball as a marketable commodity in the world.
Led by Elvin “The Big E” Hayes, UH defeated UCLA in the Astrodome Game of the Century, 71-69.
The stars of UH basketball history are a book unto themselves. I won’t begin to try to name them all over the years in this article. Suffice it to say, (H)Akeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler, and Phi Slama Jama in the early 1980s should be enough. There’s barely enough space here to bullet drop all the reasons that Coach Guy V. Lewis’s induction this week into the Robert Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame at the age of 91 is long overdue:
As head coach at UH from 1956-1986, Lewis posted a career record of 592-279.
Twice (1983, 1984) Guy V. Lewis was named National Coach of the Year.
Lewis posted 27 consecutive winning seasons.
Coach Guy’s Cougars made 14 trips to the NCAA tournament, 5 Final Four appearances, and 2 finals games.
The day I got to thank Coach Lewis for all he’s done for all of us at UH, he looked exactly as he does in this story’s featured photo. It happened at a tailgate party outside Robertson Stadium near the H Association pavilion back in 2009. I had gone over to speak to Coach Lewis when, all of a sudden, like the parting of the Red Sea, everybody else just peeled away, leaving us there together alone to talk for a precious five minutes or so. A best I recall, here’s how that time passed:
“Coach Lewis,” I said, “I just have to repeat what I’m sure so many others have already told you. Thank you for all you’ve done for UH. We would not be all we have become as a university without you.”
Coach Lewis grabbed my hand and gave me a quiet sincere smile. “Thank you,” he said. “That means a lot to me.”
Then he really brightened when I told him that I had arrived at UH during his first season as a head coach. He sort of lit up when I recalled the names of our early foes, Chet Walker and Oscar Robertson, and he seemed to like hearing that I once gave a hitchhiking Ted Luckinbill a lift on Cullen because he was late for practice.
“We’ve been here a long time, haven’t we?” Coach almost whispered before other new people saw him and started pouring in to make contact with our shared treasure of UH greatness.
“We may have been here a long time,” I thought, as the newcomers descended upon Coach Guy, “but you’ve got much further to go. Forever is a very long time.”
Thank you, Universe of Fair Play, for making sure that Coach Guy V. Lewis finally got his just recognition from the Hall of Fame while he was still alive to know of it.
Tags: Coach Guy V Lewis
The Pecan Park Eagle 
April 6, 2013 at 3:03 pm |
A much deserved honor for Guy V.
April 7, 2013 at 1:24 pm |
I agree…about time. Too bad about that 4 corners slow down against NC State & Valvano though.
April 9, 2013 at 5:06 am |
BILL:–> another great piece of work; absolutely Coach Lewis should have been in the “Hall” many years ago – his teams were always great to watch; and his checkered red towel !? – Well you know more about that – than I do….
April 10, 2013 at 12:59 am |
The honor is way too late but still appreciated that he finally made it.