John MacLeod, 1937-2019

We lost a coaching legend this week.

John Matthew MacLeod was born on October 3, 1937 in New Albany, Indiana, and grew up in nearby Clarksville. He went to Bellarmine University, a small Catholic college in Louisville, but never played professional basketball: Not in the NBA, not in the ABA, not even in the short-lived American Basketball League of the 1960s. He went into coaching, and in 1967 was hired as the head coach at the University of Oklahoma. He got them to the Quarterfinal of the 1970 NIT, but never into the NCAA Tournament.

In 1973, he got his 1st pro job, as head coach of the Phoenix Suns. He missed the Playoffs in his 1st 2 seasons, but in 1976, he got them their 1st Western Conference Championship. Against the much more experienced Boston Celtics, he gained a split of the 1st 4 games of the NBA Finals, and they had their chances in Game 5, a triple-overtime thriller that has been hailed by some as the best game in NBA history. But the Suns fell at home in Game 6.

He missed the Playoffs in 1977, but got them back into the Playoffs in each of the next 8 years, including the Conference Finals in 1979 and 1984. In 1981, he was named head coach of the Western Conference Team for the NBA All-Star Game. But he missed the Playoffs in 1986, and was fired after a poor start to the 1986-87 season. He remains their all-time winningest coach, with 579 regular-season wins.

"He was very passionate about his coaching," former Suns owner Jerry Colangelo said, "and did a fabulous job in getting us to the 1976 Finals... I think the success of his teams, especially early back then, is a testament to what he was able to create in terms of culture."

He was hired by the Dallas Mavericks for 1987-88, and got them into their 1st Western Conference Finals, before missing the Playoffs in 1989 and being fired after a bad start the next season. The New York Knicks, always looking for the coach that will save him, hired him early in the 1990-91 season, but he went just 32-35, losing in the 1st round of the Playoffs. He was fired, and never coached in the NBA again.

But he was quickly picked up, by the University of Notre Dame, leading them for 8 years. As with Oklahoma, he never made the NCAA Tournament, but got into the NIT twice, in 1992 and 1997, winning the Big East Coach of the Year in 1997. He was let go after the 1999 season.

In 2012, the Suns inducted him into their Ring of Honor. He is 1 of only 2 coaches ever to lead them into the NBA Finals, the other being one of his 1976 players, Paul Westphal, who did it in 1993.

After years of battling Alzheimer's disease, John MacLeod died this past Sunday, April 14, 2019, at age 81. He is survived by his wife Cathy, their son Matthew, and their daughter Kathleen.

Dick Vitale, briefly an NBA head coach with the Detroit Pistons before beginning his storied career as a basketball broadcaster, and a huge Notre Dame fan, said, "John MacLeod was not only a good coach, but was a man of great integrity, and as good as a person you could ever meet. We need more like him in college basketball!"

In professional basketball, too. And in other sports.

UPDATE: His final resting place is not publicly known.