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Jeffrey Vincent Mullins (born March 18, 1942(1942-03-18) in Astoria, New York) is a retired American basketball player and coach who is best known for his playing career with the Duke Blue Devils, the Golden State Warriors of the NBA, and later as the head college basketball coach at Charlotte.
[edit] Playing career
Mullins, a native of Lexington, Kentucky, was a very talented 6'4" (1.93 m) forward in high school. After graduation he attended Duke University from 1960 through 1964, where he averaged 21.9 points per game for his career. His #44 Duke jersey was retired in 1994.
Mullins was a member of the United States Olympic basketball team that won the gold at the 1964 Summer Olympics
Mullins was taken by the St. Louis Hawks in the first round (6th pick overall) of the 1964 NBA Draft. After two lacklustre seasons with the Hawks he moved to the Golden State Warriors where he enjoyed the best seasons of his career and was selected as an NBA All-Star three times - in 1969, 1970, and 1971. He helped the Warriors to the 1967 Western Conference title and the 1975 NBA championship. Upon his retirement in 1976 he had amassed a total of 13,017 points for a twelve-year career average of 16.2 points per game.
[edit] Coaching career
Mullins went into other non-basketball related ventures after his retirement from the NBA. In 1985 he became the 6th head men's basketball coach and athletic director at UNC Charlotte - a program that had reached the NCAA Final Four in 1977 but had since fallen on hard times, including a 5-23 record under coach Hal Wissel the year before Mullins arrived. Mullins, remembered by many North Carolinians from his playing days at Duke, revitalized interest in the 49ers program and immediately brought in recruits who returned the team to its former winning ways. Mullins led Charlotte to the NCAA Tournament in 1988 (their first trip since their Final Four run), and again in 1992 and 1995, in addition to two NIT berths, in 1989 and 1994. Although forced to relinquish his role as athletic director in 1990, Mullins was instrumental in the development of UNC Charlotte's on-campus Dale F. Halton Arena in the mid-1990s and helped spearhead the athletic program's move into Conference USA in 1995.
When Mullins retired from UNC Charlotte in 1996, he had amassed a school-record 182 victories. Today he is regarded by many 49er fans as the savior of the Charlotte basketball program. The team's locker room in Halton Arena is named for him, and a banner hangs in his honor among the retired jerseys in Halton Arena.
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