Frank Truitt

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Frank Truitt

Frank (center) with Bob Knight (left) and John Havlicek (right) in 2010 at the 50th Anniversary Celebration of Ohio State's 1960 NCAA Championship Team
Sport(s) Basketball, Golf, Soccer
Biographical details
Born (1925-04-04) April 4, 1925
Columbus, Ohio
Alma mater Otterbein '50
Ohio State '62
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1958–1965
1965–1966
1966–1978		 Ohio State (assistant)
LSU
Kent State

Frank Wilson Truitt, Jr. (born 4 April 1925) is a former multi-sport collegiate coach and a veteran of World War II.

After graduating from Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio, Frank began his basketball coaching career with stints at Bloomingburg High School, Mount Gilead High School, Columbus West Junior High School, and Columbus North High School. During this time, he also taught an array of subjects, including History, Government, French, and Physical Education.

Frank next coached at The Ohio State University as an assistant to Fred Taylor before assuming the head coaching position of the LSU Tigers men's basketball team. His final coaching position in college basketball was as the head coach of the Kent State Golden Flashes men's basketball team. While at Kent State, Frank also coached the men's soccer team and the men's golf team.

After retiring from collegiate athletics, Frank taught and coached at Bishop Watterson High School in Columbus, Ohio and worked in real estate before retiring. His final head coaching position was as the head golf coach at Buckeye Valley Middle School in Delaware, Ohio.

Among other accomplishments, Frank engineered the historic upset of Jerry Lucas's Middletown Middies in the Ohio 1958 Division AA state semifinals. He also helped coach the Ohio State men's basketball team to the 1960 NCAA Championship.

World War II

Frank in his Army uniform, 1944

After graduating from Thomas Worthington High School in 1943,[1] Frank served in the 282nd Engineer Combat Battalion as part of General George S. Patton's Third Army and eventually rose to the rank of Staff Sergeant.[2][3] Frank's battalion arrived in France on 25 December 1944 and saw action during the Battle of the Bulge while stationed in Luxembourg.[4] The 282nd Engineers built "pontoon bridges, Bailey bridges, and rafts [that were] essential for rapidly moving large numbers of infantry and tanks over the numerous water obstacles."[5]

Otterbein University

Frank enrolled at Otterbein University in 1946 after serving overseas in the United States Army for 32 months. While in college, Frank helped found the Otterbein golf team and he also played varsity basketball for three years.[2] He married fellow student Katharine Ellen "Kay" Turner on 16 June 1948 before graduating with Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts degrees in 1950. He majored in both History and Government.

High school coach and teacher

"I told them in practice one day, 'Somebody is going to beat Middletown this year and I'll tell you what kind of team it will be: good on defense, a good shooting team that can make its foul shots.' I said, 'there was only one team in Ohio who could do that. And that's you guys.'"

"It got their attention."

— Frank to his North High Polar Bears, 1957-58[6]

From 1951 to 1954, Frank taught History, Government, and French and was the head basketball coach at Bloomingburg High School in Fayette County, Ohio. His team won the county league title and the county tournament in both 1953 and 1954.[7]

Frank next taught and coached at Mount Gilead High School in Mount Gilead, Ohio. His 1954-55 team finished 20-4.[8]

After a stop at Columbus West Junior High School to teach physical education and coach the basketball team, Frank became a teacher and the head basketball coach at Columbus North High School in Columbus, Ohio.[2]

In 1958, Frank's 24-0 North High Polar Bears advanced to the Division AA state semifinals, where they encountered Paul Walker's 24-0 Middletown Middies. The Middies entered the semifinal matchup having won 76 straight games, including two consecutive state titles, and were led by future Ohio State Buckeye and NBA Hall of Famer Jerry Lucas, who was "generally considered the best high school player in the nation."[6] A close contest the entire way, North trailed Middletown 48-43 as the game entered the fourth quarter in St. John Arena. North seized a 59-54 lead with just over a minute to play before Middletown made a furious comeback to take a 62-61 lead with ten seconds left.[6] North's Eddie Clark drove past Jerry Lucas in the game's final seconds to score the game-winning layup and secure a 63-62 victory[9] for the Polar Bears. It was an upset of historic proportions. In fact, some still consider North's victory over Middletown as "the biggest upset in Ohio high school basketball history."[10]

The Polar Bears ultimately lost to East Tech in the state championship game in the third and final (sudden-death) overtime, 50-48.[6]

The Ohio State University

Frank with Jerry Lucas at Ohio State

"Your team is very well organized. Some day you'll coach an NCAA championship team."

— Frank to UCLA coach John Wooden[11] after Ohio State defeated the Bruins 105-84 at the Sports Arena on 28 December 1961,[12] to which Wooden replied, "Oh no, I will never be that lucky."[11]

Wooden would later win a record 10 NCAA championships as coach of the Bruins.

Following his stint with Columbus North, Frank was named an assistant under Fred Taylor at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio in 1958. This new appointment enabled Frank to unite with Middletown's Jerry Lucas, who had previously committed to play at Ohio State. Also recruited to join the Buckeyes that year were John Havlicek, Mel Nowell, and Bob Knight, among others.[13]

The Ohio State basketball program enjoyed its most successful three-year stretch in program history shortly thereafter, in which it reached three consecutive NCAA championship games. The Buckeyes defeated the then-defending champion California Golden Bears 77-55 to win the 1960 NCAA Championship but lost to the Cincinnati Bearcats in the championship game in each of the next two seasons.[14] To this date, the 1960 NCAA Championship remains the only basketball national title in school history.

In those days, Frank served as the freshman team's head coach, as an assistant to the varsity team, and as the varsity team's lead scout. He also helped recruit future AP Player of the Year Gary Bradds, among others. Additionally, Frank earned a master’s degree in physical education from Ohio State in 1962.[2] His office in St. John Arena was next to the office of Woody Hayes, the longtime coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes football team.

During the season, Frank, who Taylor deemed to have "an extremely keen analytical basketball mind"[15] often traveled around to scout other teams. In 2010, Bob Knight echoed Taylor's appraisal of Frank's scouting abilities by claiming that Frank was better at scouting than "anyone [he has] ever seen in [his] time in college basketball."[16] Frank's scouting of the California Golden Bears played an instrumental role in Ohio State's victory in the 1960 NCAA Championship game: in the words of Knight,

California . . . had a little guard named Bobby Wendell, who was not a good shooter. We just didn't guard him. Mel Nowell dropped off him, jammed things up inside, and the movement they were trying to get there was rendered ineffective. Wendell went 0-for-6. I thought at the time, as a player, what a great coaching move that was, and I copied it a lot over the years with my own teams. I asked [California head coach] Pete Newell later, and he said we were the first team to do that to them. This pointed out the value of preparation and the role of assistant coaches. Frank Truitt had suggested that after watching California game films.[17]

In all, the Buckeyes won five straight Big Ten titles during Frank's tenure as an assistant coach, which concluded with the 1964-65 season.

Louisiana State University

Frank resigned from his position at The Ohio State University in 1965 to become the head coach of the LSU Tigers men's basketball team. He coached the Tigers for one year,[2] during which his Tigers played against John Wooden's UCLA Bruins in Los Angeles and Adolph Rupp's Kentucky Wildcats in Lexington,[18] among other teams. Future Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame coach Pat Riley played on that Kentucky Wildcat team[19] and won the Southeastern Conference's Player of the Year Award that season. The state of the LSU basketball program was such that Frank's 6-20 record that year was considered by some to be a "good start"[20][21] for a head coach.

While African American players like Mel Nowell and Joe Roberts played important roles for the Buckeyes teams of the 1950s and early 1960s,[13] LSU had yet to break the color barrier. In recalling his time at LSU, Frank remarks that, “I just assumed I could recruit blacks and didn’t think to ask before I took the job." When Frank showed the LSU athletic director a list of his intended African American recruits, the director replied, "You can’t recruit these guys. We aren’t ready for this."[22]

The first African American to play basketball at LSU was Collis Temple in 1971,[23] five years after Frank had departed.

Kent State University

Frank in coaching attire at Kent State

Following the 1965-66 season, Frank quit at LSU[20] and assumed the head coaching position of the Kent State Golden Flashes men's basketball team in the Mid-American Conference (MAC).

Three seasons later, in 1968-69, Frank guided the Golden Flashes to their first winning season in 17 years.

On 4 May 1970, Frank was inside the Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center on Kent State's campus when Ohio National Guard troops opened fire on a rioting crowd and killed four students, an incident since known as the Kent State shootings.

Frank's second and final winning season at Kent State, 1970–71, was highlighted by a 64-62 victory over the Purdue Boilermakers in West Lafayette, Indiana on 15 December 1970.[24] This would be Kent State's last true road win at a BCS school until the Golden Flashes defeated the West Virginia Mountaineers on 15 November 2011.[24] After Frank's retirement from college basketball following the 1973-74 season, the Golden Flashes would not enjoy a winning season again until 1982-83.

Following his eight-year stint as the head basketball coach, Frank became the head golf coach at Kent State for five years and the head soccer coach for four years.[25]

He won the MAC Coach of the Year award for the 1976-77 golf season, a team led by First-Team All-MAC performer Art Nash.[26] With a MAC title already in hand, the team ultimately finished 23rd in the NCAA tournament. This marked the highest national finish for the Golden Flashes until the 1989-1990 team finished tied for 18th place in the nation.[26]

Return to Columbus

Frank resigned as the head golf and soccer coach at Kent State in 1978[27] and moved to Upper Arlington, Ohio. Frank taught and coached basketball at Bishop Watterson High School for six years before retiring in 1986.[2] He and Kay worked together in real estate for many years before retiring in 2009.

Frank with wife Kay and one of his five grandsons in Upper Arlington, 2001

In his final coaching stint, Frank served as the head coach of Buckeye Valley Middle School's golf team in 2001.

Among other awards, Frank was inducted into the North High Polar Bear Hall of Fame in 1996,[28] the Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame in 2009,[29] and the Otterbein University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2010.[2]

In 2006, Bob Knight gave Frank a lifetime membership to the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame.[30][31]

Personal

Frank has been an avid golfer since 1935 and has won club championships at York Golf Club, Washington Courthouse Country Club, Mount Gilead Country Club, and the Kent State University Golf Club. He was also the Caddy Master at Brookside Country Club before enrolling at Otterbein.

Frank and Kay have been married for over 65 years and have three daughters and nine grandchildren.

Frank's mother, Charlotte Hook Truitt, lived to be 106 years old.[32]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Worthington High School Class of 1943
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Otterbein University Athletics Hall of Fame
  3. ↑ World War II Memorial Registry
  4. ↑ 282nd Engineer Combat Battalion in the Battle of the Bulge
  5. ↑ Combat Engineers
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Miracle Men - Columbus Dispatch
  7. ↑ Former Bloomingburg Head Coach Returns to County Fair
  8. ↑ Mount Gilead Basketball Team Results 1954-1955
  9. ↑ Ohio High School Basketball State Tournament Results
  10. ↑ North Upsets Middletown
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Frank Truitt to John Wooden
  12. ↑ Ohio State routs UCLA behind 30 points and 30 rebounds from Jerry Lucas
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 1960 Ohio State Basketball Team
  14. ↑ Fred Taylor Dies at 77
  15. ↑ The Evening Independent Newspaper - Mar 24, 1961
  16. ↑ [Bob Knight's Speech - Halftime of the Ohio State Minnesota men's basketball game - 31 January 2010 at the Jerome Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio]
  17. ↑ [Knight, Bob and Bob Hammel. Knight: My Story. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2002. 70. ISBN 978-0312311179]
  18. ↑ 2004-05 LSU Men's Basketball Media Guide, p. 164
  19. ↑ Box Score: LSU @ Kentucky, 24 January 1966
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Tiger Den Basketball Archives
  21. ↑ [Kriegel, Mark. Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007. 115. ISBN 978-0743284974]
  22. ↑ Black and White
  23. ↑ Collis Temple, Jr., at LSU
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Kent State Beats West Virginia
  25. ↑ 1960 Ohio State Team Reunion
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 MAC Coach of the Year
  27. ↑ [Toledo Blade Newspaper - 16 August 1978]
  28. ↑ North High Polar Bear Hall of Fame
  29. ↑ Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame Class of 2009
  30. ↑ Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame
  31. ↑ Bob Knight Enters Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame
  32. ↑ Persons Born 27 May 1892

External links

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