Athletes - Lou Henson

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	Athletes - Lou Henson

Lou Henson (born January 10, 1932 in Okay, Oklahoma, USA) is a former collegiate basketball coach.

Henson began his coaching career at Las Cruces High School in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Henson was head coach of the varsity for four seasons, and won state championships in 1959, 1960, and 1961.

He started coaching at the college ranks in 1962 at Hardin-Simmons University. In 1966, he took over at his alma mater, New Mexico State University. In his first season at NMSU, the Aggies rebounded from a 4-22 record in the prior season to finish 15-11 and went to the NCAA Tournament. In 1970, Henson would help lead the Aggies to the Final Four for the only time in the school's history. Henson and future NBA players Jimmy Collins, Sam Lacey, and Charlie Criss lost in the tournament semifinal to eventual champion UCLA, the third time in three years the Aggies lost to UCLA in the tournament. Henson coached at New Mexico State for nine seasons, with six trips to the NCAA Tournament and four twenty-win seasons.

In 1975, Henson moved to the University of Illinois to replace Gene Bartow, after Bartow left Illinois to replace John Wooden at UCLA. He would lead the Fighting Illini to the 1989 Final Four. Henson retired in 1996, after 21 seasons at Illinois. Henson finished his tenure at Illinois with an overall record of 423 wins and 224 losses (.654 winning percentage), and with a record of 214 wins and 164 losses (.567) in Big Ten Conference games. The 214 wins in Big Ten games were the third highest total ever at the time of his retirement. At Illinois, Henson coached many future NBA players, including Eddie Johnson, Derek Harper, Ken Norman, Nick Anderson, Kendall Gill, Kenny Battle, Marcus Liberty, Steve Bardo, and Kiwane Garris.

In 1997, Henson returned to coaching at New Mexico State, after a scandal forced the removal of the school's head coach immediately prior to the start of the basketball season. Henson coached the first season as the interim head coach with a salary of $1 USD per month, but after a successful season agreed to stay as head coach. In 2005, he retired from coaching because of Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. He retired as the all time leader in victories at Illinois, with 423 victories, and New Mexico State, with 289 victories. Overall, he had 779 victories, good for sixth place on the all time list.

Coaching record

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