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Tom Young, the most successful coach in Rutgers men’s basketball history, died Sunday, the school confirmed. He was 89.
Young went 239-116 with four NCAA Tournament appearances and five conference titles from 1973-85. The crowning achievement was the program’s first and only trip to the Final Four in 1976. Rutgers lost in the national semifinals to Michigan and then in the now-defunct third-place game to UCLA, while Indiana finished off what remains the last undefeated season in the sport.
Young coached six players who played significant time in the NBA, including Final Four teammates Eddie Jordan, Phil Sellers, James Bailey and Hollis Copeland, and later Roy Hinson and John Battle. Young’s death hit home for Jordan, a longtime NBA coach and former Rutgers head coach.
“It’s pretty hard to take,” Jordan told the Asbury Park Press, which first reported Young’s death. “I loved him like a father.”
Young battled heart and lung ailments, according to the report, but the cause of death was unknown. He came to Rutgers after serving as head coach at American University and later coached at Old Dominion University until 1991.
Rutgers’ win in the first round of the 1983 NCAA Tournament was its most recent until the Scarlet Knights beat Clemson in the first round of the 2021 bracket. Rutgers lost to Notre Dame in the First Four last week, marking its first time receiving bids to the Big Dance in back-to-back seasons since Young’s second and third years on the job. Young recorded winning records in all 12 seasons at Rutgers.
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