Guy V. Lewis

Guy V. Lewis spent his entire career at the University of Houston where he led the Cougars to five Final Fours and some of the greatest moments in basketball history. He compiled nearly 600 wins in his career and was the originator of Phi Slama Jama – the early 1980s Cougar teams that included Akeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler as the featured high-wire act. He was the 1968 National Coach of the Year, the same year he put together the Game of the Century – the showdown in the Astrodome between UCLA and Lew Alcindor versus Houston and Elvin Hayes. The game was televised nationally and more than 50,000 fans packed the stadium. Lew was one of the first coaches to recruit African-American players to the South, and he treated everyone equally. That is to say he demanded the most – physically and mentally – out of everyone associated with his program.