Jerry Sloan

The Original Bull and Hall of Fame coach who led the Utah Jazz to 15 straight playoff appearances and two NBA Finals.

Gerald Eugene Sloan (March 28, 1942 – May 22, 2020) was an American professional basketball player and coach. He played 11 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) before beginning a 30-year coaching career, 23 of which were spent as head coach of the Utah Jazz (1988–2011). NBA commissioner David Stern referred to Sloan as 'one of the greatest and most respected coaches in NBA history'. Sloan was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009.

Quick Facts

Born: 28 March 1942
Birthplace: McLeansboro, Illinois, U.S.
Died: 22 May 2020
Place of death: Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.
High school: McLeansboro (McLeansboro, Illinois)
College: Evansville (1962–1965)
Draft round: 1
Draft pick: 4

Lore & Background

After playing college basketball with the Evansville Purple Aces, Sloan was selected by the Baltimore Bullets with the fourth overall pick of the 1965 NBA draft. He spent his rookie season with the Bullets before playing the remainder of his career with the Chicago Bulls, retiring due to injuries in 1976. Nicknamed 'the Original Bull', he was a two-time NBA All-Star, a six-time member of the All-Defensive Team and the first player to have his number retired by the Bulls.

Sloan then became a coach, and had a career regular-season win–loss record of 1,221–803, placing him third all-time in NBA wins at the time he retired. He was the fifth coach to reach 1,000 NBA victories and is one of two coaches in NBA history to record 1,000 wins with one club (the Utah Jazz). Sloan coached the Jazz to 15 consecutive playoff appearances from 1989 to 2003. He is one of only four coaches in NBA history with 15-plus consecutive seasons that have a winning record.

He led Utah to the NBA Finals in 1997 and 1998, but lost to Chicago both times. After Tom Kelly stepped down as manager of the Minnesota Twins in Major League Baseball in 2001, Sloan became the longest-tenured head coach in American major league sports with their current franchise. He resigned mid-season from the Jazz in 2011 before returning in 2013 as an adviser and scouting consultant.

Reader's Guide

Born and raised in Gobbler's Knob, Illinois, 15 mi south of McLeansboro, Sloan was the youngest of 10 children and was raised by a single mother after his father died when Jerry was 4 years old. He would wake up at 4:30 a.m. to do farm chores and then walk almost two miles to get to school in time for 7 a.m. basketball practice. After school, he would walk back home from practice. Sloan graduated an all-state player from McLeansboro High School in 1960.

He first enrolled at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, withdrew, enrolled at Southern Illinois University, and withdrew once more before attending Evansville, where he played college basketball for the Evansville Purple Aces from 1962 to 1965, where he was named the Indiana Collegiate Conference (ICC) Player of the Year in 1963 and 1965 and a three-time first-team All-ICC selection. He was chosen as the 19th overall pick in the 1964 NBA draft by the Baltimore Bullets but he remained in college and led the Purple Aces to their second in two consecutive Division II national titles.

Did You Know?

He scored a career high of 43 points in a win against the Milwaukee Bucks on March 5, 1969.
His number 4 jersey was retired by the Chicago Bulls in 1978, the first retired jersey in franchise history.
Sloan collected his 1,000th career win against the Dallas Mavericks on December 11, 2006.
He was suspended one game for pushing referee Bob Delaney in April 1993, and later served a seven-game suspension in 2003 for pushing referee Courtney Kirkland.