USF Coaching Legend Pete Newell Elected into FIBA Hall of Fame

Aug. 31, 2009

(San Francisco) – USF Legend of the Hilltop and Naismith Hall of Fame coach Pete Newell, has been elected to the FIBA International Basketball Hall of Fame. Newell coached the University of San Francisco basketball team to the 1949 NIT Championship and served as head coach of the baseball, men’s tennis and men’s golf programs during his four-year tenure (1946-50) on the Hilltop.

In its announcement Monday, the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) said that the Class of 2009 will consist of 11 inductees, including three from the United States - Newell, former North Carolina State women's basketball coach Kay Yow and former NBA All-Star Oscar Robertson. The other new members of the hall are Artenik Arabadjian (referee, Bulgaria), Jacky Chazalon (player, France), Pedro Ferrándiz (coach, Spain), Ricardo Gonzalez (player, Argentina), Al Ramsay (contributor, Australia), Luis Martin (contributor, Argentina), Ubiratan Pereira (player, Brazil) and Marcel Pfeuti (referee, Switzerland).

Newell, Martin, Pereira, Pfeuti and Yow are being enshrined posthumously. Newell passed away on Nov. 17, 2009, at the age of 93 after a long illness.

“I think everyone knows what a genius Coach Newell was on a basketball floor and coaching players,” USF head coach Rex Walters said. “Obviously FIBA recognizes that it wasn’t just an American impact he had on the game but an international one. When people talk about a big man coach and player development, they talk about Coach Newell. Our short time with him at USF, we have to be proud of the fact that one of our coaches is an international hall-of-famer.”

The official induction ceremony will take place on Sept. 20 in Katowice, Poland, coinciding with the finals of the 2009 Eurobasket tournament, and on Sept. 22 in the FIBA Hall of Fame located in Alcobendas (Madrid, Spain).

One of just three coaches to win the “Triple Crown” of coaching (NIT, NCAA and Olympic Championships), Newell won the NCAA title with Cal in 1959 before leading the U.S. Olympic team to a gold medal at the 1960 Games in Rome with a squad that included such future NBA standouts as Robertson and Jerry West. Bob Knight and Dean Smith were the only two to match the feat.

Newell was inducted into the USF Athletic Hall of Fame in 1969 and was enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., a decade later in 1979.

The FIBA Hall of Fame was officially inaugurated on March 1, 2007. It was constructed with the help of the city of Alcobendas (Madrid, Spain) and through the initiative of Ferrándiz, legendary coach of Real Madrid, founder and president of the foundation that carries his name and member of the 2009 FIBA class. Inductees into the FIBA Hall of Fame are divided into four categories: players, coaches, technical officials and contributors. Enshrinement ceremonies into the FIBA Hall of Fame take place every two years and are limited to a maximum of six inductees that are still alive.

ABOUT FIBA: FIBA (fiba.com), the world governing body for basketball, is an independent association formed by 213 national basketball federations throughout the world. For more information on the 2009 FIBA Hall of Fame Class, visit halloffame.fiba.com.