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The Great Plains states have produced many successful professional and college sports coaches. Plains natives have coached their teams to numerous national and international championships.
Several prominent professional baseball managers were born in the Plains. Although they were better known as players than as managers, Hall of Famers Tris Speaker of Hubbard City, Texas, and Rogers Hornsby of Winters, Texas, managed world championship teams. Speaker's Cleveland Indians won the World Series in 1920, and Hornsby's St. Louis Cardinals won in 1926. Billy Southworth, who was born in Harvard, Nebraska, managed the Cardinals to World Series titles in 1942 and 1944. Ralph Houk of Larned, Kansas, managed the New York Yankees to world championships in 1961 and 1962.
George "Sparky" Anderson, born in Rapid City, South Dakota, is the only manager to win the World Series in both major leagues. Anderson won with the Cincinnati Reds in 1975 and 1976 and with the Detroit Tigers in 1984. The most successful baseball manager of the 1990s was Bobby Cox, a native of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Cox managed the Atlanta Braves in four World Series, winning in 1995. Mike Hargrove of Perryton, Texas, managed the Cleveland Indians in the World Series in 1995 and 1997.
In college football, Tom Osborne, a native
of Hastings, Nebraska, and coach at the University
of Nebraska, retired after the 1997 season
with 254 victories, ranking him sixth
among all National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I coaches in history.
Osborne's Cornhuskers won national championships
in 1994 and 1995 and shared the title
in 1997. Frank Leahy, born in O'Neill, Nebraska,
and raised in Winner, South Dakota,
coached Notre Dame between 1941 and 1953.
Leahy's Fighting Irish won national titles in
1943, 1946, 1947, and 1949. Darrell Royal of
Hollis, Oklahoma, coached national champions
at the University of Texas in 1963, 1969,
and 1970.
Professional basketball's most successful
coach of recent years, Phil Jackson, was born
in Deer Lodge, Montana. Under Jackson, the
Chicago Bulls won National Basketball Association
(NBA) titles in 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996,
1997, and 1998. His regular-season winning
percentage of .738 (as of 2002) is unmatched
in NBA history. Jackson subsequently coached
the Los Angeles Lakers to the title in 2000,
2001, and 2002. Another Plains native to earn
an NBA title as head coach is Bill Sharman
of Abilene, Texas, who won with Los Angeles
in 1971.
The Plains has been an especially fertile
source of successful college basketball coaches.
The two winningest men's coaches and the
winningest women's coach are all from the
Plains states. Adolph Rupp of Halstead, Kansas,
coached the University of Kentucky Wildcats
to NCAA basketball titles in 1948, 1949, 1951,
and 1958. Dean Smith, born in Emporia and
raised in Topeka, Kansas, coached at the University
of North Carolina from 1962 to 1997.
Smith's Tar Heels won national championships
in 1982 and 1993, and Smith holds records
for most career and most NCAA tournament
victories.
Several other NCAA tournament–winning
coaches come from the Plains. Everett Shelton
of Cunningham, Kansas, led Wyoming to the
NCAA title in 1943. In 1966 the University of
Texas at El Paso (then Texas Western), coached
by Don Haskins of Enid, Oklahoma, became
the first team with an all–African American
starting lineup to win the NCAA title, beating
Rupp's Kentucky team in the championship
game. In 1994 El Paso, Texas, native Nolan
Richardson coached the University of Arkansas
to the title. Lute Olson of Mayville, North
Dakota, won the championship with the University
of Arizona in 1997. Other highly successful
college basketball coaches from the
Plains include Eddie Sutton of Bucklin, Kansas,
Billy Tubbs of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Dale
Brown of Minot, North Dakota, Gene Keady
of Larned, Kansas, Ralph Miller of Chanute,
Kansas, Lou Henson of Okay, Oklahoma, Ted
Owens of Hollis, Oklahoma, and "Tex" Winter
of Wellington, Texas. The winningest coach in
NCAA women's basketball, Jody Conradt of the
University of Texas, was born in Goldthwaite,
Texas. In 1998 Conradt was elected to the Basketball
Hall of Fame.