STILLWATER, OKLA. -- Hank Iba, 88, whose college basketball teams won nearly 800 games and two NCAA titles, and whose teaching philosophy influenced generations of coaches, died Jan. 15 at a Stillwater hospital after a heart attack.
Mr. Iba, the second-winningest coach in college history, compiled a record of 655-316 at Oklahoma State University and a 767-338 mark overall. He led the Cowboys to back-to-back national championships in 1945 and 1946, and coached the U.S. Olympic team to gold medals in 1964 and 1968.
He made history as the Olympic coach in 1972 when the United States for the first time failed to win the gold medal. The U.S. team lost to the Soviets in a game with one of the most disputed endings in basketball history.
"It never did bother me. But it bothered the boys who played for me," Mr. Iba said of that loss in Munich.
The United States apparently had won the game at the end of regulation play. But the clock was reset twice, giving the Soviets three chances to score a game-winning basket.
"We won the ball game, no question about it," he said in an interview with the Associated Press in February 1990. "That thing was over.
"The man who was working the ballgame, he came to me and told me, 'Take your ballclub and get out of here. This thing's over.' I thought about it a minute and thought, 'Wait a minute. We're playing against the whole world. Why should I be big enough to take my ballclub and walk away?'
"I didn't feel it was right. That's the reason I didn't. I should have, if I'd have done the right thing. But I didn't believe it."
Mr. Iba began playing basketball on dirt courts in his hometown of Easton, Mo. He was from a family of coaches. His brother, Clarence, coached at Tulsa in the 1950s. His son, Moe, coaches at Texas Christian University, and his nephew, Gene, coached at Baylor University until last season.
Upon learning of Mr. Iba's death, Indiana University's basketball coach, Bob Knight, said, "Of all the shadows that cast over the game of basketball, his was the biggest."
Bob Kurland, who was on Mr. Iba's NCAA championship teams, said that the coach would be missed because of his character and a coaching style that left a mark on college basketball. "Henry Iba came along at a time when the foundations of the games, in terms of a national {sport}, were being established," Kurland said.
Mr. Iba began his coaching career in 1927 at Classen High School in Oklahoma City. After two seasons there, he went to Maryville Teachers College in Missouri. He spent four seasons at Maryville, then spent a season at the University of Colorado before taking over at Oklahoma State, then called Oklahoma A&M.
In 1942, he recruited Kurland, a 7-footer. During Kurland's four seasons, Oklahoma A&M had a record of 99-22 and won the consecutive national championships. Oklahoma State has had nine All-America basketball players, and all were coached by Mr. Iba.
Ironically, Mr. Iba said he often tried to do too much when he was coaching. "I was a nut. I had more plays. I didn't know 'em myself," he said in the 1990 interview. "That's the worst thing I ever did. Every time I won a ballgame, I got two more plays. I got to be a damn fool."
The trademarks of his teams were strong defense and a deliberate offense. His reasons were simple.
"If I've got the ball enough, I've got a chance to win. If they get the ball more than I do, I'm liable to get beat. I've got to have that rock," he said.
"In my own mind, I'm convinced that if I can't stop 'em, I ought to get beat. That's the name of the game," he said. "I don't care if you and I are having a bicycle race. If you can't win, you're no good. You're second."
"My idea about basketball is this: Action well-organized and controlled is good. No action will get you beat. Too much action, you run over one another," Mr. Iba concluded.