Lou Henson

Lou Henson (born January 10, 1932) is a former college basketball coach. He retired as the all time leader in victories at the University of Illinois with 423 victories and New Mexico State with 289 victories. Overall he had 779 victories, putting him in sixth place on the all-time list.

Henson began his coaching career at Las Cruces High School in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Henson was head coach of the varsity for four seasons, and won state championships in 1959, 1960, and 1961.

He started coaching at the college ranks in 1962 at Hardin-Simmons University. In 1966, he took over at his alma mater, New Mexico State University. In his first season at NMSU, the Aggies rebounded from a 4-22 record in the prior season to finish 15-11 and went to the NCAA Tournament. In 1970, Henson would help lead the Aggies to the Final Four for the only time in the school's history. Henson and future NBA players Jimmy Collins, Sam Lacey, and Charlie Criss lost in the tournament semifinal to eventual champion UCLA, the third time in three years the Aggies lost to UCLA in the tournament. Henson coached at New Mexico State for nine seasons, with six trips to the NCAA Tournament and four twenty-win seasons.

In 1975, Henson moved to the University of Illinois to replace Gene Bartow, after Bartow left Illinois to replace John Wooden at UCLA. He would lead the Fighting Illini to the 1989 Final Four. In 21 years at Illinois, Henson garnered 423 wins and 224 losses (.654 winning percentage), and with a record of 214 wins and 164 losses (.567) in Big Ten Conference games. The 214 wins in Big Ten games were the third highest total ever at the time of his retirement. At Illinois, Henson coached many future NBA players, including Eddie Johnson, Derek Harper, Ken Norman, Nick Anderson, Kendall Gill, Kenny Battle, Marcus Liberty, Steve Bardo, and Kiwane Garris and was known for his trademark, Lou-Do.

In 1997, Henson was named interim head coach at New Mexico State after Neil McCarthy was abruptly fired before the start of the season. Henson wanted to donate his time, but after being told state law didn't allow it, he accepted a nominal salary of $1 USD per month. After a successful season, he was given his old job back on a permanent basis. His 1998-99 team won the Big West regular season and tournament titles—notably, the first time in Henson's career that he had won a conference tournament. He retired for good midway through the 2004-05 season due to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. His second stint allowed him to regain his standing as New Mexico State's all-time winningest coach, passing McCarthy.