Coaching Career
Gill's first head coaching position was at a high school in Oakland, California. After one season there, he returned to Corvallis to be the head coach of the Rooks (the OSU freshman team). He spent two seasons in that capacity.
In the summer of 1928, OAC's current head coach Bob Hager was fired by then school president Jasper Kerr. Kerr did not look far for his new head coach. Even though Gill was only 27 years old and had just three years of coaching under his belt, Kerr hired him as the head basketball coach.
In his tenure, Oregon State won five Pacific Coast Conference titles, four Northern Division championships, and a pair of Final Four appearances (1949 and 1963). His teams won eight consecutive Far West Classic titles. Gill had 599 coaching victories with the Beavers.
Gill also coached the Beavers' baseball team from 1932 to 1937.
As past president of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, Slats coached in the 1964 NABC All-Star Game.
Read more about this topic: Slats Gill
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—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)