Good coach, even better person. College basketball lost a great man.

Hadn't heard, that's horrible.

Sad to hear. Thoughts and prayers to his family and the SLU program.

I am a Kentucky fan and we seemed to face his Utah team all the time in the NCAA Tournament during the 90's (4 times).  He was a great coach and seemed to be a very good person as well. RIP Rick, my thoughts and prayers go to your family and SLU.

I had the good fortune of spending some time with Rick back when I was a "Younger" Warrior.  Or "Rick the Pick" as Al McGuire (whom Majerus was an assistant coach for in the 70's) called him.  His biography titled "My Life on a Napkin", written when he was in Utah, is a good read.

He never married or had children, but many of his players thought of him as their father.

When with Majerus, you ate alot, laughed alot, and if you paid attention, learned alot.  Amazing knowledge of hoops.  When he worked for ESPN after he left Utah, I felt he was able to break games down better than anyone they've ever had.   But then again I remember him trying to figure out where to put anti-freeze in his 70's Volkswagon.
But he had an amazing appetite to match.   He used to have campers introduce themselves by stating their name and their hometown.  He then almost without exception, was able to name a restaurant in their hometown. 

At one point he probably was over 350 pounds but he reportedly lost 120 pounds while in California awaiting a heart transplant.

Posted by oldwarrior on 12/2/2012 4:51:00 PM (view original):
I had the good fortune of spending some time with Rick back when I was a "Younger" Warrior.  Or "Rick the Pick" as Al McGuire (whom Majerus was an assistant coach for in the 70's) called him.  His biography titled "My Life on a Napkin", written when he was in Utah, is a good read.

He never married or had children, but many of his players thought of him as their father.

When with Majerus, you ate alot, laughed alot, and if you paid attention, learned alot.  Amazing knowledge of hoops.  When he worked for ESPN after he left Utah, I felt he was able to break games down better than anyone they've ever had.   But then again I remember him trying to figure out where to put anti-freeze in his 70's Volkswagon.
But he had an amazing appetite to match.   He used to have campers introduce themselves by stating their name and their hometown.  He then almost without exception, was able to name a restaurant in their hometown. 

At one point he probably was over 350 pounds but he reportedly lost 120 pounds while in California awaiting a heart transplant.

Thanks for the insight, oldwarrior. I always admired the way Majerus treated the game and more importantly, his players.  Too bad there aren't more like him in the business coaching, teaching and leading our young men. 

I had the good fortune to be around Rick for two clinics in Las Vegas when I was coaching RL. He was an excellent teacher and great at getting his point across.   He was naturally very funny. He was very self aware and not afraid to make fun of himself. He was highly competitive but never took himself too seriously.

He said he loved to do clinics in Vegas but only wanted to do early morning sessions so he could get to the buffets.

He was a very good coach but a better person. He will be missed.

I thought Rick was never married too... but I read in one article that he was married for about 3 years in the late 80s to a woman named Cloe (87-89).  A couple of other websites confirm this.  In 1991, he finished the San Antonio Marathon in last place (5 hours, 54 minutes).  While that's a 'horrible' time (13:30 min mile) it's not walking!

As a Xavier fan, I was really glad he took over SLUs program in 2007 (the A-10 needs all the good teams they can get).  Sure enough, he eventually turned them around to be a really, really solid team last year.  I saw them play at Xavier in person last season (Xavier lost) and naturally was very impressed.  He was easy to admire because of his unique & funny personality.  Plus, how can you not like a guy that apparently lived in hotels???

one quote I saw on twitter attributed to him:
"Never marry a beautiful woman. A beautiful woman will leave you. An ugly woman will leave you, too, but so what?"           

It was interesting that he lived in hotels.  As he said, "I have clean towels and there's always a mint on my pillow, no matter what psychological or emotional problem the maid is having."