Lute!: The Seasons of My Life (Hardcover)

~ (Author), (Author), John Wooden (Foreword) "It was love at first sight..." (more)
Key Phrases: Lute Olson, Long Beach, Steve Kerr (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Early in his eighth decade of life, Lute Olson is still the face of basketball at the University of Arizona. Over the last 20 years, he has turned the once-moribund program into a perennial member of the nation's top 10. For a straitlaced gent of Scandinavian ancestry, this is a pretty spicy memoir. It features details of Olson's three love affairs: the first with basketball, the second with his late wife of 50 years, Bobbi, and the third with his second wife, Chris. Basketball fans will enjoy the cycles of playing-recruiting-playing as Olson constructs his teams, first at Iowa and then at Arizona. Olson soft-pedals his contributions to on, court success, deferring much to his assistants and to Bobbi, who acted as recruiting assistant, den mother to lonely kids away from home, and therapist to a certain mercurial basketball coach. Olson injects a sly sense of humor into this unusually thoughtful sports autobiography--the life of a successful basketball coach and an intelligent man, well told. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Description

“It was love at first sight. . . . One day I picked up a basketball, and it never let me go.”

For fifty seasons Lute Olson has been teaching young athletes the skills of basketball---and life. Starting as a high school coach, he worked his way to the top of the basketball world, winning more than a thousand games, a national championship, and a world championship, producing some of the NBA’s biggest stars, and eventually being enshrined in the basketball Hall of Fame.

This is the story of his upbringing in Mayville, North Dakota, where he learned his famous work ethic and survival skills; the telling of the eighteen years it took to finally coach for a major college team; the fond memories of coaching famed players as well as the stories of bitter losses and breathtaking wins. This is his story, from recruiting in the dangerous projects of big cities and the vast farmlands of the Midwest, to finally winning an NCAA championship. It’s the inside-the-locker-room story of many extraordinary emotional moments that will live forever in basketball lore. “Lute! Lute! Lute!” The cheer by which the Arizona fans greet their coach before each game is the story of a man with a lifelong passion for a game. This book will take the reader inside the incredibly popular world of collegiate basketball, as seen through the eyes of a giant of the sport.

But his is far more than a basketball story. Lute’s partner for forty-seven years in building championship programs was his high school sweetheart, Bobbi, whose blueberry pancakes became as widely known in the basketball world as his own full head of white hair. While Lute was the taciturn coach, she became the player’s mother-away-from-home. America got to meet her as she fought her way courtside through cheering fans after Lute’s Arizona team had earned a trip to the Final Four, and on national television he swept her off her feet and the two of them whirled round and round in joy. It is a love story of a couple who together built a sports legend. Lute and Bobbi Olson were a team. The Arizona community loved her almost as much as he did---traditionally at the beginning of each game the Wildcat band greeted them with a cheer. Their almost half-century love affair ended with Bobbi’s death from cancer. Lute explores how he dealt with her death, and how he moved forward to find a new love.

This is the chronicle of one American boy’s dream to become a great basketball coach---his achievements, his coaching strategies, and the wins and losses he faced as boy, man, and coach, but always with one constant in his life: the game of basketball. This is the story of fifty seasons in the life of Lute Olson.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books (October 3, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312354339
• ISBN-13: 978-0312354336
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #562,258 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great for basketball fans and especially Cats fans, November 14, 2006

By	Brian Goodner - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It really is an interesting book about Lute's years. It sometimes is a bit disjointed and jumps between years, but from the standpoint of getting his viewpoint on all of the games I remember watching over the years was definitely captivating. He talks about how he barely missed out on such recruits as Kevin Johnson and Reggie Miller, and also discusses how his team should have beat Magic's MSU team that ended up winning it all. It is also nice to read about Bobbi, and how she was so close to all the players, and how, once, when she was sick and they were trapped in Budapest, Robert Sarver (current Phoenix Suns owner) flew out there to help them out in a time of need.

I recommend this book to any college or pro basketball fan, but especially to those that are Arizona alum.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Olson's biography is a good read for basketball fans, December 18, 2006

By	Steve Emerine (Tucson, AZ United States) - See all my reviews

Even Tucsonans who thought they knew everything about their long-time University of Arizona basketball coach will learn some interesting things from this autobiography. In it, Lute Olson shares his thoughts as he offers behind-the-scenes looks into on-court events and his personal life during his 70+ years. His modesty grabs you almost immediately. His tolerance for journalists, players, coaches and officials who fell short of his standards becomes apparent as he recounts scores of incidents in his career. I was an assistant city editor at the Arizona Daily Star in 1985 when its sports department rushed into print with a libelous and untrue story on Olson that caused him to consider looking elsewhere. I was assigned to take over sports and right the ship. We had been dead wrong, and we said so. Fortunately for us and the University of Arizona, Olson finally forgave our error and decided to stay. This book deals with the incident more charitably than we deserved. His decision to stay at Arizona for more than 20 years after that was right for the UA and for him. He went on to win a national championship and election to basketball's Hall of Fame. If you're a fan, a current or former player, a one-time coach or just a lover of good stories, this book is for you. It's about a poor kid who worked hard, married his school sweetheart and did pretty well for himself and his family. He suffered three terrible losses in his life but rebounded each time. Lute Olson is worthy of a Hall Fame both inside and outside of basketball.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read By One of the Game's Best Coaches!, January 29, 2007

By	Michael Taylor "Michael Taylor" (Indian Trail NC) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I just finished Lute! and thoroughly enjoyed what I read. Ironically, I finished the book a couple of days after the North Carolina Tar Heels (go Heels!) thrashed the Arizona Wildcats by 20 some odd points. Reckon this was payback for the times Arizona beat UNC in the March Madness Tournaments of years past.

Among the topics covered in the book were:

1. Lute Olson's early childhood and early love of basketball.
2. Various coaching jobs - high school, Long Beach State, Iowa, Arizona.
3. Relationships with certain coaches (Roy Williams, Bobby Knight, John Wooden, Al McGuire, Jerry Tarkanian, Pete Newell, etc.).
4. His long-time marriage to his first wife, Bobbi, whom he obviously loved very much and was deeply hurt by her passing.
5. His current marriage to Christine Torreti.
6. Relationships with various college basketball players.
7. Summaries of his various seasons at the colleges he coached at and how they ended (sometimes after a deep run in the NCAA tournament, sometimes, an early first-round exit).
8. Relationships with other family members and various friendships.
9. Description of his recruiting, publicity, and other basketball coach-related duties.
10. Several instances of good humor.

The book was a joy to read and I gained a deeper appreciation for Coach Olson. As a matter of fact, if I had a son who was college basketball material, I would count it a privilege if he played for Coach Olson at Arizona (assuming, of course, that none of the basketball powerhouses in the ACC were interested in him!).

All in all, a great read about a class act. Highly recommended.