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It is often said that those who can’t, teach. What about those who coach? Teaching and coaching are arts in themselves, and even the best players in any sport need a great coach, just as great coaches need a pool of talent. Whether or not that talent is developed is a whole other story, and the masterful skill of nurturing talent and leading athletes to push their limits is what earned ex-basketball coach Gene Bartow the title “Father of UAB Athletics”.

Basketball fans will be saddened to know that Bartow, one of the greatest coaches in the history of the game (at a time when the internet as we know it and online sports betting did not exist), passed away recently after a 2 year-long battle with stomach cancer. In the same year that he was diagnosed with his fatal illness, Gene Bartow was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in Kansas City, claiming his rightful place of honor alongside fellow inductees like Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird. Basketball betting fans and stats geeks should be impressed with Bartow’s win-loss record of 647-353

Puerto Rico National Basketball Team enlisted Bartow to coach them in the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. Two years later, he coached the US national team to win the bronze model in the 1974 FIBA World Championship.

He was the head coach at six universities but he is most famous for being University of Alabama at Birmingham’s first head basketball coach and athletic director, a job which he held passionately for 18 years. In that span of he led the UAB Blazers to seven straight NCAA Tournament appearances.

Gene Bartow is survived by his wife of 59 years, Ruth, their daughter Beth, their sons Mark and Murry, and a total of eight grandchildren. Murry Bartow succeeded his father as head coach for the UAB from 1996-2002 before accepting the head coaching job at East Tennessee State University, which he currently still holds.