Bill Fitch's career

[star2city]

Des Moines Register

“Right across the street was an 80-yard gravel football field and a full basketball court,” Fitch said, recalling a 1940s-era childhood devoted to the joy of competition. “And I had God on the other side. I thought a lot about the ministry. ... In the end, I took the career that was laid out there before me.”

That was coaching basketball. And Fitch excelled at it, from the small-college ranks in Iowa to the pinnacle of the sport.

He coached household names such as Bob Gibson, Phil Jackson, Larry Bird and Hakeem Olajuwon. He turned moribund NBA franchises into winners.