Former Illini Coach Lou Henson Buried Wednesday

Lou Henson, the former men's basketball coach at the University of Illinois, died Saturday, July 25 at the age of 88 and was buried Wednesday morning.

Henson is the winningest coach in Illinois basketball history with 423 Big Ten victories. He coached the Illini from 1975 to 1996 and in 1989, the Illini advanced to the Final Four. Henson had a total of 800 wins in the record book. He was elected to the Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015 and the playing court at the State Farm Center was named for him along with the court at New Mexico State.

He currently is ranked 16th on the all-time NCAA wins list and 13th among coaches with at least 10 years in Division I.

Before Henson became the head coach at Illinois, the Illini had five NCAA tournament appearances, the last time in 1963. Henson ended that when his 1981 team qualified for the NCAA Tournament. From 1983 to 1994, Illinois missed being in the NCAA Tournament only twice.

Henson also coached at Hardin-Simmons and New Mexico State. He had a two-time stint at New Mexico State from 1966 to 1975 and 1997 to 2005 when he retired. He is New Mexico State's all-time leader in wins with 289. He ended up coaching 41 years at the three programs, 21 of those at Illinois.

Henson was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and also battled bone-marrow and lung infection issues. Henson was born in Oklahoma. He died at his home in Champaign. He was buried in a private ceremony. He is survived by his wife Mary and three daughters, Lori, Lisa and Leigh Anne. HIs son, Lou Henson Jr. was killed in a car crash November 22, 1992 at the age of 35. He was the basketball coach at Parkland College in Urbana at the time.