Sutton among 2020 Basketball Hall of Fame inductees
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Bucklin native Eddie Sutton was one of nine individuals selected for the 2020 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame class on Saturday. The official induction ceremony in Massachusetts is set for August 29, unless the COVID-19 postpones the event.
The class is loaded and include Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Tamika Catchings, Tim Duncan, Barbara Stevens, Rudy Tomjanovich and Kim Mulkey.
Sutton was born and raised in Bucklin, located in Ford County. He is among only four former major-college men’s basketball coaches to have recorded at least 800 victories. The others are Bob Knight, Dean Smith and Adolph Rupp. Rupp was also born and raised in Kansas, in the small town of Halstead.
Sutton led his teams to three Final Four appearances, one with Arkansas in 1978 and two with Oklahoma State in 1995 and 2004. He was also named the National Coach of the Year four times in his historic coaching career. Sutton coached at Oklahoma State for 16 seasons, qualifying for the NCAA Tournament 13 times.
He was the first coach to take four different teams to the NCAA Tournament – Creighton, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Oklahoma State. His teams played in 26 NCAA tournaments and reached the Final Four three different times – once with Arkansas (1978) and twice with Oklahoma State (1995, 2004). At Oklahoma State, his teams won nine regular-season conference titles and Sutton won his 800th game on Feb. 2, 2008.
Sutton was a four-time national coach of the year and Oklahoma State honored him by naming their floor Eddie Sutton Court in 2005. He was inducted to the Oklahoma State Hall of Honor in 1997, and the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.
