Guy Lewis, coach of 'Phi Slama Jama' Houston Cougars, dies at 93

ByABC News
November 26, 2015, 1:16 PM

— -- Hall of Fame coach Guy Lewis, who led the Houston Cougars to 14 NCAA tournaments and five Final Fours, died Thursday at age 93.

He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013 and the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007.

University of Houston athletic director Hunter Yurachek announced the news on Twitter.

Lewis coached 30 seasons at Houston from 1956 to 1986, winning 592 games and six Southwest Conference championships. Among his players were Hall of Famers Clyde Drexler, Elvin Hayes and Hakeem Olajuwon.

Drexler and Olajuwon were members of Lewis' famed "Phi Slama Jama" teams of the early 1980s. The Cougars appeared in three consecutive Final Fours, but never took home a championship. Their loss to Jim Valvano's NC State team in the 1983 title game is considered one of the greatest upsets in NCAA tournament history.

Lewis was also one of the first coaches in the South to recruit and sign black players. 

In 1968, Lewis helped organize the "Game of the Century" -- a matchup with John Wooden's dominant UCLA program in front of an Astrodome crowd 50,000 strong, the first nationally broadcast regular-season game in college basketball history.

His wife, Dena, died in June. The Lewises were married 72 years.