Eddie Sutton article in Idaho Statesman

[TrueBlue82]

Interesting article on Eddie Sutton from my hometown paper here in Idaho.

He won 798 games during a 36-year career with four different Division I basketball programs, but Eddie Sutton might have spent his life coaching high school ball if not for the College of Southern Idaho.

Sutton was perfectly happy with his life as a high school basketball coach in Tulsa, Okla., when James Taylor came calling 40 years ago.

Taylor, the first president of CSI, needed a basketball coach at his fledgling institution ? and he was convinced that Sutton was his guy.

"I'm looking for a basketball coach and they tell me you coach a fair game," Taylor told him.

And that's how it started. Taylor soon convinced Sutton to move his young family to Idaho and start the school's basketball program, despite the lack of a campus.

"The best salesman that I've ever known. If a coach could get him as a recruiter, he could get some thoroughbreds," Sutton said of Taylor, who was the school's president until his death in 1982.

"He was one of those people that had the ability to go out and talk to farmers in the field and then go talk to the legislature and governor."

Today the 70-year-old Sutton, who retired this spring from Oklahoma State and coaching, will be a guest at a coaches' clinic at CSI. The clinic begins at 9 a.m. and high school coaches can register at the door at the CSI gym. Sutton will also be the featured speaker at a 6 p.m. dinner that is open to the public.

When Sutton arrived at CSI in 1966, students took classes at Twin Falls High after high school let out. The basketball team practiced after classes, from 10 p.m. to 1:30 a.m., in the high school gym.

Those challenges didn't stop Sutton from winning.

In three years at CSI, Sutton went 84-14 and started the Golden Eagles' tradition of excellence. CSI is 1128-210 in 40 years.

"I probably had the worst record anybody had at the College of Southern Idaho," Sutton joked.

The stint at CSI also served as a launching pad for Sutton, who is fifth all-time in Division I victories and the first coach to lead four schools to the NCAA Tournament. Sutton coached at Creighton, Arkansas, Kentucky and Oklahoma State.

But it all started in Twin Falls.

"It was just a marvelous place to live. I liked the climate. I certainly liked the people and it was exciting to start the program," said Sutton, whose son Sean, now the head coach at Oklahoma State, was born in Twin Falls. "I have nothing but pleasant memories about the three years I was there."

After leaving CSI, Sutton embarked on a career marked by extreme highs and some difficult lows. Through it all he maintained a wonderful sense of humor and humility.

He led Arkansas to one Final Four and Oklahoma State to two. He did his best work at Oklahoma State, his alma mater, turning an also-ran program into one of the Big 12's best with Final Four appearances in 1995 (with Bryant Reeves) and 2004 (with John Lucas III).

But Sutton, who had just one losing season in his distinguished career, resigned from Kentucky amid an NCAA investigation. He also suffered through a plane crash that killed several members of the Oklahoma State basketball family in 2001.

He has also battled addiction problems. In 1987, he sought treatment for alcoholism at the

Betty Ford Clinic. And last February, he was arrested for drunken driving, leading to his May retirement.

Sutton has thrown his name ? and ability to raise funds ? behind a new addiction center at Oklahoma State. The center is to help colleges deal with alcohol, drug and gambling addictions.

"It's a very worthwhile project," he said.

And just one of the ways the grandfather of nine is keeping busy in retirement. Sutton is on the board at a Tulsa bank. He still works for Nike. He'll be checking in on sons, Sean (Oklahoma State) and Scott, the head coach at Oral Roberts. He'll be doting on his grandchildren and traveling with Patsy, his wife of 48 years.

"I've been so darned busy that I haven't really missed (coaching)," Sutton said. "The thing I'll miss is the association with the players. I've always thought of myself as a teacher, and I'll miss watching players develop and mature from when they started to when they finished."

He's looking forward to simply watching basketball. Maybe visiting old coaching friends or checking in for a few days of practice to offer his thoughts. No doubt his sons will pick his brain. There's a lot of basketball in there. At today's clinic, he'll pass some of that on to high school coaches.

What he won't miss, at least not much, is the enormous pressure associated with big-time college coaching.

"I can sit over there on press row and laugh at the coaches sweating their fannies off," he said. "I can console the losers, congratulate the winners. I can enjoy the game and still not feel the pressure."

It'll be a bit like those high school days so long ago ? before a phone call from a persistent salesman representing a not-yet-constructed junior college in Idaho changed all that.

[ManiacVP]

Well see now there are two great things to come out of Idaho... Eddie, and myself.