BILL FITCH
Game 169 | March 10, 1969 | Bill Fitch
When John Kundla retired as Gopher basketball coach after the 1967 season, the search team remembered the remarkable recent record of a young coach at North Dakota. Fitch had moved from North Dakota to Bowling Green in 1967, but he was available when the Gophers came calling. After just two seasons at Minnesota, Fitch became the first-ever coach of the NBA expansion Cleveland Cavaliers, and he gained his greatest NBA fame as the coach of the Boston Celtics from 1979 to 1983, including his league championship 1981 team that featured former Gopher Kevin McHale. He twice was named NBA Coach of the Year.
Game 182 | February 12, 1970 | Erik Hill, Ollie Shannon, Bill Fitch
Hill and Shannon were the starting guards for Fitch's 1969-70 Gopher basketball team. Hill, a good shot and defended; won second team and honorable mention on the All Big Ten teams. Shannon, a community college transfer with long-range shooting skills, still is tied for the Gophers single-game scoring record with 42 (set before the three-point shot). At the end of his Gopher career, his teammates jokingly said of Shannon, "Ollie believes a pass is something that gets you in without buying a ticket."
