PROVO, Utah – Frank Arnold, who served as BYU men’s basketball head coach from 1975-83, passed away on Saturday.
Arnold became the 13th head coach in program history, following a four-year stint at UCLA helping the Bruins win three NCAA Championships. He also served as an assistant coach at Oregon under Steve Belko, who coached him at Idaho State.
During his time in Provo, Arnold went 137-94 winning three Western Athletic Conference titles and coached the Cougars to three NCAA Tournament appearances including the program’s only trip to the Elite Eight in 1981.
Led John R. Wooden Award winner Danny Ainge and former NBA players Greg Kite and Fred Roberts, BYU was a six-seed for the 1981 NCAA Tournament. After defeating No. 11 seed Princeton and No. 3 seed UCLA in the opening two rounds, BYU faced No. 2 seed Notre Dame in the Sweet 16. In a game where the Cougars trailed by 10 at halftime, Ainge drove the length of the court in the final seconds to score the game-winning basket giving BYU a 51-50 victory over the Fighting Irish. They would later fall to Ralph Sampson and top-seeded Virginia in the Elite Eight, 74-60.
Arnold, a native of Ogden, Utah, later became the head coach at Hawaii from 1985-87 before serving as an assistant coach at Arizona State.