Cotton Fitzsimmons

Life and work

The story behind the role.

American basketball coach (1931–2004).

Lowell Gibbs "Cotton" Fitzsimmons (October 7, 1931 – July 24, 2004) was an American college and NBA basketball coach. A native of Bowling Green, Missouri, he attended and played basketball at Hannibal-LaGrange Junior College in Hannibal, Missouri and Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas. He coached the Phoenix Suns three times, was named the NBA Coach of the Year twice, and is often credited as the architect of the Suns' success of the late 1980s and early to middle 1990s. Fitzsimmons won 1,089 games in his coaching career: 223 games at the junior college level, 34 at the Division I college level and 832 in the NBA. On May 16, 2021, it was announced that Fitzsimmons was elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. The Class of 2021 enshrinement ceremony occurred on September 11, 2021.

Encyclopaedic excerpts from Cotton Fitzsimmons; shortened for length and available under CC BY-SA 4.0.