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Butch van Breda Kolff 1922-2007.

August 23, 2007 at 1:45 pm
Filed under Basketball, Butch van Breda Kolff, Princeton

Former Princeton basketball coach Willem "Butch" van Breda Kolff passed away yesterday in Spokane, Washington at the age of 84 after a lengthy illness.

van Breda Kolff paced the sidelines at Princeton from 1962-1967, leaving the Tigers for a job coaching the Los Angeles Lakers. van Breda Kolff assembled a 103-31 record with four Ivy League titles in his five seasons at Princeton and led the Tigers to the program's only Final Four appearance in 1965.

If you have any memories or stories about Butch van Breda Kolff you would like to share, please feel free to leave them in our comments section. I hope that his still-memorable speech from the 100 Years of Princeton Basketball dinner in 2001 can someday be archived on-line.

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glange said,

August 23, 2007 @ 4:46 pm

You've never sensed the inevitability of extraterrestrial life until you've hung at the bar at Reunions with Butch, Pete Carril and "Parson" Chris Thomforde '69. The good buddies cannot possibly all be from the same homeworld.

Let us not forget that, while he didn't recruit Bill Bradley '65, Butch did bring in John Hummer, Geoff Petrie, Thomforde, Joe Heiser, John Haarlow, Dave Lawyer and the great '67 class of Gary Walters (from Carril's Reading HS), Ed Hummer, Robby Brown, Larry Lucchino, Bill Koch and Allen Adler. He coached seven first team All-Ivy players in five years, and recruited six for the ensuing three years. Not to mention getting Pete named as his successor.

It sure seems quiet now....

Gregg Lange

Jon Solomon said,

September 11, 2007 @ 6:25 pm

Here's a memory from Mr. Jack Platten, reprinted with permission. - JS

Howdy Jon:

I've been one of Butch Van Breda Kolff's friends and admirers since he returned to Princeton 's basketball team in 1946 and was a constant attendant at the post-game parties our local group of basketball fans had for the outstanding players, so I've read with interest all the articles in the papers about his career. Here are a few items that everyone appears to have missed :

I'll start with my recollection of the party Butch and Florence hosted back in 1965 to "celebrate" the final four record. The party was in the basement recreation room of the Faculty Apartments down by the Lake and (incidentally) one of the other guests was a little guy from Butch's Lafayette team by the name of Pete Carril. Butch told me that he was really teed off at the moment--first at Ken Fairman for not picking up the transportation expense for Florence to go to Portland with him and the team, and second at the University which had just the week before notified him of an increase in the rent for their apartment. I've always felt this was the beginning of the end for his Princeton connection.

Just a few years later, Jackie Kent Cook (millionaire owner of the Los Angeles Lakers) went after Butch to come and manage the Lakers (with Wilt Chamberlain as player). Most sports writers were baffled by this choice, but what they didn't know at the time was that Cook was expecting that a professional soccer league was in the offing and he wanted to have a soccer team in Los Angeles, too. That made Butch a two-fer, since he had been captain of Princeton's soccer team and had made the All-American list as a player. I haven't seen any mention of this in the recent splurge of articles and obits for Butch.

Just a few more notes from my memory box. When I first played tennis with him in 1962, I was quickly aware that he was a left-handed athlete, something I didn't recall of him when he was a hoops player here or on the Knicks He was a damn fine tennis player, and it was continuing fun for me to play with or against him in doubles during many summers at Barnegat Light, north of Harvey Cedars, where he had a cottage. The after-game beers were also pleasant.

Cheerio Jack Platten '38

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