FAYETTEVILLE — Eddie Sutton’s long hall of fame wait has come to an end.
Sutton, the former Arkansas coach who is best known for his later years coaching at his alma mater Oklahoma State, will be announced as one of the inductees for this year’s Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, sources told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Friday.
Citing unnamed sources, Tulsa World and The Oklahoman also reported Sutton had been elected.
The official announcement of this year’s class will be made Saturday on ESPN beginning at 11 a.m. Other finalists for this year's class include Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Rudy Tomjanovich, Tamika Catchings, Kim Mulkey and Barbara Stevens.
Sutton, 84, was a finalist for the Naismith Hall of Fame for the seventh time since 2002 and his repeated rejection had become had been the topic of much discussion in basketball circles. Finalists must receive 75 percent of the vote from the hall’s 24 voters for admission.
Although Sutton was inducted into to the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011, the Naismith Hall of Fame is considered the game’s highest lifetime achievement honor. Sutton would become the third man with ties to the Razorbacks to be elected to the Naismith Hall of Fame. Former Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson was inducted in 2014 and Sidney Moncrief, who was recruited by Sutton and played for him, was inducted last year.
Former Sutton players rejoiced at the news in social media posts Friday. Rex Chapman, who was an All-America guard for Sutton at Kentucky, tweeted, "My college coach Eddie Sutton has been elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. I could cry. Thanks, Coach. It’s about damn time."
Darrell Walker, the Arkansas-Little Rock coach who played three seasons for Sutton at Arkansas and was an All-American as a senior in 1983, tweeted, "Finally." Earlier in the day Walker said he was driving to Tulsa to be with Sutton.
Sutton coached 11 seasons for the Razorbacks from 1974-85 and compiled a record of 260-75. Arkansas, which had not been to the NCAA Tournament in 16 years prior to Sutton’s hiring, went to the NCAA Tournament in each of his final nine seasons, and in 1978 Sutton led the Razorbacks to their first Final Four in 33 years.
Sutton’s Arkansas teams won five Southwest Conference championships and three SWC Tournament championships, building a fanbase that was rivaled only by that of Razorbacks football in the state. Sutton’s success was responsible for the overhaul of Barnhill Arena, Arkansas’ home court, into one of the great college basketball venues of its day. Sutton’s teams were a combined 120-8 at Barnhill.
While Sutton’s on-court success was never in decline at Arkansas, his alcoholism created a rift between he and former UA athletics director Frank Broyles. Sutton resigned from Arkansas in 1985 to take a job at Kentucky, drawing the ire of many Razorback fans when he said he’d crawl there. In later years Sutton said he regretted that comment.
Sutton has since reconciled with the Arkansas fanbase, returning to Fayetteville many times for games and special events to honor him or his former teams, and receiving warm welcomes from the assembled crowds. A banner with his name was hung at Bud Walton Arena in 2016 and the Razorbacks’ basketball practice facility was named after him last year. Despite deteriorating health, he attended two Arkansas basketball games this year.
Four years after leaving Arkansas, Sutton resigned under pressure at Kentucky amid an NCAA investigation into the Wildcats’ recruiting, which led to a postseason ban for the program. Sutton was not named in the NCAA’s report on its findings at Kentucky.
Many believe his previous omissions from the Naismith Hall of Fame is for some variation of his lack of a national championship, his resignation at Kentucky in or for his documented alcoholism that forced his resignation at Oklahoma State following a DUI citation in 2006.
Prior to that, Sutton led the Cowboys to one of their greatest runs of success, a 16-season span that included 368 victories and Final Four appearances in 1995 and 2004. The floor at Oklahoma State’s Gallagher-Iba Arena is named for Sutton.
Sutton won 804 career games and 10 regular-season conference championships in his career and was the first coach to take four schools - Creighton, Arkansas, Kentucky and Oklahoma State - to the NCAA Tournament. He had been the winningest college coach who had not been elected to the Naismith Hall of Fame.
This year's class is scheduled to be inducted during a ceremony Aug. 29 in Springfield, Mass.