Early life

Richardson was born in El Segundo Barrio in El Paso, Texas, United States to Nolan Richardson Sr. and Clareast Richardson. Clareast died from a mysterious disease in 1944, leaving behind three children: Shirley, age 5, Nolan Jr., three, and Helen, six months. Eventually they moved in with the children's grandmother, Rose Richardson or Ol' Mama. Ol' Mama had a profound impact on Nolan by helping instill the drive and determination to succeed. Nolan's father would visit, but often did not live with the family, battling alcoholism for much of his adult life.

Nolan Richardson played collegiately at Texas Western College, now the University of Texas at El Paso, playing his junior and senior years under the school's former coach, Basketball Hall of Famer Don Haskins.

Coaching career

Early years

Richardson began his coaching career at Bowie High School in El Paso, Texas. He then moved to Western Texas College, where he won the National Junior College championship in 1980.

University of Tulsa

He was the head coach at Tulsa from 1981 to 1985, leading Tulsa to the NIT championship in 1981. This was the first time an African American coach won an NIT championship. Nolan Richardson is credited with bringing the Tulsa program to national prominence when hired in 1980, and he led the school to the aforementioned 1981 NIT Championship as well as season conference championships in 1984 and 1985, along with conference tournament titles in 1982 and 1984. Nolan had a .763 winning percentage at the school. He became the first coach in NCAA history to win 50 games in his first two seasons. While coaching at Tulsa, Richardson became known for wearing an assortment of polka dot ties. This trademark eventually led Tulsa students to don polka dots during home games.

University of Arkansas

In 1985, Richardson became the head coach at the University of Arkansas after Eddie Sutton left for Kentucky. Richardson became the first African-American coach at a major university in the South, and the first African-American head coach of a men's program in the SWC. He inherited a team and program that was used to Sutton's halfcourt-oriented, walk-it-up-the-court style. Richardson's frenetic, up-tempo system was something new to Arkansas fans, and people questioned it after finishing 12-16 his first season. However, by year two he had Arkansas back in the post season with an NIT berth. By year three he had Arkansas in the NCAA Tournament. The Hogs would stay there for 13 of the next 15 seasons. In all, Arkansas under Richardson enjoyed 15 post season appearances during the 17 seasons of his tenure.

He led Arkansas to three Final Fours—losing to Duke in the semifinals in 1990, winning the National Championship in 1994 against Duke, and losing in the Championship game to UCLA in 1995. He was named the National Coach of the Year in 1994. Richardson's Arkansas teams averaged 27 wins per season during the decade of the 1990s, they were the winningest team of the decade until 1997, and their 270 wins from 1990 to 1999 were more than all but four programs in the NCAA. Nolan's legendary Arkansas teams recorded a 20 win season twelve times as well as four 30 win seasons during his 17 years.

His teams typically played an up tempo game with intense pressure defense - a style that was known as "40 Minutes of Hell." In 2012 his coaching philosophy was featured in the documentary "40 Minutes of Hell" on ESPN as part of the network's SEC Storied series. He is the winningest Basketball coach in Arkansas history, compiling a 389-169 (.697) record in 17 seasons. He is the only head coach to win a Junior College National Championship, the NIT Championship, and the NCAA Championship. Nolan Richardson is also among an elite group including Roy Williams, Denny Crum, Jim Boeheim, and Tubby Smith as the only head coaches to win 365 games in 15 seasons or less.

University of Arkansas controversy

Richardson frequently spoke out about the negative stereotypes that he and other black coaches faced while coaching at Arkansas. It came to a head in February 2002, when he spoke out against the administration at the University of Arkansas and its fans. He claimed that he was being mistreated because of his race, and challenged Athletic Director Frank Broyles to ruffle feathers by declaring "if they go ahead and pay me my money, they can take my job tomorrow.” Shortly thereafter, Arkansas dismissed Richardson as head coach. In December 2002, Richardson filed a lawsuit against the University, the Board of Trustees, and the Razorback Foundation, citing a racially discriminatory environment; the lawsuit was dismissed in July 2004. The Razorbacks have only made the NCAA Tournament four times since Richardson's departure, and have never gotten further than the second round.

After the University of Arkansas

From 2005 to 2007, Richardson, (who speaks fluent Spanish) served as the head coach of the Panama national team. In March 2007, Richardson was named as the head coach of the Mexico national basketball team.

In the middle of 2009, Richardson was named as head coach and general manager of a prospective WNBA expansion team in Tulsa. While it seemed unusual to hire a coach before securing an actual berth in the league, the investors behind the expansion effort claimed this proved they were serious about wanting a team. On October 20, 2009, the Tulsa group bought the Detroit Shock and moved it to Tulsa as the Tulsa Shock. It was Richardson's first time as a professional head coach, as well as his first time coaching women.

Richardson's tenure with the Shock was far from successful. His first season ended before it began when key players who had led the Shock to three WNBA titles opted, for various reasons, not to make the move to Tulsa. This forced Richardson to try to build the team around disgraced Olympic track star Marion Jones, who hadn't played a meaningful basketball game since her college days 13 years earlier. The players also found it difficult to adjust to Richardson's frantic style. A lack of continuity plagued the team as well; all of the players who had come from Detroit had left the team by the middle of the season, and Richardson seemingly juggled the roster on a game-by-game basis. The final result was a dreadful 6-28 record, dead last in the league. Richardson tried to rebuild the team by coaxing Sheryl Swoopes out of retirement, but after a 1-10 start, Richardson resigned on July 8, 2011.

Head coaching record

Season	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Postseason
Tulsa (Missouri Valley Conference)
1980-81	Tulsa	26-7	15-0	T-2nd	NIT Champions
1981-82	Tulsa	24-6	12-4	T-2nd	NCAA First Round
1982-83	Tulsa	19-12	11-7	T-3rd	NIT First Round
1983-84	Tulsa	27-4	13-3	T-1st	NCAA First Round
1984-85	Tulsa	23-8	12-4	1st	NCAA First Round
Tulsa:		119-37 (.763)	63-18 (.778)
Arkansas (Southwest Conference)
Arkansas (Southeast Conference)
1985-86	Arkansas	12-16	4-12	7th
1986-87	Arkansas	19-14	8-8	5th	NIT Second Round
1987-88	Arkansas	21-9	11-5	T-2nd	NCAA First Round
1988-89	Arkansas	25-7	13-3	1st	NCAA Second Round
1989-90	Arkansas	30-5	14-2	1st	NCAA Final Four
1990-91	Arkansas	34-4	15-1	1st	NCAA Elite Eight
1991-92	Arkansas	26-8	13-3	1st (West)	NCAA Second Round
1992-93	Arkansas	22-9	10-6	1st (West)	NCAA Sweet 16
1993-94	Arkansas	31-3	14-2	1st (West)	NCAA Champion
1994-95	Arkansas	32-7	12-4	T-1st (West)	NCAA Runner-Up
1995-96	Arkansas	20-13	9-7	T-2nd (West)	NCAA Sweet 16
1996-97	Arkansas	18-14	8-8	2nd (West)	NIT Final Four
1997-98	Arkansas	24-9	11-5	2nd (West)	NCAA Second Round
1998-99	Arkansas	23-11	9-7	2nd (West)	NCAA Second Round
1999-00	Arkansas	19-15	7-9	3rd (West)	NCAA First Round
2000-01	Arkansas	20-11	10-6	2nd (West)	NCAA First Round
2001-02	Arkansas	13-14†	5-10†	T-4th (West)
Arkansas:		389-169 (.697)	173-98 (.638)
Total:		508-206 (.711)

†Was replaced by interim coach Mike Anderson before end of season.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]