Louisville was a member of the MVC from 1964-75, winning six league men's basketball championships and finishing as runner-up twice.
A native of San Fernando, California, Denny Crum compiled a 98-22 overall record (.817 winning percentage), a 46-8 league slate (.852), two Final Four trips, a Sweet Sixteen appearance in the NCAA Tournament and a trip to the NIT in just four Missouri Valley Conference seasons.
His overall and league-only winning percentages rank first on the all-time Missouri Valley Conference coaching list.
In the NCAA Tournament, Crum guided the Cardinals to the Final Four in 1972 and 1975.
Crum joins one of his greatest players Junior Bridgeman -- two-time MVC Player of the Year and a key member of the 1975 Final Four team -- in the MVC Hall of Fame. Bridgeman was inducted in 2009. Crum was selected Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year in 1973. His teams posted at least 21 victories in each season in The Valley -- 26 (1971-72), 23 (1972-73), 21 (1973-74) and 28 (1974-75).
Enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, as a coach, in 1994, he began his collegiate playing career at Pierce Junior College (1954-56) and earned All-Southern California Junior College honors twice and league player of the year laurels in 1955.
Crum transferred to UCLA (1956-58) and received the Bruins' Irv Pohlmeyer Trophy as UCLA's best first-year player (1956-57) and Bruin Bench Award as the team's most improved player (1957-58).
He started his coaching career as a graduate assistant/freshman coach at UCLA (1958-60), returned to Pierce as an assistant coach (1962-64) and served a four-year stint as head coach at Pierce before becoming a full-time assistant coach at UCLA (1968-71).
Crum served as head coach at the University of Louisville from 1971 to 2001, collecting two national championships (1980 and 1986), six Final Four trips (1972, 1975, 1980, 1982, 1983 and 1986) and national coach of the year honors three times (1980, 1983 and 1986).
As an international coach, Crum guided the United States to a gold medal at the 1977 World University Games and a silver medal at the 1987 Pan-American Games.