That was a great crowd. Thank you Coach for building this 
The house that Sampson built? How many great teams did he have before FC was built?
This program was DOA when he got here. A stripe out would have failed miserably before 2018
There were the teams that Elvin Hayes played on and we have him to thank for the Judge donating big money to build Hofheinz Arena, that was remodeled at the insistence of CKS . . . . . Then we had a couple of great teams headed up by the Williams cuz’s along with Clyde, Michael and Akeem . . . . . Dismissed . . . . .
So the Reagan Administration?
Johnson Administration . . . . .
Sampson is the most transformational coach in UH history. Sometimes its harder to turn something around that has a head of steam in the wrong direction. I appreciate Penders but Sampson completely recreated our program. God willing we’ll win a NC for him and you can start sculpting the statue.
Tom did an outstanding job here given the limitations of the program. Some of his detractors thought that his comments about the state of disrepair Hofheinz was in were exaggerations, but Kelvin’s description of the facility was even worse. I really respected Dave Maggard as our AD but all money and support went to Football.
No offense, but GVL took a relatively new program from a UH player to UH head coach in a culture that valued football over basketball and turned it into a championship program.
He took the risk of player integration before it was popular in the South to recruit the talents of Big E and Don Chaney and guided the program to a regular season #1.
Game of the Century. First prime time national television audience.
Five NCAA Final Fours and one NIT championship game.
Multiple HOF players.
The creation of most famous basketball fraternity in the nation.
Depending on a person’s personal criteria, GVL was and remains the most transformative coach at UH, if not the country.
These facts right here are why those comparing Samspon to Lewis are comparing apples to organes in the whole outlook of how they impacted the game. I am still waiting for the statue of Guy V Lewis in that big empty area in the plaza on the Cemo Entrance to the FC. On that retaining wall behing the statue big Bronze Plaques of because Lewis, Drexler, Hayes, and Olajwan four are in the Basketball Hall of Fame
I use the term “transformative” to describe a coach that reversed 30+ years and six prior coaches’ combined futility.
Guy V a legend and cannot be replaced in our history. He built the program but he coached 30 years. Roughly half of that he got us in the tourney. That is remarkable.
But like I said, an entire generation of Americans had grown up oblivious to our history when Sampson took over. An aging, obsolete gym. A reputation of futility. Two marginal conferences. And only one NCAA appearance in three decades. Not to mention playing an entire season in another school’s stadium. To take a team to #1 in the nation is transformative.
Not comparing the two, but acknowledging that the inertia was completely against Sampson even being above average. He beat the odds and elevated the program to a place even the most optimistic of us couldn’t see coming.
I love them both.
This will be Sampson’s 8th season in a row at UH with +20 wins. No other UH coach has more than 4 in a row.
The Sampson Era will be talked about for decades around here. I already like calling it The Sampson Era in fact…has a nice ring to it.
Also holds record for most consecutive weeks of being ranked, and would have the record for most consecutive trips to the NCAA tournament if not for Covid
Streak is still on…so will be broken in March!
This…
Sampson got here just at the right time and put UH back in the national spotlight and for that we should all be forever thankful.
I not only want him to make a final four again, I want him to win the dang thing so Guy can crack that big grin looking down from Heaven.
But really it’s really silly to compare the two, different coaches, different playing styles, different personalities.
Both are HOF coaches, but I am still shaking my head at how the voting snobs kept Guy out so long.
Personally I think we should have statues of both of them side by side.
What I am waiting for is to one day have another football coach’s statue next to coach Yeoman…lol
Sampson got to return to college coaching here. He’s paying it forward by taking UH to biggest heights.
Not just UH history, but world history, European history, American history . . . . . what have I missed ? ? ? ? ?