Coach helped to transform Cal, beginning with win over UCLA
Lou Campanelli, the former Cal head basketball coach perhaps known best for leading the team that ended the Bears’ 52game losing streak to UCLA, died Monday night. Campanelli was 84.
Campanelli had a stroke several years ago and was in failing health the past few months.
After 13 seasons at James Madison, including a stretch in the early 1980s in which the Dukes won a game in the NCAA Tournament in three consecutive years, Campanelli came to Berkeley in 1985.
At that point, the Bears had managed only one winning season in the previous 10 and had not been to the postseason since they finished second in the nation in 1960.
“He held us accountable when he first came in. I think that was huge,” said Jon Wheeler, a forward who played two seasons (1985-87) for Campanelli and later became one of his assistant coaches. “He had a very high level, a very high standard — and that’s where his passion and intensity definitely kicked in with everyone.”
Cal fans of a certain vintage remember Jan. 25, 1986, quite fondly. Sparked by guards Kevin Johnson and Chris Washington and forward Dave Butler, the Bears beat the Reggie Miller-led Bruins 75-67 in deafening Harmon Gym. It was their first win over UCLA in a quartercentury.
“You remember the win against UCLA,” Wheeler said, “but I remember the pregame speech.”
Wheeler recalled Campanelli kept that speech short and to the point: “Go out and play the game the way you’ve been taught. No matter what happens today, the sun will come up tomorrow. I love you, Golden Bears.”
The Bears went 19-10 in 198586. Campanelli led them to NIT appearances in three of his first four seasons and got Cal to the NCAA Tournament in 1990, when it beat Indiana 65-63 before losing 74-54 to Connecticut.
“He coached people hard,” Wheeler said, “and some people liked that and some did not.”
Midway through the 1992-93 season, Cal fired Campanelli after reports that some players on a team that featured Jason Kidd and Lamond Murray had complained to athletic director Bob Bockrath about Campanelli’s treatment of them.
That was the end of Campanelli’s college head-coaching career. He went 123-108 at Cal and 238-118 at JMU for an overall record of 361-226.
Campanelli later worked as a scout for the Cleveland Cavaliers and New Jersey Nets and was the supervisor of officials for the Pac-10 from 2000 through 2006. A New Jersey native who went to Montclair State, Campanelli remained in the East Bay after his time at Cal ended.
Wheeler referred to Campanelli as “a big influence in my life personally and in a lot of people’s lives. … He was a one-of-akind personality.”