Before he was a great coach, Sloan was one of the most hard-nosed players in NBA history
A lot of people don’t realize that Evansville has a magnificent basketball history but the Purple Aces won five national titles between 1959 and 1971 in D-II before transitioning to D-I.
They won back-to-back titles in 1964 and 1965 and the key driver in those was Jerry Sloan.
He became one of the toughest guards in the NBA with the Chicago Bulls, joining the team at the very beginning as a player taken in the expansion draft in 1966 (he was drafted by the Baltimore Bullets).
Sloan was a heck of a player though as you’ll see in these highlights. He was not an overwhelming talent but he had some of the same toughness we would see later with Larry Bird. He was not a guy you wanted to get into it with.
His number was eventually retired by Chicago and he went on to a brilliant coaching career, primarily with the Utah Jazz. He finished his coaching career with 2,024 wins and 1,221 losses.
