Ned Wulk was ASU men's basketball coach from 1957-82

July 6, 2001

The Arizona State University athletic department honored its own coaching legend, Ned Wulk, as the arena floor where he won a building-record 20 straight contests was renamed "Ned Wulk Court" on March 6, 1999, in honor of the legendary basketball mentor who won 406 games from 1957-82. Wulk posted amazing success in Tempe, as he was 94-24 (.797) in home contests in the former University Activity Center and has been a strong supporter of the ASU program since his retirement in 1982.

Wulk, who was 406-272 (.599) in his 25-year run as Sun Devil head coach, was honored at an evening banquet on Friday, March 5, 1999, which was held on the floor of Wells Fargo Arena (formerly UAC). The next afternoon, Wulk was honored by ASU fans, alumni, former players, administrators and family at halftime of the ASU-USC game.

ASU won its first 20 games in the UAC from Dec. 3, 1974 through Jan. 10, 1976, which is still a building record. Three times Wulk's troops won 14 games in its home arena, which remains a record.

At the time of Wulk's 400th victory, he was one among only four active coaches to win 400 games at the same school. One of the others was North Carolina's Dean Smith. His first team had a .500 season, with a 13-13 mark. From there, Wulk guided his teams to 17-9, 16-7, 23-6, 23-4 and 26-3 records in his first five years. In the 25 years Wulk coached at ASU, he had 17 winning seasons and led ASU to nine NCAA Tournaments and two National Invitational Tournaments. His teams were one game away from the Final Four three different times -- 1961, 1963 and 1975. Arizona State has made it to the NCAA Tournament a total of 11 times, and only two were without Wulk (1991 and 1995).

COACH NED WULK COACHING HIGHLIGHTS AND NOTES

*The Arizona State Christmas Classic was played for the first time in 1963, while Wulk was head coach. The 15 times that ASU competed in the Classic under Wulk, ASU won 11.

*The most ASU wins in a season is 26, which was achieved by Wulk's 1963 team.

*The longest winning streak by any ASU team was 18 by the 1962 club.

*Wulk guided Arizona State to its first top-20 national ranking in just his fifth year as coach. ASU was ranked as high as number three, and the team was nationally ranked six times during his stint.

*He led ASU to Pac-10 runner-up twice in six seasons.

*In the 16 years of play in the Western Atlantic Conference, Wulk's team finished below fifth place only four times, and in the five seasons that ASU was a member of the Border Conference under Wulk, the team finished at the top of the conference four times.

*Prior to the Wulk era, no ASU basketball team had finished higher than third in its conference.

*In his first year at ASU (1957-58), Wulk guided the Sun Devils to a Border Conference title.

*He completed his 25th year at ASU with an upset-victory over undefeated, top-ranked and Pac-10 champion Oregon State and after the 1980-81 season, he was the Pac-10 Conference Coach of the Year runner-up to Oregon State's Ralph Miller.

*The 1979-80 season was one of Wulk's most prolific. The Sun Devils finished 21-6, and second in the Pac-10 at 15-3, with a national top-20 ranking in both wire service polls and an NCAA Tournament berth. Wulk was selected as the Pac-10 Coach of the Year.

*Wulk's coaching career started at Xavier, where he coached for six years and compiled an 89-70 record. Xavier had a winning season the last four years that Wulk was head coach, and also had two National Invitational Tournament berths.

*A graduate of LaCrosse State Teacher's College in Wisconsin, he was first hired at Xavier as freshman football coach, freshman basketball coach, varsity baseball coach, physical education teacher and intramural director and was then hired as an assistant coach for the varsity basketball team. One week before the first practice started, the head coach was fired. Wulk was hired as the head coach on a temporary, one-year basis.

*Off the court, the Marion, Wis., native is the past president (1978) of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC). That prestigious position brought Wulk chairmanship of the NABC All-America committee, membership on the Basketball Hall of Fame Board of Trustees, delegate appointment to the U.S. Collegiate Sports Council and membership on the U.S. Olympic Basketball Committee.