Morice Fredrick "Tex" Winter (February 25, 1922 – October 10, 2018) was an American basketball coach and innovator of the triangle offense, an offensive system that became the dominant force in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and resulted in 11 NBA Championships with the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s and the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2000s under head coach Phil Jackson, with Winter an assistant coach to Jackson on the first nine of those championship teams; and a consultant for the 2008-09 Lakers' championship team. In 2002, after the Lakers won their third consecutive NBA championship, the team made rings for the players and coaches honoring Winter. On the front of the jewel-encrusted ring was a design with several triangles, honoring Winter’s triangle offense.
Winter was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011. In 2016, the NBA Coaches Association created the annually presented Tex Winter Assistant Coach Lifetime Impact Award in his honor. In 2010, he was given the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award by the NBA Coaches Association. In 1998, Winter was awarded the John Bunn Award for lifetime achievement from the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
Winter was a head coach in college basketball for 30 years. He was the youngest head coach in major college basketball for a number of years, and during his 15 years coaching Kansas State University he went to the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament Final Four twice (1958 and 1964), won eight conference titles, and had nearly a 70 percent winning percentage. In March 1958, he was voted the United Press college Coach of the Year. Winter was selected the Big Eight Coach of the Year at Kansas State three consecutive seasons (1957 to 1960), and again in his final season in the Big Eight (1967–68).
Winter has been inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame (2010), Kansas State Athletics Hall of Fame (1991), USC Athletics Hall of Fame (2003), PAC-12 Hall of Honor (2003), Kansas Sports Hall of Fame (1997), and Compton Community College Athletics Hall of Fame (2012). In 2003, Kansas State fans voted him the Kansas State basketball coach of the century.
In 1947, as a college basketball player Winter received the University of Southern California's (USC) Ernie Holbrook memorial trophy for the most inspirational player on the Trojan basketball team. He was an outstanding pole vaulter at every college he attended, and prior to World War II was considered a candidate in the pole vault for the United States Olympic Team in the 1944 Olympics (which never took place).
Early life Winter was born on February 25, 1922, near Wellington, Texas, 15 minutes after twin sister Mona Francis. Winter grew up in an unpainted shack just outside of Wellington, located in the Texas panhandle, during the Dust Bowl. The Winter family moved to Lubbock, Texas in 1929. Winter's father was a mechanic. When Winter was seven or eight years old living in Lubbock, his father died from an infection after being speared by a marlin while fishing. Winter's older brother Ernest Winter became a father figure to Winter. Winter had to work while in elementary school to help feed his family, one such job being to collect boxes for a local baker in exchange for day-old bread.
In 1936, Winter moved with his mother and twin sister to Huntington Park, California. His older sister Elizabeth had already married and earlier moved to California, and encouraged them to join her there. Winter's mother worked in Huntington Park as a clothing store sales manager. Winter's older brother Ernest was a football star in high school, and remained in Texas to finish high school. Winter worked on a truck farm when he first arrived in California, bringing overripe fruit home to the family. His Texas birth and drawl was the source of Winter's later nickname "Tex", given to him after his family moved to California.
Winter played three years on Huntington Park High School's basketball team. While Winter was attending Huntington Park, the Loyola University of Los Angeles (now Loyola Marymount University) basketball team practiced at his high school. Along with Phil Woolpert and Pete Newell, Winter was a ball boy for Loyola University. Winter carefully studied Loyola coach Jimmy Needles’s reverse action offense, which was an early template of the later triangle offense. Both Woolpert and Newell would become Hall of Fame head coaches.
College Winter attended Compton Junior College and Oregon State University (then Oregon State College), before joining the United States Navy during World War II. After completing his military service, Winter attended the University of Southern California.
After graduation from high school in 1940, Winter attended college at Compton Junior College for two years, where he became a renowned pole vaulter. He also played on Compton's basketball team, along with a number of players with whom he had played at Huntington Park High who likewise attended Compton. He played guard in basketball and was a leading scorer at Compton.
It has been stated that Winter earned a pole-vaulting scholarship to Oregon State University (1942). It has also been stated he went to Oregon State on a basketball scholarship. At the time he transferred in 1942–43, Winter was described as being a "basketball transfer" from Compton to Oregon State, playing under basketball coach Slats Gill; and that Oregon State's track coach (Doc Grant Swan) did not realize he was going to be getting a top pole vaulter for the track and field team. Winter was on both the basketball and track and field teams at Oregon State. As a pole vaulter, Winter competed against Bob Richards, a 1948 and 1952 Olympian. Winters was considered a strong candidate for the US Olympic Team in 1944, but the Olympics were cancelled by World War II.
Naval service Winter met his wife Nancy Bohnenkamp at Oregon State. Both of them entered the United States Navy in 1942 or in early 1943, during World War II, with Winter going into fighter pilot/aviator training and his wife joining the WAVES in hopes they would be stationed near each other. Winter's brother Ernest was a Navy pilot in the China-Burma theater during World War II, and Ernest Winter became the first pilot to walk out of China after having his plane shot down (walking over 600 miles); and was a recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross. After Winter's pilot's wings were conferred he was assigned to fighter pilot duty in the Pacific. However, his orders were rescinded after his brother's plane was shot down.
It is reported that Winter was stationed in a number of locations after he joined the Navy: Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Texas. He was reportedly first stationed at Monmouth College in Illinois, along with a number of other Oregon State varsity basketball players, in a program to become ensigns. Winter also said he was first stationed in Sanford, Florida. Winter was next assigned as a naval trainee in Wisconsin early in World War II, and played basketball on an air cadet team there. It was reported that during the late fall and early winter of 1943–44, while serving as a Navy cadet in Wisconsin, Winter played guard for Marquette University's basketball team in Milwaukee and earned a varsity letter, playing under head coach W. S. "Bill" Chandler (whom he would later replace as head coach in 1951). After Marquette, Winter played basketball for Iowa Pre-Flight while assigned to the Ottumwa Naval Air Station (NAS Ottumwa) in Iowa, in 1944. While stationed at NAS Ottumwa in late April 1944, Winter also competed in the Drake Relays and tied for second in the pole vault.
After the war, Winter was assigned to NAS Corpus Christi as a test pilot for an experimental jet craft. Four of the eight test pilots died. Winter continued to play basketball for the Navy on a team in Corpus Christi, after playing for Marquette and Iowa Pre-Flight.
While in the Navy, Winter's commanding officer Chuck Taylor (later famous for developing the Converse sneaker) recommended Winter as a starting guard for his Navy basketball team. Winter left the Navy with the rank of ensign in 1946. It is also stated that he was discharged from the Navy in 1945. In 1945–46, before re-entering college, Winter played Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) basketball for the Los Angeles Carroll's Shamrocks. He became a flight instructor in Texas after being discharged, and was recruited there by University of Southern California head basketball coach Sam Barry.
Post-war college Winter returned to college after the war at the University of Southern California (1946–47), where he learned the triangle offense from his coach Sam Barry, or as stated elsewhere, Winter learned the fundamentals of Barry's system from which Winter himself would devise the triangle offense. The Naismith Hall of Fame has said the triangle offense evolved in part from Barry's center-opposite offense. Winter saw similarities between Barry's offense and the offense he had seen Loyola use when he was in high school.
In March 1947, United Press named him honorable mention All-Pacific Coast Conference in basketball, at guard; and second-team All-Pacific Coast Conference southern division. In April 1947, Winter was the inaugural recipient of USC's Ernie Holbrook memorial trophy for the most inspirational player on the Trojan basketball team.
At USC, Winter was a basketball teammate of Bill Sharman, Alex Hannum, and Gene Rock, future professional basketball players. Like Winter, Sharman and Hannum would go on to be Hall of Fame coaches, though Winter, in a rarity, went in for his contributions as an assistant coach.
At USC, Winter was also on the track team, and was named an All-American as a pole vaulter. In June 1946, he had won the junior Amateur Athletic Union pole vault championship, as a member of the Los Angeles Athletic Club.
College coaching career After graduating college in 1947, Winter immediately became interested in coaching (both in basketball and track). He entered the coaching profession as an assistant to future Naismith Hall of Fame head basketball coach Jack Gardner at Kansas State University (K-State or Kansas State), a position Winter held from 1947 to 1951. His college coach Sam Barry had urged Winter to pursue the position at Kansas State under Gardner, whom Barry had also coached. It was as an assistant at Kansas State where Winter began to devise the triangle offense. Winter later said that trying to get Gardner to use Winter's "triple-post offense" was one of the hardest things he had ever done. He was Gardner's assistant in 1948 and 1951 when the team went to the Final Four of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament.
In 1952, Winter began a two-year stint as head coach at Marquette University, becoming the youngest coach in major college basketball. In 1953, Winter returned to Kansas State as its head coach; at 31, still the youngest major college coach.ABC News (49): Former K-State basketball star dies at 72; February 22, 2007. accessed on October 2, 2007.Canada Basketball: Candidates for the 2007 Class of the FIBA Hall of Fame announced; May 25, 2007 accessed on October 2, 2007. Winter served as Kansas State's head coach for the next 15 years, posting a 261–118 (.689) record, though his record has also been reported as 262-117 (.691). From 1957 to 1960, Winter was named the Big Eight's Coach of the Year three consecutive seasons; and in Winter's final season at K-State (1967–68), the team was first in the Big Eight and the Associated Press (AP) named him Big Eight Coach of the Year once again. He still owns the record for most conference titles (eight) in school history and twice led the Wildcats to the Final Four (1958 and 1964). Winter guided K-State to postseason play seven times overall, including six trips to the NCAA tournament, and boasts one of the highest winning percentages in K-State's history.