CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Basketball Hall of Fame head coach Bill Fitch died late Wednesday at the age of 89.
Fitch was the Cavaliers first head coach in franchise history, and he led the club to three playoff appearances, including ‘The Miracle of Richfield’ season in 1976 that saw Cleveland upset the defending Eastern Conference champion Washington Bullets in seven games.
Fitch was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019.
In 2013, Fitch was presented the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award during the NBA Finals.
To this day, Fitch remains the longest tenured coach in Cavaliers franchise history where he roamed the sidelines for 738 games from 1970-1979.
“Coach Fitch earned the love and respect of his Cavaliers players as he embedded a high standard of accountability and a belief system that he felt was a reflection of the team’s motto as a ‘group of daring, fearless men, whose life's pact was never surrender, no matter what the odds,’ something that continues to be greatly valued by those he coached and worked with on and off the court,” the Cavaliers said in a statement mourning his passing. “Coach Fitch was a great friend and trusted mentor and teacher to so many across the entire basketball community, while his impact on the game, and the lives of those he touched, spanned multiple generations. He became a life-long friend to many members of the Cavaliers organization. Those relationships were based on great admiration and appreciation for the special person Coach Fitch was and the foundational role he had with the franchise. It is a lasting bond that he will always be part of.”
Fitch, who coached for 25 seasons in the NBA, was named the NBA’s coach of the year twice – 1975-76 with Cleveland and in 1979-80 with Boston.
After leaving the Cavaliers, Fitch went on to lead four other franchises – the Boston Celtics, Houston Rockets, New Jersey (now Brooklyn) Nets and LA Clippers – where he continued to turn the fortunes of teams around.
Fitch won the 1981 NBA championship with the Boston Celtics, who had won just 27 games prior to his arrival in 1979. In 1986 Fitch’s Rockets upset the top-seeded Lakers in the conference finals. Fitch turned the Nets from a 17-win team into a playoff club in just three years. He won 17 games with the Clippers in his first season in 1994 and had them in the playoffs within three years.
Fitch retired from coaching following the 1997-98 season.
