Published: September 07, 2008 01:39 am            

Former Cowboy player, coach dies at 86

Former Oklahoma State basketball coach Doyle Kenneth Parrack died Friday at his home in Perkins at age 86.

Parrack was a starter on the Cowboys’ national championship basketball team in 1945.

After a brief stint coaching basketball and teaching history at Shawnee High School, the call of the game brought Parrack back to the court.

He played for the Chicago Stags, the NBA predecessor to the Chicago Bulls, in 1946-47 and participated in the first televised NBA playoff game.

Parrack left professional basketball after just one year for the opportunity to coach college basketball at Oklahoma City University.

As head coach and then-athletic director at OCU, Parrack transformed the program from a club team without a campus gymnasium or scholarship funding into a national powerhouse.

During his eight-year tenure, he led OCU to membership in the NCAA, four consecutive NCAA tournament appearances, and two All-College tournament championships in 1949 and ’51. Parrack held the honor of being the youngest coach to have both played and coached in a NCAA tournament.

In 1955, Parrack accepted an offer to serve as head coach at the University of Oklahoma. In 1959, he was recognized as the conference Coach of the Year after the team tied for second in the Big Eight.

Despite his successes at OU, Parrack chose to return to his alma mater in 1962 and served as both the freshman basketball coach and assistant to his longtime mentor, Coach Henry Iba, until Iba’s retirement in 1970.

In 1972, Parrack was given the opportunity to build the Israeli national basketball team, taking his team to the playoffs in Germany that same year. Six years later, he was named head coach of the OU women’s basketball team. He retired from coaching in 1980.

Parrack had been inducted into the Oklahoma City University Sports Hall of Fame and the Oklahoma State Athletics Hall of Honor.

In 2006, he was inducted into the Oklahoma State University College of Education Hall of Fame, and in ’07 he was recognized by OCU and his former players when the clock tower at the Meinders’ School of Business was named in his honor.

Services will be held on Tuesday at 2 p.m. at the Perkins First United Methodist Church, 1005 E. Kirk, with Rev. Steve Bredesen officiating.

        

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