Lute Olson cut a dashing figure during his two-plus decades as Arizonaβs menβs basketball coach. Just ask his players.
βWhen they talked about Luteβs presence, whether it was his height oar his perfect hair, (they mentioned) the presence he commanded when he walked into a room,β said Brett Rapkin, producer of the upcoming documentary film, βLute.β βChanning Frye talked in the film about his mom saying, βDamn, thatβs a good-looking white manβ when Lute walked into the room.β
But more than anything, the dapper Olson β who died in August 2020 at age 85 β was the consummate winner.
Over 24 seasons, Olson built the Arizona Wildcats into a nationally relevant and well-respected college basketball program. Olsonβs teams played in 22 NCAA Tournaments and advanced to the Final Four four times, winning the national championship in 1997.
The late Olsonβs life and legacy is the subject of βLute,β which will premiere at 5:30 p.m. Friday inside Centennial Hall on the UA campus. The documentary will also air on CBS during the upcoming season.
Rapkin, a UA alumnus who was a freshman during the Wildcatsβ run to the 1997 national championship, started the project following Olsonβs death.
βWhen Lute passed away β¦ I asked myself, βWhy hasnβt there been a β30 for 30β or a definitive documentary about the Lute Olson era of Arizona basketball?β And we were just able to make it happen,β said Rapkin, an Emmy Award winner. βThe athletic department supported the project happening, wanted to see it happen, and we were able to put the pieces together and thankfully get the participation from pretty much all the guys youβd want to see in the film, including Luke Walton, who narrates the film.β
Rapkin took his idea to Reggie Geary, Arizonaβs director of development and a former Wildcats star. Rapkinβs UA ties and rΓ©sumΓ© was enough for Geary to sign off on the film.
βGetting to know more about him, the more I thought, βMan, this is a guy who can really do a great job of telling Coach Olsonβs story.ββ Geary said. βI think if people come out, theyβll be really satisfied with the product. Itβs a lot of great names, great interviews and footage that he was able to use.β
Geary, a former All-Pac-10 guard, is one of several ex-Wildcats featured in the film, along with Kenny Lofton, Steve Kerr, Andre Iguodala, Tom Tolbert, Mike Bibby, Richard Jefferson, Josh Pastner and Damon Stoudamire. Former Arizona star Jason Terry is the documentaryβs executive producer.
Rapkin said creating Lute βwas an awesome experience personally, but I really just wanted to do it right and do it justice.β
βWe do go back to Luteβs childhood a little bit and growing up in North Dakota,β he said. βHe lost his brother and his father in accidents within a few months from each other, so I think a theme in his life was creating a sense of family, and I think he was able to do that with his longtime wife Bobbi and their own family, but also creating a family atmosphere for the team. β¦ So I think we made the definitive Lute Olson-era Arizona basketball film we set out to.β
Geary felt the family atmosphere when he arrived on campus in 1992.
βWeβre brothers. Thereβs just something about being in this program and experiencing many of the same experiences in McKale, on campus, in this great community. I saw that when I first got here,β Geary said. βAs a player, Iβd come back in the summer time and thereβd be Steve Kerr playing pick-up or Jud Buechler, or Sean Elliott and Brian Williams. Weβd see these guys go on to the NBA, then theyβre giving back to us. That just stuck with us, and thatβs something we passed on when we went to the pros. Iβd come back and play with Gilbert Arenas and all the guys, so itβs just that familyhood that makes it a special place.β
UA recruits noticed the tight-knit relationship between players and Olson when they visited campus. That wasnβt the only discovery. Olsonβs late wife, Bobbi, charmed the weekend visitors with her famous apple pancakes.
βSean Elliottβs mouth still waters when he talks about Bobbi Olsonβs apple pancakes. Itβs awesome,β Rapkin said.
The documentary focuses primarily on the β97 season, when Arizona took down three No. 1 seeds in Kentucky, North Carolina and Kansas to win it all.
βThose guys became superstars. If they werenβt superstars before March, they certainly were once that tournament was over,β Rapkin said. βThey got the attention of the entire country.β
Then more of the superstars flocked to Tucson to be a part of a basketball juggernaut in the desert designed by Olson.
βI remember seeing Luke Walton drive around Tucson in a white convertible. β¦ They were the rockstars youβd read about,β Rapkin said.
The one-hour screening at Centennial Hall on Friday will be followed by a Q&A session with Rapkin, Terry and other producers of the film.
βWeβre going to see a beautiful tribute to Coach Olson, his life, his career and the legacy that he has here in our community,β Geary said.