Fifty-two years ago, Jim Rosborough sat at lunch with Lute Olson, hopeful he would be hired as part of Olson's first Iowa coaching staff. Rosborogh's rรฉsumรฉ was slim: He had been the head coach at Chicago's Corkery School, a middle school basketball program.
Olson liked what he saw and heard from the young man from Moline, Illinois.
An Iowa alumnus who had mostly sat on the Hawkeyes' bench in the mid 1960s, Rosborough accepted a $1,000-a-year offer to be a graduate assistant coach on Olson's first Iowa team.
Now, a half-century later, with more than 1,200 victories and four Final Fours to his remarkable coaching career, Rosborough will retire from his assistant position at the conclusion of the Pima College women's basketball season.
Pima will honor Rosborough at the final regular season home game on Feb. 25.
Jim Rosborough, seen coaching the Wildcats in 2004, says basketball will forever be a part of him. โIt gets in your blood and you canโt stop it,โ he says.
"He's the best, I love that man," said Pima head coach Todd Holthaus. "The girls all love him. How could you not?"
Since Olson's departure from Arizona in 2008, Rosborough has helped coach Pima College's men's basketball team to a No. 7 finish in the NJCAA finals. He helped coach the UA women's tennis team to three NCAA Tournaments. And for the last 11 seasons, he has been a valuable part of Pima College's women's basketball teams that have finished No. 2, No. 3 and No. 5 nationally.
Roz was one of the first that Tommy Lloyd contacted when hired at Arizona; he wanted Rosborough to be part of his staff. Instead, Rosborough chose to finish what he had started at Pima College.
He has been a mentor to dozens of former Arizona basketball players, from Josh Pastner to Jason Gardner, a continuing heartbeat and connection to the greatest generation of sports in UA historyย โ and now Pima College sports history.
