Henry Iba won 655 games as a head coach at Oklahoma A&M

For more than four decades, Henry P. "Hank" Iba reigned as the "Iron Duke of Defense" in college basketball, including 36 years at Oklahoma State University (formerly Oklahoma A&M). He led Oklahoma A&M to NCAA championships in 1945 and '46, and he directed the U.S. Olympic team to two gold medals in 1964 and '68 and one silver medal in '72.

His A&M/OSU teams won 655 games and lost 316 for a .675 percentage. He also coached A&M baseball until 1941 with a 90-41 record (a .687 winning percentage), and he assumed the role of athletic director less than a year after arriving on campus. His basketball teams were known for their tough, man-for-man defenses and for the "Iba deep freeze" in the final minutes of close games, but he adjusted to major changes such as the jump shot and bonus free throws.

Iba, born in Easton, Mo., on Aug. 6, 1904, started his basketball coaching career at Oklahoma City's Classen High School, where the Comets earned a 51-5 record in two years and won the state championship in 1928-29. He led Maryville Teachers College in Missouri to a 101-14 record before coaching at the University of Colorado for one year and then moving to Oklahoma A&M in 1935. Overall, his teams won 767 college games.

His 1945-46 NCAA champions were led by Bob Kurland, the game's first seven-foot player. They beat NYU in the 1945 finals and North Carolina in the 1946 finals. He was voted coach of the year in both seasons. His 1945 champions also defeated National Invitation Tournament champion, DePaul, and 6-9 center George Mikan in a classic Red Cross Benefit game.

Iba held the dual position of basketball coach and athletic director until he retired in 1970. He was elected to the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame, the Oklahoma Hall of Fame, the Missouri Hall of Fame, the Helms Foundation All-Time Hall of Fame for basketball, and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame at Springfield, Mass. Henry Iba died on January 15, 1993, at Stillwater, Okla.

— Source: Oklahoma Historical Society

Kansas' Bill Self accepts the Henry Iba Award (Photo: Aaron Eckels)

2009 Henry Iba Coach of the Year: Bill Self, Kansas
Bill Self, who led the Kansas Jayhawks to a Big 12 regular season title despite not having one starter return from last year’s national championship team, is this year’s recipient of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association's Henry Iba Coach of the Year Award. With a team picked to finish third in the conference in the preseason, Self had just one player with much experience returning from a year ago – guard Sherron Collins, who had a 2.2 scoring average last season. But Self molded the Jayhawks into a contender early and they came on strong down the stretch to finish with a 25-6 regular season record, a 14-2 mark in the Big 12 and a top 10 national ranking. The Big 12 named him coach of the year in the conference.

2008 Henry Iba Coach of the Year: Keno Davis, Drake
First-year Drake University Coach Keno Davis, who guided the Bulldogs to the school's first NCAA tournament berth and first Missouri Valley Conference championship in 37 years, has been selected winner of the Henry Iba Coach of the Year Award by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association. Davis, 36, engineered Drake to a surprise regular season MVC championship, its first since 1971, and the school's first-ever MVC tournament championship. Drake won 21 straight games at one point, en route to a school-record 28-4 record entering the NCAA tournament. The Bulldogs were nationally-ranked for eight straight weeks in both the AP and USA Today/ESPN Coaches polls during the regular season. The Henry Iba Award for Davis marks the first time a Drake basketball coach has been named national coach of the year since coaching legend Maury John was honored in 1969 by the USBWA.