Spalding basketball signed by legendary Wildcats coach Lute Olson.

Lute Olson is the winningest basketball coach in U of Arizona history.  His statue stands outside of McKale Center on campus.

Under Olson, Arizona quickly rose to national prominence. In only his second year, the Wildcats notched their first winning season in six years and made the first of what would be 23 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances under his tenure. A year later, Arizona won its first Pac-10 title. Two years later, the Wildcats spent much of the season ranked #1 and made their first (and Olson's second) Final Four. Olson's subsequent Arizona teams would be fixtures in the Top 25 for most of the time until the mid-2000s.

Olson was voted Pac-10 Coach of the Year seven times, made 5 Final Four appearances and won the 1997 NCAA championship with Arizona, where his team accomplished the feat of defeating three #1 seeds in the same tournament.

In 2002, Olson was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

He also coached the US national team in the 1986 FIBA World Championship, the last U.S. amateur basketball team to win in international competition. His team defeated the U.S.S.R. 87-85 in the gold medal game, the first time the U.S. had won the world championship in 32 years.