Morgan Wootten became the first person who exclusively coached high school basketball to be inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2000. The legendary DeMatha High School coach died Tuesday at the age of 88, according to the school.
Wootten coached from 1956-2002 at the high school in Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C. He turned down opportunities to coach at Duke, Virginia, NC State and Wake Forest universities to continue leading the high school program.
Wootten’s coaching techniques made his program one of the first high school teams to begin taking on powerhouses outside of the state. He employed full-court pressure defenses in a way that led to the offensive foul.
In 1984, DeMatha finished 29-2 and USA Today named Wootten its Coach of the Year and the team national champions.
But in 1985, Wootten’s team took down Power Memorial Academy of New York, ending a 71-game win streak and limiting and stand-out center who later changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabar.
Wootten coached 13 players at DeMatha who went on to have NBA careers.
