CLEVELAND — Bill Fitch, whose Hall of Fame career included a stint as the first head coach in Cavaliers history, has died at the age of 89.
Longtime NBA reporter Mac Stein announced Fitch's passing late Wednesday night after obtaining a statement from Indiana Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle, who began his own career as a player and assistant under Fitch in the 1980s. Carlisle told Stein Fitch "died peacefully surrounded by his loving family in Lake Conroe, Texas," and the league later confirmed the news on its website.
A man with a knack for turning sorry teams into winners, Fitch coached five different clubs across a 25-season NBA career, notably winning a league championship with the Boston Celtics in 1981. However, his longest tenure with any organization came with the Cavs, whom he led from 1970-79.
A native of Iowa, Fitch got his first head coaching job at his alma mater Coe College in 1958 before moving on to North Dakota, whom he piloted to back-to-back Division II Final Four appearances. His first foray into Ohio hoops came at Bowling Green, which made its most-recent NCAA Division I Tournament berth during his only season in 1967-68.
A two-year stop at Minnesota followed before Fitch was hired to coach the NBA's expansion franchise in Cleveland in 1970. The task ahead of him was daunting, and that inaugural club lost its first 15 games and wound up finishing 15-67 — still tied for the worst record in team history. The Cavaliers slowly improved in the standings, particularly after the drafting of Austin Carr in 1971 and the opening of the glistening Richfield Coliseum in '74, but still failed to make the playoffs during each of their first five seasons.
Despite a record of more than 100 games below .500, the Cavs brass stuck with Fitch, and their patience finally paid off in the spring of 1976 with a Central Division championship and a berth in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. They were considered underdogs against the star-studded Washington Bullets, but the series quickly turned into a classic with several nail-biting finishes. In Game 7 at the Coliseum, Dick Snyder's driving layup in the final seconds and a missed jumper by Phil Chenier as time expired gave Cleveland a thrilling 87-85 win to cap what will forever be known as "The Miracle of Richfield."
Fitch was named NBA Coach of the Year for his efforts, but his squad's hopes in the East Finals against Boston were dashed by a foot injury to center Jim Chones. The Cavaliers would get back to the postseason each of the next two years, but lost in the first round each time, and Fitch wound up stepping down after a 30-52 campaign in 1978-79.
Just two days after leaving Cleveland, Fitch was snatched up by the Celtics, who were coming off a paltry 29-53 record but had drafted Larry Bird out of Indiana State. With new coach and star player in tow, Boston improved to 61 wins with a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals, earning Fitch his second Coach of the Year Award. The next season, they stormed through the playoffs before besting the Houston Rockets in six games in the NBA Finals to win the first of three titles in the Bird era.
Despite his success and a solid relationship with Bird, an ownership change led to Fitch resigning in 1983 and jumping to Houston, where he led the Rockets from just 14 wins in the year before his arrival to an NBA Finals loss to the Celtics in '86. Stints with the New Jersey Nets and Los Angeles Clippers followed, and Fitch led both teams to playoff appearances before his career ended with his firing by LA in 1998.
Fitch finished with an all-time NBA record of 944-1,106 as well as a 181-115 mark in college. He remains 11th on the NBA's career wins list, and took each of the five teams he coached to the postseason at least once.
Yet for years, Fitch was passed over for election to the National Basketball Hall of Fame, partly due to his underwhelming .460 NBA winning percentage — lower than any other enshrinee with at least 400 games coached in the league. But his supporters noted his impeccable track record of rebuilding last-place teams into bona fide contenders, and he finally got the call from Springfield in 2019. Unfortunately, he was unable to attend the ceremony in-person due to health problems, but spoke via a recorded message with a 1970s Cavaliers jacket displayed prominently in the background.
The longest-tenured coach in Cleveland history, Fitch's 304 wins with the Cavs are still second-most in franchise history behind fellow Hall of Famer Lenny Wilkens, and following the "Miracle" of 1976 the team would not win another playoff series until 1992 nor another division crown until 2009. The same year he was inducted into the Hall of Fame, he was also a part of the organization's inaugural "Wall of Honor" class.
In a statement release on Thursday, the Cavaliers said:
"The Cavaliers organization mourns the loss of former head coach Bill Fitch, as he passed away late Wednesday evening at the age of 89.
"In 1970, Coach Fitch became the Cavs' first head coach and went on to be the longest tenured coach in franchise history. He led and inspired a very special group that went to the playoffs three times (1976-1978), starting with 'The Miracle of Richfield' season, when the team won their first division title. Coach Fitch was named the NBA Coach of the Year that season as well. He was a member of the inaugural class of the Cavaliers Wall of Honor in 2019, the same year he was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
"More importantly, Coach Fitch earned the love and respect of his Cavaliers players as he embedded a high standard of accountability and a belief system that he felt was a reflection of the team’s motto as a 'group of daring, fearless men, whose life's pact was never surrender, no matter what the odds,' something that continues to be greatly valued by those he coached and worked with on and off the court. Coach Fitch was a great friend and trusted mentor and teacher to so many across the entire basketball community, while his impact on the game, and the lives of those he touched, spanned multiple generations. He became a life-long friend to many members of the Cavaliers organization. Those relationships were based on great admiration and appreciation for the special person Coach Fitch was and the foundational role he had with the franchise. It is a lasting bond that he will always be part of."
Fitch was preceded in death by his wife JoAnne and is survived by his three grown daughters. Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.
