A timeline of Jerry Sloan's life


Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

1942 — Sloan is born on March 28 near McLeansboro, Illinois, as the youngest of 10 siblings.

1965 — Sloan is selected by the Baltimore Bullets in the NBA draft. He’s the seventh player selected in the draft after starring at Evansville.

1966 — After a year in Baltimore, Sloan is selected by Chicago in the NBA expansion draft. He goes on to earn the title of the “Original Bull.”

1976 — Following a 10-year stint with the Bulls, Sloan retires from playing due to injury. He was named an All-Star twice during his time in Chicago.

1977 — Sloan is named the head coach at Evansville but resigns for personal reasons after only a few days. Later that year, Evansville’s chartered plane crashes, claiming the lives of all 29 people on board.

1978 — Sloan’s No. 4 is retired by the Chicago Bulls. His is the first number retired by the organization.

1979 — Sloan gets his first NBA head coaching job when he’s hired by the Bulls. He ends up lasting three seasons in Chicago, reaching the playoffs one time.

1984 — He is hired by Frank Layden to join the Utah Jazz coaching staff.

1988 — After Frank Layden unexpectedly quits coaching a few weeks into the season, Sloan is promoted to the head job. He loses his first game against the Mavericks but picks up his first of what will be 1,223 wins (regular season and playoffs) with the Jazz the next night.

1997 — Coaches the Jazz to their first NBA Finals after defeating the Rockets in six games in the Western Conference Finals. The Jazz would go on to lose in six games to Chicago.

1998 — Guides Utah to its second straight Finals after a sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. The Jazz would once again fall to the Bulls in the Finals.

2001 — Becomes the longest-tenured active coach in sports. Sloan will go on to coach the Jazz for 23 seasons.

2004 — The Jazz miss the playoffs for the first time under Sloan. Utah finishes 42-40 the year after Karl Malone and John Stockton leave the organization in what many consider to be his finest coaching season.

2004 — He is selected as Sporting News' Coach of the Year. Sloan famously never won an NBA Coach of the Year award.

2005 — The Jazz suffer their only losing season under Sloan, going 26-56.

2006 — Becomes just the fifth coach in NBA history to win 1,000 games.

2008 — Wins his 1,000th games with the Jazz to become the first coach to win 1,000 games with the same team.

2009 — Sloan is inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. He is in the same class as longtime point guard John Stockton.

2010 — Sloan passes Pat Riley for third place on the list of all-time winningest coaches.

2011 — Midway through the season, Sloan steps down as Jazz head coach. He ends his career with 1,221 wins.

2014 — The Jazz honor Sloan by raising a banner with the number “1223” on it. The number represents the total number of wins — both regular season and playoffs — Sloan had with the Jazz.

2016 — The longtime Jazz coach announces he is suffering from Lewy body dementia and Parkinson's disease.

2020 — Sloan passes away on Friday, May 22.

Most recent Utah Jazz stories

Related topics

Utah JazzSports
KSL.com Utah Jazz reporter

ARE YOU GAME?

From first downs to buzzer beaters, get KSL.com’s top sports stories delivered to your inbox weekly.
By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

KSL Weather Forecast