Hall of Fame High School Basketball Coach Morgan Wootten Dies at Age 88

Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame high school coach Morgan Wootten died Tuesday night at the age of 88.

DeMatha Catholic High School, where Wootten coached for 46 years, shared the news early Wednesday morning on Twitter:

During his stint at the Hyattsville, Maryland, school, Wootten accrued a record of 1,274-192 (.869) and led DeMatha to five high school national championships.

Additionally, Wootten led DeMatha to 22 Washington, D.C., titles and 33 Washington Catholic Athletic Conference Championships. The Stags also won at least 20 games in all but one of his seasons at the helm from 1956-2002.

ESPN analyst and former Duke basketball star Jay Bilas was among those who remembered Wootten on social media:

Per ESPN.com's Jeff Borzello, one of Wootten's signature victories came in 1965 when DeMatha ended the 71-game winning streak of a Power Memorial Academy team, which featured Lew Alcindor before he went on to star at UCLA, and he became the NBA's all-time leading scorer as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

By virtue of his remarkable resume, Wootten was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000, making him only the third high school coach to receive that honor.

According to Borzello, the Durham, North Carolina, native turned down several college head coaching offers during his career, including Georgetown and NC State, plus overtures from Duke, Wake Forest and Virginia.

Wootten coached several eventual NBA players, including Adrian Dantley and Danny Ferry, and he also coached current Notre Dame head men's basketball coach Mike Brey, which aided in him leaving an indelible mark on the sport.