Jimmy Collins Announces Retirement as UIC's All-Time Wins Leader

Statement from Horizon League Commissioner Jon LeCrone:  "On behalf of the Horizon League staff and our member schools, I want to wish Jimmy Collins all the best upon his retirement.  Jimmy has had a distinguished coaching career and while a competitor first and foremost, Jimmy was a true gentlemen.  He cared deeply for his student-athletes, his school and the Horizon League.  I hope Jimmy and his family enjoy this next phase of their lives and we wish them well."

CHICAGO – University of Illinois at Chicago head men’s basketball coach Jimmy Collins announced that he intends to conclude his coaching career with the Flames effective August 31, 2010.

Collins spent 14 seasons as the Flames’ head coach and guided UIC to the first three NCAA tournament berths in school history. He is the all-time winningest coach in school history with 218 victories from 1996-2010.

“It is difficult to leave UIC and the great student-athletes who are returning,” said Collins. “After much introspection, I feel it is my time to enjoy retirement and have more time with my family.

“I thank all the people who have made my time in coaching so memorable and fulfilling,” Collins continued. “I thank Coach Lou Henson for my start at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1983, and all the wonderful people I met and worked with along the way. I thank the people at UIC for their confidence in my ability, especially my former and current assistant coaches, directors of basketball operations and support staff. I also thank the chancellor, the vice chancellor for student affairs and the students for their unwavering support.

“The student-athletes that I have had the pleasure of coaching and mentoring over the course of my career will always be a major part of my life, and I thank those young people for allowing me to be in their lives,” Collins said. “Most of all, I want to thank my family for enduring the life of a college basketball coach.     

“I have enjoyed the opportunity to do something that is dear to my heart for so long, and that is special.”   

“Jimmy Collins holds the all-time winningest men’s basketball coach title and during his tenure raised the stature of the UIC men’s basketball program,” said UIC director of athletics Jim Schmidt. “Coach Collins embraced the values that UIC Athletics aspires to uphold. He had great integrity, leadership skills and accountability while holding academics, the student-athlete experience and excellence as his guiding principles.

“He will be sorely missed and we wish him well.”   

Schmidt will conduct a national search for the next UIC head coach.

“We anticipate great interest in our head men’s basketball coaching position,” said Schmidt. “The UIC men’s basketball program will have the components for an excellent future.”   

Named head coach of the Flames on March 27, 1996 after spending the previous 13 seasons as an assistant to Lou Henson at Illinois, Collins quickly established success on the UIC bench.

He was named the 1996-97 Midwestern Collegiate Conference Co-Coach of the Year in his first season after staging a remarkable turnaround in conference play. The Flames started the campaign 1-8 before finishing 14-6 and advancing all the way to the MCC championship game.

That set the stage for a memorable 1997-98 season in which the Flames won 22 games and captured a share of the MCC regular season title before earning an at-large berth to UIC’s first-ever NCAA tournament.

Collins took the Flames to the NCAA tournament two more times, leading UIC to Horizon League championships in 2002 and 2004 and earning automatic qualification to the Big Dance both years.

In 2002 UIC made a historic run through the Horizon League tournament, getting to the championship game as a sixth seed and winning the title on Cedrick Banks’ last-second jumper in overtime. After taking the Flames to the NIT in 2003, Collins led UIC back to the NCAA tournament in 2004 by winning a school-record 24 games and the Horizon League tournament championship.

Collins went 218-208 in 14 seasons at UIC, winning 20 or more games in a season four times.    

This will be among personnel actions pending approval of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees at its regularly scheduled meeting in Chicago July 22. 

Courtesy of UIC Sports information