FILE - In this 1974 photo, Wilt Chamberlain, right, coach of the San Diego Conquistadors, and assistant coach Stan Albeck, middle, watch in the opening minutes of the team's basketball game against the New York Nets. Albeck, the former San Antonio, Cleveland, New Jersey and Chicago head coach during a long NBA career, died Thursday, March 25, 2021, in hospice care at son John's home. He was 89. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

MARQUETTE — Stan Albeck, one of the most successful men’s basketball coaches in Northern Michigan University history, passed away Thursday at the age of 89.

Albeck was the head coach of the Wildcats from 1957-68 in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics era of the men’s basketball program.

The coach came to Marquette after leading the Adrian College program for a season. In just his fourth year on campus Albeck coached the Wildcats to the NAIA semifinal in Kansas City in 1961. NMU lost to Lawrence Tech but secured third place in the tournament with a consolation game win over Carson Newman.

Another notable achievement in 1961 was the Wildcats’ 79-71 win over the Michigan State Spartans. Coach Albeck’s towel from that contest, which then Student Council President Roger Labonte had the score embroidered on, can be seen in a display case inside the PEIF.

Looking at his Wildcat coaching career as a whole, Albeck secured an overall record of 178-77 over 11 years. His winning percentage of .698 is the most of any NMU men’s basketball coach who coached over 30 games. He won the 1960 and 1964 Michigan Coach of the Year and coached 10 NAIA All-America winners, four Associated Press All-America honorees, as well as one UPI All-America winner and one Converse All-America winning student-athlete.

Albeck was named to the Northern Michigan University Sports Hall of Fame in 1977.

After leaving NMU, Albeck had a successful NBA and ABA head coaching career which featured stints with the Denver Rockets, Cleveland Cavaliers, San Antonio Spurs, New Jersey Nets, and Chicago Bulls. He also spent more time on the collegiate sidelines at his alma mater Bradley University and the University of Denver.

“Coach Albeck wasn’t just important to the Spurs, he was what I call a lifer,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “People like myself don’t come close to loving the game as he did, and his whole family did. They participated in so many ways and followed him so many places. He would come to games, he would talk to players, talk to us as coaches. He always had a smile for us, a suggestion or two — because he’s a coach. … He is somebody we always respected and he brought a bright light to wherever he was.”

Albeck grew up in Chenoa, Illinois, and starred at Bradley.

Albeck was inducted into the Bradley University Sports Hall of Fame in 1981 and the San Antonio Sports Hall of Fame in 2014.

Coach Albeck and his wife Phyllis had five children.