From the Associated Press, via SI.com, the Memphis Commercial Appeal, and the Louisville Courier-Journal:
Dana Kirk, who in 1985 coached the Memphis State Tigers to a Final Four appearance that was vacated when the school was found guilty of NCAA violations, has died.
University of Memphis spokesman Lamar Chance said Kirk died Monday in Memphis. The Commercial Appeal reported he suffered a heart attack.
Kirk, 74, was fired after the 1986 season just before he was indicted on income tax evasion. He served four months in a federal minimum-security prison in Montgomery, Ala.
Kirk was 158-58 in seven years at Memphis, 1979 to 1986, and the team went 31-4 the year it went to the Final Four.
Kirk was head coach at the University of Tampa, which dropped basketball in 1971, and he then became an assistant coach at Louisville under Denny Crum, where he was from 1971 to '76.
He went to Memphis State in 1979 and built the Tigers into a national power and Louisville's chief rival in the Metro Conference.
Kirk wrote in his 1988 book “Simply Amazing! The Dana Kirk Story” that he was hired for $11,800 per year at Louisville. He was making less than $8,000 a year at Tampa.
“I absolutely love Louisville,” he said in the book. “Loved it the minute I moved there. Gorgeous scenery, nice city, and they eat, sleep, breathe and talk basketball 365 days a year.”
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