Tony Yates

alt=Two men are on a basketball court, one with his back to the camera and one dribbling a ball toward the camera in a black and white photograph. Tony Yates dribbles up court in this photo published by The News Record, the University of Cincinnati's student newspaper, on March 28, 1963. Tony Yates (September 15, 1937 – May 16, 2020) was an American college basketball player and head coach for the Cincinnati Bearcats. As a player, he won consecutive national championships with Cincinnati in 1961 and 1962. Yates was named a third-team All-American in 1963, when the Bearcats advanced to the national championship game for the third straight season. In the 1980s he was the head coach at Cincinnati for six seasons.

Early life Yates was born in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, the son of Robert and Alice Ware Yates. He attended Lockland Wayne High School in nearby Cincinnati, leading the team to the Ohio high school basketball championship title in 1952, a team on which his brother, Fletcher, also starred. He graduated in 1954 at the age of 16. Because he was offered only partial scholarships to the University of Cincinnati and Xavier University, he worked for a year while playing on a barnstorming basketball team before joining the U.S. Air Force. He was stationed at Ellsworth Air Force Base, got married in 1958, and also continued to play basketball in the military, in which he served until 1959.

As a junior in 1961–62, Yates averaged 8.2 points per game and led the Bearcats in assists with 4.3 per game.

As a senior in 1962–63, Yates averaged 7.6 points and 4.1 assists per game. The Bearcats won the MVC title once again and posted a 26–2 record, advancing to the national title game for the third consecutive year. However, they fell in the finals 60–58 in overtime to Loyola University Chicago.

Coaching career He returned to the University of Cincinnati as an assistant coach under Tay Baker and Gale Catlett from 1972 to 1974. In 1974–75, Yates became an assistant coach at the University of Illinois on the staff of coach Gene Bartow, and the following season under new coach Lou Henson. The team posted mediocre records in Henson's first three seasons, but the Illini won 19 or more games the next five seasons with Yates serving as top assistant, and the team made two NCAA tournament appearances and two NIT appearances.

For the 1983–84 season, Yates was named head coach at his alma mater, the University of Cincinnati, for a squad which had gone 11–17 the previous season under coach Ed Badger. Inheriting a depleted team with few scholarship players, the Bearcats posted a 3–25 record in Yates' first season of 1983–84. However, in 1984–85, with an infusion of talent including guard Roger McClendon and forward Myron Hughes, Yates' team rapidly turned around their fortunes and posted a 17–14 record, earning an NIT berth.

Yates and golf pro Zachary Fink founded the Caring for Kids Foundation, a Cincinnati non-profit to "uplift, assist, and train youth and their families."

Yates is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. In 1985, Yates was inducted into the University of Cincinnati Athletics Hall of Fame.

Yates died on May 16, 2020.