WICHITA FALLS, Texas -- Cotton Fitzsimmons proved he knew the game of basketball as a two-time junior college All American at Hannibal-LaGrange before playing three remarkable seasons at Midwestern State.
 
Lowell, who was dubbed Cotton due to his extremely lightly colored locks, scored 1,095 points for the Indians helping the program to an NAIA quarterfinal showing in 1956. He competed from 1953-56 before earning a bachelor's degree from Midwestern.
 
From there, it was off to an illustrious coaching career which led him to be elected for posthumous enshrinement in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a member of the 2021 class.
 
Fitzsimmons earned entry into the Hall of Fame as a contributor after coaching 21 total seasons in the NBA. His 832 career wins between five teams ranked sixth-most in league history as of his final game. He currently ranks 16th.
 
He served three tenures as the coach of the Phoenix Suns, but also led the Atlanta Hawks, Buffalo Braves, Kansas City Kings and San Antonio Spurs.
 
Fitzsimmons was named NBA Coach of the Year in 1979 and again in 1989, but that was just the beginning of his honors.
 
Chronologically, he named to the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 1981, National Junior College Hall of Fame in 1985, Missouri Basketball Hall of Fame in 1988, NAIA Alumnus of the Year in 1995 and to the Phoenix Suns Ring of Honor in 2005.
 
Fitzsimmons won two junior college national championships as a first-time coach at Moberly (Mo.) Junior College before moving on to Kansas State.
 
He piloted the Wildcats to a Big 8 Championship in 1970 as the league's coach of the year before beginning a 21-year run as an NBA head coach.
 
Hannibal-LaGrange retired Cotton's No. 34 jersey in 2003 before he was inducted into the Midwestern State Athletics Hall of Honor in 2004.
 
Fitzsimmons will be enshrined during a ceremony on Sept. 11.