Longtime Iowa men’s basketball assistant coach Kirk Speraw announced his upcoming retirement, effective June 30. It puts to a close a 43-year coaching career that included assistant coaching stops at Denver, Florida Southern and Florida, a 17-year run as the head coach at Central Florida and, of course, the past 12 seasons as an assistant coach at his alma mater.
Speraw’s coaching career began as a graduate assistant under Hall of Fame head coach Lute Olson for the Hawkeyes’ 1980 Final Four squad. He ends it as one of the right-hand men alongside Iowa head men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery’s team that won the Big Ten Tournament title.
“I was fortunate that Coach Olson gave me my start in coaching here at the University of Iowa and I am grateful that Coach McCaffery and Gary Barta brought me back to my alma mater to finish my coaching career with a Big Ten championship. I want to thank my wife, Tracy, and our four kids (Drew, Brooke, Dustin, Bailey) for their support and patience throughout my coaching career. And I want to thank all the student-athletes that I have had the honor to coach throughout my career,” Speraw said.
Speraw helped lead Iowa to 20 or more wins in eight of the past 10 seasons and was the primary assistant who worked with Iowa’s perimeter players. Shooting guard Peter Jok became Iowa’s fifth Big Ten scoring champion in school history under Speraw’s watch in 2017. He also helped mentor guard Jordan Bohannon who just left Iowa City as the Big Ten leader in career 3-pointers made.
Speraw coached a number of Iowa players that went on to have professional careers including Ronnie Lester, Steve Krafcisin, Vince Brookins, Steve Waite, Kenny Arnold, Kevin Boyle, Mark Gannon, Bobby Hansen, Devyn Marble, Aaron White, Jarrod Uthoff, Anthony Clemmons, Adam Woodbury, Jok, Luka Garza and Joe Wieskamp.
From 1988-90, Speraw was also the head coach at Pensacola Junior College. It leaves McCaffery searching for his second assistant…
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