John Kundla, American Hall of Fame basketball coach, Died at 101

John Albert Kundla was born on July 3, 1916 and died on July 23, 2017.

He was an American college and professional basketball coach.

Kundla was the first head coach for the Minneapolis Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and its predecessors, the Basketball Association of America (BAA) and the National Basketball League (NBL), serving 12 seasons, from 1947 to 1959.

Kundla’s teams won six league championships, one in the NBL, one in the BAA, and four in the NBA.

He was the head basketball coach at the University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul for one season in 1946–47, and at the University of Minnesota for ten seasons, from 1959 to 1968.

Kundla was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1995.

John Albert Kundla passed away at 101 years old.