Houston Sports - Van Chancellor

Van Chancellor

Born: September 27, 1943

Sport: Basketball (211-111 WNBA coaching record, 4-time WNBA Champion, 3-time WNBA Coach of the Year, Olympic Gold Medal, 530-195 NCAA coaching record, Final Four, Hall of Fame)

The WNBA season kicked off this past week, and for Houston area fans of women's basketball it's a season that they honestly hope goes by quickly.  Why?  Because it was recently announced that Houston will once again have a professional women's team for the first time since the Houston Comets folded after the 2008 season.  Our city hosted the original WNBA dynasty when the league was created in 1997, winning the first four consecutive titles.  In 2027, the Connecticut Sun will relocate to Houston now that they have been acquired by the Fertitta family, and the hope is that they will be able to once again use the Comets name.  This week we're going to take a look at one of the men responsible for the original team's dominance - head coach Van Chancellor.  His capable leadership and folksy style of communicating made him very popular with fans, and he has experienced further success while coaching at the collegiate and international levels and acting as a sports broadcaster. 

A 1997 view of the Summit, home of the Houston Comets

Van Chancellor was born in the rural Mississippi town of Louisville to a cotton picker named Winston Chancellor and his wife.  Farm work was demanding and the family struggled to make ends meet in a region still hampered by the effects of the Great Depression, but at the age of eight young Van received his first basketball and his dad set up a basketball goal on a dirt court.  To make it seem more real, Chancellor used flour to mark lines on the ground.  It wasn't until he reached high school that Van was finally able to play organized team basketball for Louisville High, where he graduated in 1961.  He began attending East Central Junior College, marrying his wife Betty along the way, and played there for two seasons before transferring to Mississippi State University to pursue a degree in mathematics and physical education.  Prior to graduating in 1965 and while still playing on the varsity team, Chancellor acted as the head coach of the Noxapater High School boys team, roughly 40 miles away from his own school in Starkville, MS.  It was his first taste at the profession that would lead him to international recognition, and he remained there after finishing his degree for another two years.  In 1967, Chancellor moved to northern Mississippi to take on the head coaching role for both the boys and girls basketball teams, which marked his first experience in the women's game even prior to the 1972 implementation of Title IX, which enforced equal athletic opportunity for female teams.  Chancellor remained there for six years while also earning his master's degree in physical education at the University of Mississippi, and upon graduating in 1973 he accepted a position at Harrison Central High School in southern Mississippi where he continued coaching both the boys and girls teams for an additional five seasons.

As women's sports became more prevalent the need for experienced coaches grew rapidly, which led the University of Mississippi to hire Van Chancellor as the second-ever head coach for their women's basketball team.  As of 1978 Ole Miss had only competed in varsity women's basketball for a few years, but Chancellor quickly formed them into a powerful program that advanced to the national tournament 14 times in 19 years.  The Rebels were never able to advance to the championship round, but did appear in the Sweet Sixteen seven times and the Elite Eight four times.  Despite some struggles late in his time at Ole Miss, Chancellor may well have continued his successful run of leading his title-contending squad, but in 1997 the WNBA was formed.  The original league included eight franchises and although Chancellor doubted he would ultimately be hired he nevertheless applied to six of the teams.  Les Alexander, the owner of the Houston Rockets and Comets, saw potential in Chancellor's track record of recruiting and team-first coaching and hired him - but only after two other college coaches couldn't be pried away from their schools.  The situation was quite promising, as the roster included proven players from collegiate and international teams like Cynthia Cooper, Sheryl Swoopes, and Tina Thompson.  Although it took some time for the team to come together under Chancellor's guidance (and heavy Mississippi accent) and Swoopes missed the first half of the season due to pregnancy, the Comets completed the very first WNBA season with the league's best record and then swept through the single-game playoff rounds in order to claim the championship.  In year two the team did even better at full-strength, setting the all-time record for winning percentage in a single season at .900 with their 27-3 showing.  The playoffs expanded to best-of-three series and Chancellor led Houston to a 4-1 postseason record and second consecutive title.  Many players credited Kim Perrot with inspiring a comeback victory in the finals, so when she was diagnosed with lung cancer during the 1999 season it became an emotional rallying point for the team.  Despite her passing just one week before the playoffs began, Chancellor and the Comets claimed a third consecutive title and honored their fallen friend and teammate.  Chancellor was named WNBA Coach of the Year in each of those three seasons.  The 2000 season marked a fourth straight title for Houston, becoming the first professional team to accomplish the feat since the New York Islanders in 1980-83 and the first basketball four-peat since the Boston Celtics finished a run of eight straight in 1966.

The WNBA had doubled in size to 16 teams by the start of the 2001 season, and Van Chancellor found that his job became much more difficult.  In addition to having talent spread out over a larger number of franchises, he also lost his two biggest stars - Cooper to retirement and Swoopes to an ACL injury.  He was still able to coax Houston to a winning record but was swept out of the playoffs in the first round.  As the most successful coach in women's professional basketball, Chancellor was an obvious choice to lead Team USA as they began preparing for the 2004 Olympics.  He put together a quality roster that dominated the 2002 World Championships and then headed to the 2004 Athens Summer Games as heavy favorites.  Team USA did not disappoint and lived up to expectations, sweeping their way to a gold medal, finishing a 38-0 record under the coaching of Chancellor.  Things weren't as smooth back in the WNBA as Houston endured two additional seasons of getting eliminated in their first playoff rounds in 2002 and 2003, and then the 2004 season became the Comets' first and only losing year under Chancellor.  It ended a string of seven consecutive playoff seasons for Houston.  During his final two seasons with the Comets, Chancellor made the postseason each time but only won a single playoff series.  When Les Alexander sold the Comets in 2006, Chancellor decided his time in the WNBA was over and announced his resignation.  Two seasons later, after the franchise was unable to find an investor to purchase the team, the league took over the Comets and suspended operations.  Their final game on September 15, 2008, was played at my alma mater due to the effects of Hurricane Ike - Texas State University's Strahan Coliseum.

When he returned to coaching at the college level, Van Chancellor had the uniquely challenging task of maintaining the excellence of a program that could have easily become destabilized.  Louisiana State University had enjoyed a run of four consecutive Final Four appearances but had accepted the resignation of head coach Pokey Chatman after allegations surfaced of a relationship with a previous student athlete.  Chancellor brought a steadying presence to the Tigers in 2008 and led them to another Final Four appearance, his first and only trip to the final weekend of the NCAA Tournament.  He earned his fourth and final SEC Coach of the Year award, but was unable to repeat his successes.  LSU was able to reach the NCAA Tournament each of the following three seasons but was eliminated one round earlier each time.  After a first-round loss in 2011 he resigned as head coach at the age of 67 and retired from coaching.  His personality and experience made him a natural fit in the broadcast booth, where he called games for the Southeast and Southland Conferences for various networks until 2022.  Chancellor has been honored with induction into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame (2001), Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame (2005), Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (2007), and Houston Sports Hall of Fame (2025), and today both of his children and four grandchildren are all involved in the game of basketball at different levels.  He even volunteered to coach 8th grade boys basketball for one season for no pay, just to get the chance to coach his 14-year-old grandson to a state title game.  Not a bad way for a kid who used to pick cotton to finish a legendary career.

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