Lee Rose

"Lee Rose was born in West Irvine, the youngest of three children born to Elizabeth Hyden Rose. His mother worked at the Munitions Plant in Richmond and spent much of her time car-pooling back and forth to work which gave young Lee time to explore all of West Irvine.

Lee spent his early childhood with his grandmother watching over him. He remembers fondly learning to swim in the Kentucky River under the supervision of a gentleman named George Baker who would chaperone the swimming trips. It was later discovered that Mr. Baker could not swim, a secret the other kids did not share with their parents. The children would swing themselves out over the river using an old rope swing attached to a scaffold. He also recalls blackberry picking trips with Norman Taylor and his father and picking the “biggest, sweetest blackberries” to bring home to his grandmother for cobblers and jam. Coach Rose attended a four room school house near Cedar Grove until he was 8 or 9 when his mother moved the family to Lexington.

His modest upbringing led Lee to the knowledge that the best way out of poverty was education and hard work. Ultimately, he earned a baseball and basketball scholarship from Transylvania University where he graduated with a Bachelors degree and later earned a Masters degree from the University of Kentucky. After graduating from Transylvania he started coaching basketball there serving as an assistant for four seasons and then moving into the interim head coaching position for the 1964-65 season. Later he became an assistant coach at the University of Cincinnati. Three seasons later, Coach Rose returned to Transy as the head coach and athletic director. In those eight seasons as coach and AD, his record was 160-57 including five NCAA Division II tournament berths and one trip to the NAIA tournament.

In 1975 Coach Rose was named head coach and athletic director at the University of North Carolina – Charlotte where his winning record continued posting a 72-18 record for the 49ers. In 1977 he was named the Sporting News 1977 National Coach of the Year when UNCC won the Sun Belt Conference and advanced to the Final Four. The city of Charlotte named Rose the Citizen of the Year in 1977.

Rose then became head coach at Purdue for two seasons finishing with a record of 50-18 where the Boilermakers played in both the NIT Finals in ’79 and then advanced to the NCAA Final Four in the next season. Only 11 other coaches have lead two different universities to the Final Four other than Coach Rose. He was named Big Ten Coach of the Year for the 1979-80 season. Following Purdue he then guided the University of South Florida to three NIT appearances in the next six years.

Coach Rose has also worked with the U.S. Olympic basketball team at the 1979 games in the Soviet Union, the 1985 games in Japan and was one of 11 coaches selected to draft the 1980 U.S. Olympic basketball team. He was active in the selection committee for the second “Dream Team” in 1994. His Olympic involvement has allowed him to travel to over 30 countries and serve as a goodwill ambassador for the organization. He has worked with the NBA Development League for six years, written two books on coaching and the technical aspects of basketball. A possible third book is also in development.

An area of volunteerism that is Coach Rose is very proud of is the work that he and his wife, Eleanor have done in the Appalachian counties of Kentucky with Forward in the Fifth. An organization focused on improving the levels of education for the citizens of Eastern Kentucky. He’s visited the 42 counties in Kentucky that are part of this Appalachian region, speaking to over ten thousand middle school students encouraging them to stay in school and improve their quality of life.

Coach Rose and his wife, Eleanor, live in Charlotte, NC. They are the parents of two sons, Mike and Mark, and they have four grandchildren: Lee, Kristi, James and Zan." - From Lee Rose Estill County Hall of Honor Induction, 2013, Viewed 10/11/20 at [1]