American basketball player and coach (died 2004)

Cotton Fitzsimmons

Lowell Gibbs "Cotton" Fitzsimmons was an American college and NBA basketball coach. A native of Bowling Green, Missouri, he attended and played basketball at Hannibal-LaGrange Junior College in Hannibal, Missouri and Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas. He coached the Phoenix Suns three times, was named the NBA Coach of the Year twice, and is often credited as the architect of the Suns' success of the late 1980s and early to middle 1990s. Fitzsimmons won 1,089 games in his coaching career: 223 games at the junior college level, 34 at the Division I college level and 832 in the NBA.

Born

1931

October 7

Died

Living

Era

1930s

Country

—

About

Cotton, in brief

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Life timeline

Key dates

1931 Born

Also on October 7

What else happened on this day, through history

-3761 The epoch reference date (start) of the modern Hebrew calendar.
1403 Venetian–Genoese wars: The Genoese fleet under a French admiral is defeated by a Venetian fleet at the Battle of Modon.
1477 Uppsala University is inaugurated after receiving its corporate rights from Pope Sixtus IV in February the same year.
1513 War of the League of Cambrai: Spain defeats Venice.

See all of October 7 →

The world in 1931

When Cotton arrived

april 14 The Second Spanish Republic is proclaimed and King Alfonso XIII goes into exile. Meanwhile, in Barcelona, Francesc Macià proclaims the Catalan Republic.
april 17 After negotiations between Catalan and Spanish provisional governments, the Catalan Republic proclaimed in April 14 becomes the Generalitat de Catalunya, the autonomous government of Catalonia within the Spanish Republic.
august 24 Resignation of the United Kingdom's Second Labour Government. Formation of the UK National Government.
august 5 Judge and Nazi Party member Werner Best drews the Boxheim Documents, which described a violent takeover of the government by the NSDAP.

Read the year 1931 →

Same-day contemporaries

Also born on October 7

Amiri Baraka 1934–2014 American poet, playwright, and academic (born 1934) Andy Devine 1905–1977 American actor (born 1905) Dida 1973– Brazilian footballer Dylan Baker 1959– American actor Elijah Muhammad 1897–1975 American religious leader (born 1897) Flying Lotus 1983– American rapper, DJ, and producer Henriette Avram 1919–2006 American computer scientist and academic (born 1919) Jacques Richard 1952–2002 Canadian ice hockey player (died 2002) Jean-Paul Riopelle 1923–2002 Canadian painter and sculptor (born 1923)

See everything on October 7 →

Same-year contemporaries

Also born in 1931

Albert DeSalvo 1931– American serial killer known as the Boston Strangler (died 1973) Alex Delvecchio 1931–2025 Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and manager (died 2025) Allen Klein 1931–2009 American businessman and music publisher (died 2009) Bernard Francis Law 1931– Mexican-American cardinal (died 2017) Bob Johnson 1931–1991 American ice hockey player and coach (died 1991) Buddy Ryan 1931–2016 American football coach (died 2016) Cardiss Collins 1931–2013 American politician (born 1931) Cecil Parkinson 1931–2016 English politician (born 1931) Chalmers Johnson 1931–2010 American scholar and author (died 2010)

Read about the year 1931 →

Keep going

More to explore

Cotton's birthday October 7 Cotton's zodiac Libra When Cotton arrived 1931