‘It broke my heart’: Former WSU basketball teammate copes with sudden loss of Lew Hill
When John Cooper first heard the news on Sunday, his immediate reaction was to dial the number he’s called so many times since 1987.
His heart sank when Lew Hill did not answer.
Ever since they were college teammates on the Wichita State men’s basketball team more than three decades ago, the bond between Hill and Cooper grew. They got into the coaching profession around the same time and rose the ranks together, as they became each other’s biggest supporter and confidant.
And now that is gone after Hill, 55, died in his sleep on Sunday, a day after coaching Texas-Rio Grande Valley in a 77-75 loss at Texas Southern. The school did not release a cause of death, but Stadium’s Jeff Goodman reported Hill had recently battled COVID-19.
“When you look at your phone and see his name, it’s so hard to believe I’ve lost the ability to talk to him,” Cooper, now an assistant coach for SMU, told The Eagle in a phone interview on Sunday night. “He was such a consistent part of my life. I called him hoping it wasn’t true.
“It just really devastated me. It broke my heart.”
Cooper still remembers it like yesterday when he arrived to Wichita State as a sinewy 6-foot-6 freshman in the fall of 1987 and met Hill, a 6-foot-5 senior forward who would go on to average 13.1 points and earn all-Missouri Valley Conference honors that season.
They were both vying for playing time at the same position, but the two never viewed each other as rivals. That didn’t stop Hill, the senior, from beating up on Cooper, the freshman, in practice, but the two formed a natural friendship away from the court. During their lone season together playing for coach Eddie Fogler, the Shockers finished 20-10 and reached the NCAA Tournament.
“I remember teasing him about if he ever got in foul trouble, then I would play more,” Cooper said. “And then we’re playing K-State my freshman year and he got in foul trouble against Mitch Richmond and I had to go in there and guard him. I told him after that one, ‘Thanks a lot, you had to decide to get in foul trouble this game so I had to deal with him.’
“But our friendship was more than just basketball. He would come over to my apartment when my mom was in town and eat her cooking. He used to use my car. I went to (Hill’s hometown) Mt. Vernon, New York because of him.”
When Hill was injured badly in a car accident while he was playing professional basketball in Germany in 1989, he returned to Wichita, where Cooper helped with his rehabilitation and looked after him.
Even though Cooper was in the midst of his own standout career with the Shockers, he didn’t mind the extra responsibilities. That’s how much of an impact Hill made on him.
“That was just Sweet Lew, that’s what we called him,” Cooper said. “Sweet Lew from Money Mt. Vernon. He was just a really, really good person. He was genuine. When he said something, you knew that’s what it was. He was a confident guy. He had that New York swag to him. But he was a Shocker. That was our bond. Once a Shocker, always a Shocker.”
Hill’s very first coaching job came as the junior varsity coach at Wichita East High in 1989. The next year he joined the college ranks as an assistant coach at South Alabama before working his way up as an assistant at stops at East Carolina, Texas A&M, UNLV and Oklahoma before receiving his first head coaching opportunity at UTRGV in 2016.
He had the Vaqueros off to an 8-4 start to this season and had compiled a 66-77 record, including a 20-win season in the 2018-19 season.
Hill is survived by his wife, Renee, and their two children, Lewis Jr. and Elle, as well as Hill’s three other daughters: Sierra, Erica, Asya.
“Words cannot describe how any of us feel right now. Everyone in our department is devastated by this news,” Rio Grande Valley athletic director Chasse Conque said in a statement. “Coach Hill was an incredible human being. He was my close friend and a trusted colleague. He cared deeply about those around him, from his family to his players to his staff and, really, everyone in the department and at UTRGV.”
Cooper said while their friendship was never centered around basketball, their relationship evolved once they both progressed in their coaching career.
Cooper became a head coach first, a three-year stint at Tennessee State from 2009-12, then a five-year run at Miami (Ohio) from 2012-17 before joining Tim Jankovich’s staff at SMU in 2019 and quickly being named the associate head coach.
When Hill got his first head coaching job in 2016, he leaned on Cooper for advice.
“We both understood how hard it is to make it in this profession and how one little thing can mean a break and then another thing means it goes the other way,” Cooper said. “Whenever he needed someone to talk to, he would be like, ‘Hey Coop, how did you deal with this? This is what I’m dealing with, how did you handle it?’”
But those are not the conversations that Cooper will miss the most. Those will be the ones they shared about everything but basketball.
“We used to talk about our families, about my stepdad, my mom, his wife and kids,” Cooper said. “We were really good friends. We could talk about any and everything. It was a consistent deal. Ever since we left WSU, we’ve remained close. So this hurts. It hurts a lot.”
This story was originally published February 8, 2021 at 10:53 AM.
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