Larry Little first set foot in Hawaii as coach of the Centenary Gentlemen, but not even a subsequent courtside seat to the most turbulent period in University of Hawaii athletics as the Rainbow Warriors’ basketball coach ever changed the gentleman part. 

Little saw the ’Bows through NCAA sanctions, chaos in the athletic department and over-heated expectations — none of it his doing — in the late 1970s, somehow remaining a class act throughout his nine-year tenure in Manoa.

The man who gave UH?stability in troubled times and guided it into the Western Athletic Conference era died Wednesday at age 75 in Las Vegas.

“It is a shock,” said Jack Miller who played four seasons (1980-84) for Little and had planned to visit him next month. 

Little, who had helped transport his ailing friend and former assistant Riley Wallace in Las Vegas as recently as Sunday, suffered a massive stroke Monday, a family member said.

“He and Riley were closer than brothers and (Riley) is just broken up over it,” said Bruce O’Neil, another former UH coach who has been in regular contact with the pair.

Little was 100-33 in five seasons as head coach and athletic director at tiny Centenary when he accepted the UH job in 1976 in the ominous shadow of the NCAA investigation. The looming sanctions — UH was eventually slapped with two years of probation for 68 violations — the departure of several key players and lack of a permanent athletic director in place had prompted at least two candidates, including assistants at UCLA and Notre Dame, to turn down the job.

But Little, who had come to the then-Honolulu International Center, as Blaisdell Center was known at the time, to play the Fabulous Five was not dissuaded.

“He loved Hawaii,” said O’Neil, an assistant athletic director involved in the search. “He wanted the job.”

The difficulty in the task was underlined by a 1-26 finish in his second season (1977-78). Two years later the bar was set higher when, after decades as an independent that played a heavy home schedule, UH jumped into the Western Athletic Conference and multi-time-zone, high-elevation road games.

Little’s biggest victory in a 103-143 stay at UH was a 1981 triumph over No. 6 Utah and his best seasons were back-to-back 17-win finishes in 1981-82 and ’82-83. 

But patience waned as fans longed for a return to the glory of the Fabulous Five days even though the landscape had changed considerably. 

In the infancy of talk radio Little was a regular target of sportscaster Larry Jones, but refused to return fire. “That’s not what I do,” Little would say.

Being the youngest of 13 children from a rural Illinois family taught Little the virtues of humility and amiability. “He had an ability to get along with everybody,” Miller said. “He was like a friend he was so likeable, that’s one of the main reasons I came to Hawaii,” said Miller,  who was recruited from Wheelersburg, Ohio and has remained in Honolulu as a businessman.  

Little resigned in 1985 and spent four years as executive director of the Hula Bowl before going to Las Vegas where he was a realtor and, when UH opponents came to town, a volunteer scout for the ’Bows. 

“Anytime I can help the ‘Bows, I will,” Little said

“He was a good coach but, more than that, he was a great man,” O’Neil said. 

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.