Never was Bruce O’Neil’s connection with people as apparent as during his basketball-related trips to China.

In a less-demonstrative culture, Eileen O’Neil said of her husband, a global basketball ambassador, “he taught people to hug. He embraced people. The biggest (basketball officials in China) would run to him for his hug. It was his custom to love people. … His legacy in life is loyalty, love and friendship. Bruce never burned bridges. He always built bridges to relationships. I don’t care how anybody treated him. He would never talk badly about them. He loved his friends.”

Bruce O’Neil, a former University of Hawaii basketball player and head coach, died of heart failure this past Saturday in Eugene, Ore. He was 75.

O’Neil was one of the first UH basketball players to be offered a Division I scholarship. As a young UH assistant coach and then 27-year-old head coach, O’Neil recruited three of what would be known as “The Fabulous Five” — Jerome Freeman, Dwight Holiday and Al Davis. While head coach Red Rocha was the overseer, it was O’Neil, with his youthful enthusiasm and relatability to the players, who handled the details of practices.

O’Neil also signed Tom Henderson, an Olympian who went on to a successful NBA career, Artie Wilson, Melton Werts, Rod Aldridge, Boyd Batts, George Lett, Henry Hollingsworth and Reggie Carter. O’Neil even brought Moses Malone, a future Hall of Fame center, to UH on a recruiting visit.

“He was one of the best recruiters in Hawaii history in basketball,” Wilson said. “In my opinion, nobody was better.”

O’Neil was 42-32 in three UH seasons as head coach but was forced out in 1976 after the NCAA ruled the Rainbows committed several infractions, including subsidizing a player’s mother to travel to a game, offering McDonald’s coupons as an incentive in practices and the players’ appearance in an infamous Cutter Ford television commercial.

After 16 years in Hawaii, the O’Neils moved to Eugene. O’Neil and Hall-of-Famer Wilt Chamberlain founded the United States Basketball Academy. The 46-acre facility was used to house and train basketball prospects from around the world. Eventually, O’Neil expanded his practice to serving as China’s chief basketball consultant ahead of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. O’Neil was helpful in creating China’s pro league, as well as expanding that country’s impact globally. O’Neil worked with Yao Ming, the NBA’s overall No. 1 pick in 2002. He also helped Ji Xiang sign with UH in 2008. O’Neil was instrumental in former UH player Bobby Nash landing a job in Japan.

“Anytime he could help, anytime we reached out for help, he was there for us,” said Bob Nash, a member of the Fabulous Five, a No. 1 draft pick by the Detroit Pistons and a former UH head coach and long-time associate coach. Nash said O’Neil was “a super guy,” and they kept in touch the past five decades.

“He was a great guy,” former UH coach Riley Wallace said of O’Neil.

Since Saturday, Eileen O’Neil said the family has received hundreds of texts, e-mails and tearful calls from around the world. There were messages from Israel, Europe, Asia and, of course, Hawaii.

Eileen and Bruce were married for 54 years. “We grew up in Hawaii,” she said. “We were there for 16 years. That was the formation of who we were as a couple. It continued through our life and our children. This is what Hawaii did for us. It gave us a start to knowing what aloha means. I am so grateful I learned that. Hawaii will always be important to our lives. We have so many friends there.”