Donald W. Suman (January 19, 1920 – February 5, 2015) was a

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

coach. He was the head coach of

Rice Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima ''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...

from 1949 to 1959. He coached Rice to a 132–105 record, winning one

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference included schools from Oklahoma an ...

championship and making one NCAA tournament appearance. He also played college basketball and football as a student at Rice. After leaving his coaching position, he took a front office position under

Bud Adams Kenneth Stanley "Bud" Adams, Jr. (January 3, 1923 – October 21, 2013) was an American businessman who was the founder and owner of the Tennessee Titans, a National Football League franchise. A member of the Cherokee Nation who originally made ...

for the

Houston Oilers The Houston Oilers were a professional American football team that played in Houston from its founding in 1960 to 1996 before relocating to Memphis, and later Nashville, Tennessee becoming the Tennessee Titans. The Oilers began play in 1960 as ...

. He was inducted into the Rice athletics Hall of Fame in 1987. He left Rice to become General Manager of the new Houston Oilers. In his first three seasons as GM the Oilers won the first two AFL championships. In his two seasons as GM the Oilers combined record was 20–7–1. Suman died on February 5, 2015 in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

Head coaching record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Suman, Don 1920 births 2015 deaths American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from Texas Basketball players from San Antonio Houston Oilers executives Rice Owls football players Rice Owls men's basketball coaches Rice Owls men's basketball players Sportspeople from San Antonio