Garland Folsom Pinholster (February 19, 1928 – September 20, 2020) was an

athletic director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches and ...

as well as

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 ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

, and

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

coach, elected to the Oglethorpe Athletic Hall of Fame in its inaugural year of 1962. He is also a member of the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame.

Early years

Pinholster was born in

Clyattville, Georgia Clyattville is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Lowndes County, Georgia, United States. It was established in the 1840s. Clyattville was first listed as a CDP in the 2020 census with a population of 552. History ...

. He served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

and was commissioned a lieutenant. He was a

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player for

North Georgia College The University of North Georgia (UNG) is a public senior military college with multiple campuses in Georgia. It is part of the University System of Georgia. The university was established on January 8, 2013 by a merger of North Georgia College ...

, a member of a team that won a state title in 1950.

Oglethorpe University

Pinholster most notably coached at Oglethorpe University from 1956 to 1966.

Basketball

He compiled a 181–67 record as a basketball coach. Pinholster developed the wheel offense, an offensive strategy developed in the late 1950s. It is a kind of

continuity offense A continuity offense is one of two main categories of basketball offenses, the other being motion offense. Continuity offenses are characterized by a pattern of movement, cuts, screens and passes which eventually leads back to the starting formatio ...

in which players move around in a circular pattern to create good scoring opportunities. The wheel offense is a popular offensive play, frequently used by teams from middle school to college levels because it can effectively work against any defense, including

zone defense Zone defense is a type of defense, used in team sports, which is the alternative to man-to-man defense; instead of each player guarding a corresponding player on the other team, each defensive player is given an area (a zone) to cover. A zone def ...

and

man-to-man defense Man-to-man defense, or man defense, is a type of defensive technique used in team sports such as American football, association football, basketball, and netball, in which each player is assigned to defend and follow the movements of a single pla ...

. He is one proposed inventor for the foul-line huddle. His teams were notable for their defense. He wrote several books on the sport, including ''Coach's Guide to Modern Basketball Defense ''.

United States national basketball

He coached the

United States men's national basketball team The USA Basketball Men's National Team, commonly known as the United States men's national basketball team, is the basketball team representing the United States. They are the most successful team in international competition, winning medals in ...

including a

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

finish at the

1963 Pan American Games The 1963 Pan American Games were held from April 20 to May 5, 1963, in São Paulo, Brazil. Host city selection For the first time, two cities submitted bids to host the 1963 Pan American Games that were recognized by the Pan American Sports O ...

and fourth place finish in the

1963 FIBA World Championship The 1963 FIBA World Championship was the 4th FIBA World Championship, the international basketball world championship for men's teams. The competition was hosted by Brazil. The Philippines was originally supposed to host the tournament but FIBA ...

. The 1963 team included

Willis Reed Willis Reed Jr. (born June 25, 1942) is an American retired basketball player, coach and general manager. He spent his entire professional playing career (1964–1974) with the New York Knicks. In 1982, Reed was inducted into the Naismith Memo ...

. Former coach Gary Colson once said "Garland Pinholster, for a period of time, was the best coach in the United States."

Business

After his days at Oglethorpe, he became one of

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

's most successful business men.

Politics

Pinholster served in the

Georgia House of Representatives The Georgia House of Representatives is the lower house of the Georgia General Assembly (the state legislature) of the U.S. state of Georgia. There are currently 180 elected members. Republicans have had a majority in the chamber since 2005. T ...

from 1990 to 2002 and was a Republican. Pinholster became chairman of the minority caucus of the Georgia House of Representatives and was elected to the Georgia State Board of Transportation.

Death

He died on September 20, 2020, in Ball Ground, Georgia at age 92.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pinholster, Garland F. 1928 births 2020 deaths American men's basketball coaches Tennis coaches from Georgia (U.S. state) Basketball coaches from Georgia (U.S. state) Basketball players from Georgia (U.S. state) Businesspeople from Atlanta Republican Party members of the Georgia House of Representatives Military personnel from Georgia (U.S. state) North Georgia Nighthawks men's basketball players Oglethorpe Stormy Petrels baseball coaches Oglethorpe Stormy Petrels men's basketball coaches Sportspeople from Lowndes County, Georgia United States men's national basketball team coaches United States Army officers