Hometown to honor the late Cotton Fitzsimmons with statue
Lowell “Cotton” Fitzsimmons had a storied career as a basketball coach.
He began his coaching career at Moberly (Missouri) Junior College, where he compiled a 224-58 record and won two national titles. He came to K-State as an assistant coach for the legendary Tex Winter and succeeded him as head coach in 1968. In his two seasons (1968-69 and 1969-70) as head coach of the Wildcats, he compiled a 34-20 record; led the Wildcats to the 1970 Big Eight Championship; was named Big Eight coach the year in 1970; and coached the team to the Sweet Sixteen in the 1970 NCAA tournament. From there he’d go on to coach in the NBA for the Phoenix Suns (he’d be their head coach twice), Atlanta Hawks, Golden State Warriors, Buffalo Braves, Kansas City Kings and San Antonio Spurs.
Fitzsimmons was named to the Phoenix Suns Ring of Honor in 2005; the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 1981; and was also honored by the Naismith Coaches Circle Program at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2021.
Fitzsimmons passed away in 2004 after a battle with lung cancer.
But before all that success on the hardwood Fitzsimmons was a Bobcat, a Bowling Green Bobcat. Today his community connections to his hometown, Bowling Green, Missouri, live on thanks to an effort to construct a statue in the town square are underway. Located in eastern Missouri, Bowling Green has just over 4,000 residents and is roughly a five hour drive from Manhattan.
Bowling Green’s mayor, Tom Thompson, said the effort came about as a way to recognize the legendary coach, mentor and leader.
“It's going to be a life-size statue, 5 foot 7. He was short in stature, but they’ll put it on a pedestal to make it exactly 10 foot high, the height of the basketball rim,” Thompson said. “I wanted something that kids can look up to. You know, a lot of the kids, a lot of the people at 20 years old don’t have an idea of who Cotton was. So I want to bring him back alive in the minds of youth that never knew or heard about him.”
Thompson said the goal is to complete the project by late spring or early summer of 2027. A fundraising campaign is currently underway. More information is available at the Bowling Green mayor’s office. Donations $1,000 or above will be recognized on the statue pedestal.
“I think it'll bring beauty and pride, and, more than anything, it'll bring inspiration for young people that think they're just from Bowling Green,” he said.