49ers release Catawba County native from contract

Bobby Lutz out as head men's basketball coach at UNC Charlotte

By: Chris Hobbs | Hickory Daily Record
Published: March 15, 2010

After 12 seasons calling the shots at his alma mater, Catawba County native Bobby Lutz is out as head men's basketball coach at UNC Charlotte.

Lutz, who guided the 49ers to eight postseason trips but a 19-12 record this year that did not net one, has been released from his newest contract with four seasons left on it.

The 49ers finished 9-7 and tied for fifth place this season in the Atlantic 10 Conference after losing seven of their last eight games.

UNC Charlotte officials released their decision to fire Lutz in an e-mailed press release about 11 a.m. this morning, and the school also fired the rest of the men's basketball coaching staff.

Lutz did not immediately return a phone call from HDR Sports.

"Since Bobby is an alumnus of this institution and has served as head or assistant coach for a decade and a half this was a personally and professionally difficult decision for us be we believe it's in the long-term interest of 49ers basketball and the university as a whole," UNC Charlotte Chancellor Dr. Phillip Dubois said in the press release.

With a record of 218-158 at UNC Charlotte, Lutz is the school's winningest men's basketball coach. His overall career record, including nine seasons at Pfeiffer, is 399-249.

"This was an extremely difficult decision and not one that was made lightly or in haste," UNC Charlotte athletic director Judy Rose said in the press release. "Bobby has been an important part of the 49ers family and represented our university in a most positive manner.

"Our expectations for our program are high and our goal is to strive to be in the upper echelon of the Atlantic 10 with an opportunity to complete in the NCAA tournament on a regular basis."

UNC Charlotte last reached the NCAA tournament in 2005. Lutz guided the 49ers there five times, but in the last five seasons the team's postseason bids were in the National Invitational Tournament (2006, 2008).

Lutz is a 1980 UNC Charlotte graduate who decided to go into coaching rather than law. He first joined the 49ers as an assistant coach under Jeff Mullins, leaving Gardner-Webb before coaching a game.

When Lutz accepted the Gardner-Webb job, leaving Pfeiffer, he told officials there the only position he would leave for would be to coach at his alma mater.

Mullins offered Lutz a job and he moved to the coaching staff at his alma mater in 1995 and spent three seasons before being named head coach in 1998 after Melvin Watkins vacated the head-coaching job.

A 1976 graduate of Bandys High, where he was class valedictorian, Lutz won a state 2A title as head coach of the Parkwood High girls in 1982-83 and then became head boys' coach at Bunker Hill for the next season.

Before going to Parkwood, Lutz also worked as an assistant boys' coach under the late Bill Bost, for whom he played, during part of a four-year run in which the Trojans finished second, fourth, second and first in the state 2A tournament from 1979 through 1982.

After leaving Bunker Hill, he worked as a graduate assistant at Clemson and worked two years on coach Cliff Ellis' staff before landing the Pfeiffer job.