LOGAN, Utah – Former Utah State men’s basketball coach and administrator Rod Tueller was inducted into the Utah Sports Hall of Fame Monday evening at the Little America Hotel in Salt Lake City. Tueller, who was inducted into the Utah State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2016, joins the Utah Sports Hall of Fame as part of a five-member 2024 class.
Tueller spent a total of 19 years at Utah State as both a basketball coach and administrator. Following his graduation from USU in 1959, Tueller spent 14 years coaching high school basketball in the state of Utah before beginning his professional association with Utah State. Prior to the 1973-74 season, Tueller was named an assistant coach for the Aggies under then-head coach Dutch Belnap. For six seasons from 1974-79, Tueller helped the Aggies to a 106-58 record and three postseason appearances.
Tueller was then named the school’s 12th head men’s basketball coach prior to the 1979-80 season, and in his first year in charge of the Aggies, led the program to a 19-8 record, including an 11-2 mark in the Pacific Coast Athletic Association (PCAA), and its first league title in more than four decades. For his efforts, Tueller was named the PCAA Coach of the Year in 1980 as he led the Aggies to their third-straight postseason appearance, including their second-straight NCAA Tournament.
During his nine years as USU’s head men’s basketball coach, Tueller compiled a 139-120 (.537) record, including a 77-68 (.531) conference mark. He also led USU to one PCAA regular season championship (1980), one Big West Tournament title (1988), three NCAA Tournament appearances (1980, 1983, 1988) and one NIT appearance (1984). His 139 wins and 259 games coached both rank fifth all-time in school history, while his three NCAA Tournament appearances are the third-most in school history. Tueller’s teams also won the Old Oquirrh Bucket (the state’s collegiate basketball championship trophy) three straight years from 1983-85, while his 1982-83 team still holds the school record for field goal percentage in a season (.529).
Furthermore, Tueller coached a school-record nine players who were drafted into the NBA, and two players who earned Big West Conference Player of the Year honors in Dean Hunger (1980) and Greg Grant (1986). In fact, Grant went on to score a then-school-record 2,127 points, a mark he held for 22 years. Tueller also coached Brian Jackson, who earned all-conference honors three times (1979-81), and finished his career as the third-leading scorer in school history at the time with 1,900 points.
In all, Tueller was a part of 423 Aggie basketball games during his 15 years on the sidelines, a number that ranks second all-time in school history, and he is the only head coach in school history to lead his team to the NCAA Tournament in his final year at the helm. Along with his coaching duties, Tueller also served as Utah State’s Athletics Director for eight years from 1985-1992, which included an overlap with his head coaching duties for four years.
As USU’s Athletics Director, Tueller guided Aggie Athletics and its 14 NCAA Division I sponsored sports. During his time as USU’s AD, Tueller spent three years serving on the Division I-A Athletic Directors Association Board. Since retiring from coaching and athletic administration, Tueller spent 20+ years serving as the analyst for Aggie basketball games on the radio.
