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Mr. James "Jim" Izard (Deceased)

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Ex-UL coach Izard dies

March 03, 2006 –
Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com

Jim Izard, the coach who put a winning stamp on Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns women’s basketball before moving on to successful stops elsewhere, died Tuesday at age 57 at his home in Santa Rosa Beach, Fla.
Izard came to UL in 1982, taking over a program that was 5-23 the previous campaign, and led the Cajuns to an 18-10 record and a runner-up finish in the Southland Conference.

That was Izard’s only season with the Cajuns. Ross Cook arrived the next year and posted a 22-6 mark. Their combined 40 wins in two years was the best two-year showing in school history until the current Cajun women equalled it with 22-9 and 18-9 records the last two seasons under coach J. Kelley Hall.

Ironically, Hall was a close friend of Izard’s.
“We became friends when he was at Indiana and I was coaching at Auburn,” said Hall, who is preparing his squad for a Sun Belt Conference Tournament game on Saturday against tournament host Middle Tennessee. “We took vacations together and were close.”

Izard’s career record was 416-263, starting at Livingston University (now West Alabama), UL, DePaul, Indiana and Berry College, an NAIA school in Mount Berry, Ga.

DePaul was 90-28 in four seasons (1984-87) under Izard, who was the North Star Conference Coach of the Year in 1987.

That earned Izard the chance to coach at Indiana, and he remains that school’s winningest women’s basketball coach with a record of 188-159 from 1988-2000. He guided the Hoosiers to nine winning seasons, a pair of NCAA Tournament berths and a WNIT runner-up showing.

Izard was fired by Indiana in 2000 and filed a sex and age descrimination lawsuit against the school over its hiring of then-37-year-old Kathi Bennett. The suit was settled out of court with Izard getting $76,000.

At Berry College, Izard was 65-53 in 3 1/2 seasons and reached the 2003 NAIA national tournament. But some 16 games into the 2004-2005 season, following a 31-point loss to Lee University, the Ole Miss graduate resigned with the university citing “personal reasons.”

Services for Izard, who is survived by his wife Sarah Jo Izard, will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday in Fulton, Miss. Senters Funeral Home of Fulton is in charge of arrangements.

Originally published March 3, 2006