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Jim Sollars

  • Class
  • Induction
    2016
  • Sport(s)
    Coaches
• Ended his career second all-time in WCC wins with 166.
• He won 388 games at UP, compiled 411 victories overall at the NCAA Division I level, and posted a 565-513 career record as a collegiate head coach.
• Was a five-time WCC Coach of the Year.
• Also served the University as a history professor during his first 11 years on The Bluff.
• Under Sollars' leadership at Portland, 39 players earned All-WCC honors, four players were named the WCC Player of the Year, and he coached two Pilots (Laura Sale and Deana Lansing) to honorable mention All-America status.
• He also guided 41 WCC All-Academic Team selections, 14 CoSIDA Academic All-Region Team picks and one WCC Scholar Athlete of the Year, while two athletes earned first team CoSIDA Academic All-America honors.  
• He claimed the school's first WCC Basketball Championship (men or women) in 1991-92 and he earned his second WCC Coach of the Year honor that year, making him the first coach in the WCC to win the award twice.
• During the 1990's, Sollars had four consecutive NCAA Tournament berths (1993-97), including the first in school history in 1993-94.
• From 1993-99, Sollars and the Pilots compiled a 125-51 (.710) record.
• His 1993-94 team captured the WCC Tournament Championship to earn the school's first NCAA Tournament bid; Sollars guided the Pilots to NCAA at-large berths in 1995, 1996 and 1997.
• During that 1996-97 season, the team went 27-3 overall for the second-highest win total in program history, won a second-consecutive WCC Championship (the third overall during Sollars' tenure), became the first team in league history to go undefeated (14-0) in WCC play and was the school's first NCAA Division-I basketball team to earn a national ranking (highest rating No. 21 USA Today/No. 25 in the final poll); Sollars was named WBCA District-8 Coach of the Year and was WCC Coach of the Year for a fourth time.
• He nabbed his fifth and final league coach of the year honor in 2008-09 when he led the Pilots to the WNIT.
• A berth to the WBI followed in 2009-10, giving Sollars seven postseason trips during his storied career.
• Was inducted into the WCC’s Hall of Honor in 2015.
 
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