CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Charlotte Observer) - Lee Rose, the head coach who led the Charlotte men’s basketball team to its lone Final Four appearance in 1977, has died, according to a spokesman for the 49ers’ athletic program.
Rose was 85. Rose spent three years as Charlotte’s head basketball coach from 1975-78, and in that time he directed the team to both the final of the 1976 NIT and then to the 1977 NCAA Final Four.
With a future standout NBA player in Cedric “Cornbread” Maxwell, the 49ers upset No. 5 Syracuse and then No. 1 Michigan to reach the Final Four, only to fall to Marquette in the national semifinals on a controversial last-second basket.