Jud Heathcote, who followed the father he barely knew into coaching and led the Michigan State basketball team, with Magic Johnson at point guard, to a national championship in 1979, died on Monday in Spokane, Wash. He was 90.
Michigan State announced his death.
Known as a disciplinarian but with a sharp sense of humor that he often turned on himself, Heathcote had been coaching at the University of Montana when he was hired by Michigan State in 1976 to coach the Spartans. Once he was at the East Lansing campus, his primary task was to recruit Earvin Johnson, better known as Magic, a superstar in the making from nearby Lansing.