Bruce Fraser Joins Coaching Staff at Missouri
6/21/1999 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
May 18, 1999
Columbia, Mo. - Men's Basketball Coach Quin Snyder announced today that BRUCE FRASER has accepted an assistant coaching position with the men's basketball program at the University of Missouri.
Fraser brings a wealth of experience and a proven track record of success to the Missouri basketball coaching staff. A native of Long Beach, Calif., Fraser, 34, has been a successful coach at both the collegiate and professional levels. He was part of the University of Arizona program for seven years as a player and coach (1983-90), where he helped build one of the nation's top basketball programs.
"My decision to get back into coaching was a function of my belief in the potential to build an elite program here at Missouri," said Fraser. "I'm excited to be moving to the heartland and I'm enthusiastic about this great opportunity," he said.
Fraser played at Arizona from 1983-87 under Lute Olson, and served as an assistant coach from 1987-90. In that period, the Wildcats won five PAC-10 Conference championships, made five NCAA Tournament appearances (after having just three previous appearances in school history), and reached the Final Four in 1988 (the school's first-ever), eventually finishing third.
Fraser then spent three years with 20th Century Fox in the entertainment industry (1991-93), before returning to coaching in 1994, when he was an assistant coach with the Indiana Pacers of the NBA. With Fraser on Larry Brown's staff, the Pacers won a franchise-record 52 games in the 1994-95 season, and reached the Eastern Conference Finals, before losing to Orlando in seven games.
Following that season, Fraser joined Oakley, Inc., where he served as a sports marketing manager from 1995 to May of 1999. At Oakley, he handled marketing efforts for both professional and collegiate accounts, working directly with the NBA's biggest names - Michael Jordan, Reggie Miller, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman, among others. In the collegiate ranks, Fraser directed the company's elite college program - which paired Oakley with 15 top-level athletic departments across the nation - keeping him closely immersed in the inner-workings of college athletics.
Fraser grew up in Long Beach, Calif., where his father, Bill, is the head basketball coach at Long Beach City College. Fraser attended Wilson High School in Long Beach, where his father also had a very successful coaching career.
