• Promoted to Kansas State’s head coach in 1953, led the Wildcats to a 261-118 record, eight Big 8 championships, and two Final Fours (1958 & 1964) during his 15 years (1953-1968) as the Wildcat’s head coach. Earned UPI National Coach of the Year in 1958.
   

• Winter’s Wildcat squads featured several players from Wyandotte as both scholarship players and walk-ons. Included in that group were Larry Comley, Phil Heitmeyer, and Rex Beach.
   

NBA Coaching Career

• Served as the Houston Rockets Head Coach from 1971-1973.

• Served as Assistant Coach for the Chicago Bulls from 1985-1999.

• Teamed with Coach Phil Jackson & Michael Jordan won 6 (six) NBA championships with the Bulls (1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, and 1998).

• Served as Assistant Coach for the Los Angeles Lakers from 1999-2004.

• Teamed with Coach Phil Jackson, Kobe Bryant, and Shaquille O’Neal won 3 (three) NBA championships with the Lakers in 2000, 2001, and 2002 & another as a Laker consultant in 2009.

• Inducted in the Naismith National Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011.
   

Coaching Innovator

• Credited as the innovator of the “Triangle” offense (also known as “Triple-Post” offense) that Winter learned while a player at the University of Southern California from Coach Sam Berry.

• The Triangle offense was adopted by new Chicago Bulls Coach Phil Jackson before the 1989-1990 NBA season. The Triangle offense was devised to combat the “Jordan Rules” defensive strategy of Coach Chuck Daly of the Detroit Pistons that was created to limit the effectiveness of Chicago’s Michael Jordan.
   

Coaching Clinician

• Winter and Wyandotte Coach Walt Shublom were nationally recognized as co-instructors in off-season basketball coaching clinics throughout the U.S. from the late 1950’s through the 1980’s.