LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Tuesday would have been legendary UNLV Head Coach Jerry Tarkanian's 93rd birthday.
He died in 2015, but his legacy helped put the University of Nevada, Las Vegas on the map.
Tarkanian's fast and quick coaching style earned the program a new name, "The Runnin' Rebels." His impact went beyond the basketball court.
For many, Jerry Tarkanian helped change college sports by pushing athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness.
MORE: The complicated legacy of former UNLV Runnin' Rebels head coach, Jerry Tarkanian
"Virtually, everything my dad said and did in the late 1960s, 70s and 80s with his fight against the [National Collegiate Athletics Association], the NCAA now says it's the right thing to do," said Danny Tarkanian, Jerry's son.
A professor at UNLV said the former head coach also tied the Vegas community with college basketball.
"Through building a great basketball program at the time," said Michael Green, associate professor of history at UNLV. "[He] helped bring together a very desperate community."
Tarkanian led UNLV to 14 NCAA tournament appearances making it to the Final Four — four times. The team also won a national championship in 1990.
On Oct. 13, 2013, the Jerry Tarkanian statue was unveiled outside the Thomas and Mack Center following his induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
