Topic: Jim Calhoun

James C. Calhoun (born May 10, 1942 in Braintree, Massachusetts) is the head coach of the University of Connecticut's men's basketball team. His teams have won two national championships (1999 and 2004), played in three Final Fours (most recently in 2009), won the 1988 NIT championship, and have won six Big East tournament championships (in 1990, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2002, and 2004). In 2005, he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. On Feb. 25, 2009, Jim Calhoun won his 800th game when Connecticut beat Marquette, 93–82.

Calhoun was born and raised in Braintree, Mass., where he was a standout on the basketball, football, and baseball teams at Braintree High School. After his father died of a heart attack when Calhoun was 15, he was left to take care of his large family, including five siblings.

Although he received a basketball scholarship to Lowell State (now UMass Lowell), he only attended the school for three months, after which he returned home to help support his mother and siblings. He worked as a granite cutter, headstone engraver, scrapyard worker, shampoo factory worker, and gravedigger.