SAN ANTONIO — UTSA Athletics is mourning the loss of former men’s basketball head coach Stu Starner, who passed away on July 17, 2024, in Bozeman, Mont. at the age of 81.
Assuming his role as UTSA men’s basketball program’s third head coach on April 9, 1990, Starner accrued 85 wins, including 56 conference victories, across his five seasons leading the Roadrunners (1990-95). Currently the second-winningest coach in UTSA history, Starner opened his time at the helm in San Antonio with consecutive 21-8 finishes, capturing regular season conference titles in both the Trans America Athletic Conference in 1990-91 with a 12-2 league record and then the Southland Conference in 1991-92 with a 15-3 conference finish. After starting his career at Montana State, when Starner stepped down at UTSA he had a total of 194 victories to close out his career, and went on to become a successful college athletics fund-raiser and administrator at Houston, Eastern Michigan and Texas A&M.
As head coach at UTSA, Starner guided his players to five all-conference honors. Ronnie Ellison and Keith Horne earned All-TAAC first team accolades, while Elison joined Marlon Anderson in collecting All-SLC first team honors and Horne added All-SLC second team recognition. Horne was named TAAC All-Tournament and Elison was joined by Mike Ferguson and Shawn Jamison in being named to the SLC All-Tournament Team. Five of his players went on to professional careers.
Born on April 8, 1943, in Hoffman, Minn., Stuart John Starner was a two-sport athlete (football and basketball) at University of Minnesota Morris. He started his coaching career in the high school ranks before becoming a graduate assistant for one season at Minnesota. Taking his first assistant coaching job at Montana State, he took over the MSU Bobcats’ head coach role after returning from two seasons as an assistant at Minnesota. Starner was the 1986 Big Sky Coach of the Year and guided the Bobcats to two titles – reaching the NCAA Tournament in 1986 and the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) in 1987.
A funeral service is scheduled for Monday, July 22, at 11 am in Bozeman, Mont. For more information about Starner or to donate to the family’s preferred memorial scholarship fund, please visit the family’s obituary page.
- UTSA -