By ROB MCCOLLEY
IlliniReport.info
Retired University of Illinois professor Steve Douglas, who also served
as the first head coach of the Fighting Illini women's basketball
program, died Tuesday from terminal cancer. He was 83. Daughters Kate
and Liz Douglas were with their dad in his home in Marina del Rey
Calif., as was his wife Vianne Weintraub. Daughter Lauren Douglas joined
them from Seattle, via Zoom.
Douglas was an associate professor of political science in the spring
of 1974 when Women's Athletic Director Karol Kahrs chose him to be head
coach of the inaugural Illini Women's Basketball team. He was paid
$1,000 for the season. Douglas earned the women's coaching job for two
reasons: He'd coached the women's national team in Malaysia, and he was
team captain for Tex Winter's top-ranked Kansas State Wildcats, playing
in the 1958, '59 and '60 seasons.
His tenure as a Illini coach was always meant to be brief. After two
seasons coaching the women, Douglas handed the job off to a full-time
coach and returned his focus to Malaysian and Indonesian political
studies — and raising three daughters, while their mom, Sara Umberger
Douglas, earned a PhD of her own in 1983. Her dissertation, Labor's New
Voice: Unions and the Mass Media, was published in 1986, and she
accepted a tenure-track position in the college eventually known as
ACES.
Stephen Arneal Douglas was born September 2, 1938, in Hastings,
Nebraska. His parents, Louis H. Douglas and Mary Alice (Burton) Douglas,
were both teachers, coaches and athletes. Mary was also a pilot, and
her son's biggest fan as he grew into an elite athlete. Lou Douglas
accepted a job in the political science department at Kansas State,
after spending a year in the Philippines, learning about its political
systems. He became known as an early advocate for civil rights.
Steve Douglas graduated high school in Manhattan, Kansas, and then
stayed in town for college, and basketball. At the time, Kansas State
was among the best basketball programs in the nation. Head coach Tex
Winter is still remembered for his Triangle Offense, which he later
taught to Michael Jordan and the NBA Champion Chicago Bulls. Douglas
played alongside lifelong friend Bill Guthridge, who eventually became
head men's coach for the North Carolina Tarheels.
Upon graduation from KSU, Steve Douglas enrolled in graduate school at
Illinois, then married his sweetheart Sara Umberger in the summer of
1961. They lived in Indonesia in the early 1960s while he studied
political systems of the South Pacific, and she managed the Ford
Foundation's Jakarta guest house and taught English at the Indonesian
American Friendship Institute. They returned to Urbana, where he earned
his PhD and became a tenured professor of Political Science, and began a
family. Daughter Kate arrived in 1966. Liz followed in 1968, and Lauren
in 1973.
Douglas' dissertation was titled Political Socialization in Indonesia.In
2003, he published "Suharto: A political biography." That same year,
Sara died of complications stemming from her treatment for thymic
carcinoma.
After retiring from the Political Science department, Douglas moved to
southern California. He married Vianne Weintraub in 2008. She survives.
Republished with permission