Larry Luitjens, the state’s all-time winningest boys basketball coach, died on Saturday. He was 81. 

Luijtens racked up 748 wins during his coaching career that spanned from 1967-2014. He coached in 13 state championship games and won seven titles. 

He has coached one unbeaten team (Custer, 25-0, 1990) and five others that had only one loss. Seventeen times he has guided his team to the state tournament.

The 1960 Britton High and 1965 Northern State grad began his coaching career at De Smet. He coached De Smet for four seasons, guiding the Bulldogs to a 90-16 record and three state-tourney appearances, including a runner-up finish in 1969 and Class B titles in '70 and '71. He coached one year at New England (N.D.) St. Mary's, going 19-4. 

He began his coaching career at Custer in 1973, leading the Wildcats to 14 state-tournament appearances and five state titles. In a 16-year stretch from 1988-2003, Luitjens' Wildcats reached the state Class A tourney 10 times, finishing first five times (1990, '92, '93, '98 and '02) and second three ('89, '91 and '03). Luitjens' son, Lance, was the 1992 South Dakota Mr. Basketball and went onto star at Northern State University. 

He was a finalist for national coach of the year in 1998. He was a nominee for the national award in 1982, '89 and '90. Luitjens was inducted into the South Dakota High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1988 and the South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame in 2005. He received Northern State's first Jim Kretchman Award for excellence in athletics in 2002.