‘Such a freaky, terrible thing’: Galen Young, former Charlotte 49er basketball star, has died
Galen Young, a Charlotte 49ers basketball star in the late 1990s, has died. He was 45 years old.
The circumstances of Young’s death are unusual. According to a tweet Saturday night from the Memphis police department, a vehicle crashed into a house in Memphis on Horn Lake Road. The crash killed Young, who was inside the house at the time. The driver of the vehicle, who was not named, was issued a citation by the officers who responded at 2:42 a.m Saturday. The investigation is ongoing.
Marlon Thomas, Young’s former teammate with the Charlotte 49ers and his friend for more than 30 years, said Saturday afternoon in an interview that Young had been visiting his mother, Gladys, in his Memphis hometown. It was her house that the vehicle crashed into, although Thomas said Gladys Young was unhurt.
“I understand that Galen was on a computer in a front room,” Thomas said. “Then the car came into the house and killed him while he was sitting there. It’s such a freaky, terrible thing.”
The Memphis police tweet identified Galen Young as “Leslie Young,” because Leslie is his first name.
Young and Thomas had known each other since they were 11 years old, growing up together in Memphis.
“Galen was the brother I never had,” Thomas said. “He was also a great father. And he was the only reason I came to play for Charlotte in the first place, because he was already here. And he was so excited about this new coaching job in Mississippi that he was going to start soon.”
In 1999, Young was MVP of the Conference USA men’s basketball tournament as the 49ers won the C-USA title.
He was also a first-team all-Conference USA selection that year, when he averaged 14.7 points and 7.2 rebounds for a strong Charlotte team that won 23 games and made it to the second round of the NCAA tourney.
Later in 1999, Young was a second-round draft pick of the Milwaukee Bucks (No. 48 overall). While he never made an NBA roster, Young played for many years overseas.
Both in college and the pros, he was known primarily for his athleticism and superb defense.
When the 49ers played UNC, Young shadowed point guard Ed Cota. When the 49ers beat Rhode Island in the 1999 NCAA tournament, it was in large part because Young (with some help from Thomas) flummoxed future NBA star Lamar Odom.
“Galen was the best on-ball defender I’ve ever coached, as an assistant or a head coach,” said Bobby Lutz, the former Charlotte 49ers coach who recruited and coached Young. “And that includes seven years in the ACC, two years in the Big Ten and one year in the Big 12. He was just so strong. If he hand-checked you, you weren’t going anywhere.”
In more recent years, with a recommendation from Lutz, Young had begun a college basketball coaching career. In September 2020, he was announced as a new assistant coach for Rockhurst University, a Division II school in Kansas City. He had previously served several seasons as an assistant coach for Lane College in Tennessee, according to a Rockhurst press release in September. Young was about to start a new coaching job in Jackson, Miss., at Jackson Prep, Lutz and Thomas said, coaching at the high school level.
A Memphis native, Young was a junior-college transfer who played two seasons for Charlotte and made them count. The 49ers made the NCAA tournament in both those years (first under coach Melvin Watkins, then under Lutz). Young started 60 games in those two seasons for Charlotte as a 6-foot-6 forward. He played his first two collegiate seasons at Northwest Mississippi Community College and was a 1996 junior college All-American. In his senior season, he had 10 double-doubles for the 49ers.
Young played overseas in eight different countries, according to the Rockhurst press release that announced his hiring, but retired from competitive play in 2012 after the birth of his twin sons, Ellis and Grayson (a GoFundMe account has been established for the twins’ care). Young then returned to Charlotte to work on completing his degree in criminal justice.
Young obtained that degree — Lutz helped tutor him in his final business statistics course — and was looking forward to his new job in Jackson, Miss. Lutz said he and Young had talked and texted Friday and that Young was thrilled about the next part of his life that was about to start.
“I’m never going to erase my last text messages from Galen,” Lutz said. “He said, ‘Coach, this is the break I’ve been looking for. I feel like this is the perfect opportunity for me to, to get where I want to go this point in my life.’”
This story was originally published June 5, 2021 at 4:32 PM.
