Benjamin Clark Howland was born on the 28th May 1957, in Lebanon, Oregon USA, and is best known over the world for being a former American player and basketball coach for the Mississippi State Bulldogs, a college team. He is also recognized for coaching the team of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). His basketball career has been active since the 1970s.
Have you ever wondered how rich Ben Howland is? According to authoritative sources, it is estimated that Ben Howland’s net worth is $11 million, earned through his successful career in basketball with the main source of this amount of money being, of course, his career as a professional coach.
Ben Howland Net Worth $11 Million
Ben Howland grew up in Lebanon, his hometown. His first year of high school he finished at Dos Pueblos High School in Goleta, California, and later he moved to Cerritos, where he attended Cerritos High School. During high school he showed an interest in basketball and became a member of school team. He was very talented, so he managed to twice win awards for All-CIF, and twice for Suburban League Most Valuable Player in basketball. Afterwards, he became a basketball player for Santa Barbara City College, and then he continued his education at Weber State College in Ogden, Utah, from where he graduated with a BA degree in Physical Education in 1979. In 1981, he achieved his MA degree from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, in Physical Education and Administration.
In the 1980s Howland’s professional career as a basketball player began, when he started playing for Uruguay, prior to embarking on his coaching career, where he gained popularity as a defensive specialist. Nevertheless, he returned to the USA in order to become a coach, his first job being as a graduate assistant at Gonzaga University. Soon he became more engaged in coaching, and became the assistant coach at the University of California, Santa Barbara, which was his first paid coaching job. He stayed there for 12 years, increasing his net worth bit by bit, and also acquiring knowledge so he could further develop his career.
In 1994, Howland secured his first job as a head coach, at the University of the Northern Arizona, where he stayed for five years, and under his guidance, the team won its first Big Sky Conference Championship in his second year, and later they participated in the NCAA tournament, the first ever in the history of the University. In 1999, he left to replace Ralph Willard at the University of Pittsburgh, and while there Howland managed to win two awards in 2002 – Naismith College Coach of the Year Award and Henry Iba Award. In 2003, his team won The Big East Championship title, the first in the history of the team. He had a few more noteworthy results, including Big East regular-season conference titles and NCAA Sweet Sixteen appearances. Thanks to his extraordinary results, Howland was approached by the UCLA at the end of the 2003 season, and he accepted the job, and stated, that the only way he could leave Pittsburgh was to become the head coach of the UCLA.
In his first seasons at UCLA, Howland struggled to put the basketball team on top of its conference, but as of 2005-2006 season, team’s results improved a lot and they managed to win the Pac 10 Conference title and Pac 10 Championship. He stayed at the UCLA for ten years, as he was fired in 2013, after reportedly bullying a few of his players. Nevertheless, his tenure at the UCLA and the success he had there increased his net worth and his popularity. After two years he found another engagement, becoming the head coach of the Mississippi State basketball team, where his salary is reported to amount to $2 million.
When it comes to his personal life, Ben Howland is married to Kim Zahnow, a former Weber State cheerleader, with whom he has a son and a daughter, and is now a grandfather. In free time, he enjoys fly fishing.
