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John Calipari, 66, Shares Major Life Update on Saturday

Originally posted on Athlon Sports
By Rowan Fisher-Shotton | Last updated Jun 21, 2025 5:16 PM ET

The Arkansas Razorbacks are coming off a strong 2024-25 campaign in which the program went 22-14 overall (8-10 SEC) and advanced to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament before falling 85-83 in overtime to No. 3 Texas Tech.

It was Arkansas' 15th Sweet 16 appearance in program history and its first under coach John Calipari, who has now led four different programs to the Sweet 16 or further.

That run cemented Arkansas’s standing as a program on the rise in the competitive SEC.

As the Razorbacks look ahead to the 2025-26 season, the Hall of Famer took to X on Saturday to mark a more personal milestone: his 39th wedding anniversary with wife Ellen.

Ellen and I celebrate our 39th anniversary today. We met at Kansas when I was a low level asst and she worked in the business office under Art Lingel. She has been the perfect coaches wife for me, and as other coaches wives have said IT ISNT EASY! She has been a great mother to…
— John Calipari (@CoachCalArk) June 21, 2025

A native of Moon Township, Pennsylvania, Calipari has 877 career wins, placing him tied for seventh all-time in Division I victories, alongside the legendary Jim Calhoun.

After early stops as an assistant at Kansas and Pittsburgh, he led UMass to the 1996 Final Four and coached Memphis to another in 2008 (both later vacated but cleared of wrongdoing).

His tenure at Kentucky (2009-2024) included four Final Fours, six SEC regular-season and tournament titles and the 2012 NCAA championship.

Calipari won Naismith Coach of the Year honors in 1996, 2008 and 2015 and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015.

In his post on Saturday, Calipari paid tribute to Ellen, "the perfect coach's wife," recounting how they met in the early 1980s at Kansas, where he was a low-level assistant and she worked in the athletics business office under Art Lingel.

Married on June 21, 1986, the couple have two daughters, Erin (who played basketball at UMass) and Megan, and a son, Brad, who played basketball at Kentucky and Detroit Mercy.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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