Bob Marcum hospitalized: Arkansas coach John Calipari shares details around medical condition

Former UMass athletics director Bob Marcum suffered a stroke and has been admitted to the hospital. On Sunday, Arkansas head coach John Calipari shared details about his medical condition.

Under Marcum, UMass won six NCAA Tournament berths consecutively from 1993 to 1998. He also led the UMass Football team to the 1998 NCAA I-AA Championship, earning the 1999 NACDA Northeast Region I-AA Athletic Director of the Year.

"My friend, mentor, and AD at Umass Bob Marcum has been admitted to the hospital for complications from a stroke. He was an unbelievable servant leader who impacted so many coaches, athletes and campuses where he worked (Iowa st, Kansas, South Carolina, Umass, Marshall among them). Please pray for this committed husband, father, and loyal friend to many," Calipari tweeted on X on Sunday.

Calipari and Marcum built a great relationship with each other in the mid-1990s. Marcum was a mentor when Calipari was a coach at UMass from 1993 to 1996. They both took UMass to a new level, making it to the first and only Final Four appearance in 1996.

Calipari recalled he had visited his friend in 2002 with his wife, Ellen Calipari.

"Had a day off from practice, so Ellen and decided to go see our good friend Bob Marcum. He was our AD at UMass and when I came to him with ideas, he would always say, 'We can do better than that!' We did some special things together," John Calipari wrote in a post after the visit on Instagram.

While Calipari left for the New Jersey Nets in 1996, Marcum remained there until 2002.

Where was Bob Marcum for his final run in his career after John Calipari's UMass?

After spending 40 years of his life in the athletics career, Marcum had a sweet ending to his career when he left UMass in 2002. He returned to his alma mater and became the Marshall Thundering Herd's athletic director in his hometown, Huntington.

He served there since 2009 when he finally retired. He led Huntington, from where he graduated in Social Studies and Physical Education in 1959, to a new level by getting them to the Conference-USA in 2005.

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