In 2014, Fresno State retired Tarkanian's No. 2 jersey from his college playing days. Tarkanian also has a middle school located in Southern Highlands, NV named after him and his wife Lois. He had small roles in the 1979 film, "The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh" as the LA Team Coach, in the 1992 film, "Honeymoon in Vegas" as a poker player, and in the 1994 film, "Blue Chips" as a basketball coach. Jerry Tarkanian was married to Las Vegas city councilwoman Lois Tarkanian. They had four children and ten grandchildren. One of their sons, Danny Tarkanian, was an All-American Honorable Mention college basketball player while playing for Jerry Tarkanian at UNLV. He won the Republican nomination for Nevada secretary of state in the 2006 primary but lost in the general election. In 2010, he mounted an unsuccessful Republican primary campaign for the United States Senate seat held by Harry Reid. Tarkanian was a good friend of college basketball coach Bob Knight. Tarkanian and Knight matched wits in the national semifinals of the 1987 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament in New Orleans, with Knight's Indiana Hoosiers defeating UNLV, 97–93. He also started a basketball school in Las Vegas, named The Tarkanian Basketball Academy. His granddaughter Dannielle Diamant played for Northwestern University women's basketball team. On February 11, 2015, Tarkanian died at the age of 84 at Valley Hospital Medical Center in Las Vegas, where he had been hospitalized days earlier after difficulty breathing. The city of Las Vegas that day lowered its flags at City Hall to half-staff in tribute to him. As a memorial tribute, the casinos along the Las Vegas Strip dimmed their lights for roughly three minutes in Tarkanian's honor on February 18. Note: The record of 784–202 includes six NCAA tournament games vacated by the NCAA while at Long Beach State and 49 games vacated while at Fresno State. Excluding these games, the record would be 729–201.