After reading a story by Eric Prisbell of On3 about the loss of larger-than-life men’s basketball coaches, it struck me that we have in fact, reached the end of an era in college basketball.
I grew up watching the Big East when greats like Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin, Mark Jackson, Pearl Washington, Derrick Coleman and others dominated the college hardwood in arguably, the greatest era of college basketball.
Perhaps even bigger than those players were the coaches who led those teams, including the late, great John Thompson of Georgetown, former St. Johns’ legendary coach, Lou Carnesseca and the recently retired Jim Boheim of Syracuse.
Unfortunately, due to the evolution of college basketball and college sports as a whole, the days of program loyalty by players and coaches are long gone.
But what’s really sad is that we’re also witnessing the end of Black iconic college basketball coaches.
Champions and Father Figures
The imposing figure of John Thompson no longer confronts those trying to insult, intimidate or punish young Black athletes.
Thompson remains, in my opinion, the most famous and greatest Black basketball coach in the sport’s history for he represented much more than the towel-wearing figure who roamed the sidelines.
He was a coach, leader, educator, inspiration, protector, unapologetic activist, father, mentor and role model. Thompson fought back against a system that exploited and punished young Black athletes and he proved that a small, Jesuit school in Washington D.C. could field an all-Black team, develop it into a national powerhouse and become a national champion (1984).
Another legendary coach mentioned in the same breath as Thompson is Temple University icon, John Chaney. Chaney, whose Temple Owls teams made the NCAA Tournament 17 times, actually began his collegiate coaching career at HBCU Cheyney State. He spent 10 years there and won the NCAA DII title in 1978.
Chaney, who passed away in 2021, was the first Black DI basketball coach to win 700 games. He loved his players and they loved him back.
“Coach Chaney was like a father to me,” said former Temple player and basketball coach, Aaron McKie. “He taught not just me, but all of his players more than just how to succeed in basketball. He taught us life lessons to make us better individuals off the court. I owe so much to him. He made me the man I am today.”
Joining Thompson and Chaney in the 80s was Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson, who taught his Razorbacks teams to literally run the competition to the ground and then keep running. “40 minutes of hell” was the term he coined, and he used it to become the second Black head coach in NCAA history, behind John Thompson, to win an NCAA DI Men’s Basketball Tournament Championship (1994).
Behind them came Tubby Smith, who not only won a national title (1998) but did it as the first Black head coach in the history of Kentucky men’s basketball. If you know the history of the program and Adolph Rupp, you understand the significance of Tubby’s championship.
Indiana’s Mike Davis almost became the fourth but lost in the 2002 Championship game. Twelve years later, UConn’s Kevin Ollie joined this elusive club as the fourth Black head coach to win an NCAA DI championship (2014).
HBCU Legends
There are other legendary Black coaches who didn’t receive the national recognition they deserved at the time as they coached HBCU programs, including Southern University’s Ben Jobe, Winston-Salem State’s Clarence “Big House” Gaines and Tennessee A&I’s John McLendon.
Over 12 seasons with the Jaguars, Jobe compiled a record of 209-141, won five SWAC titles, made four NCAA Tournament appearances and his uptempo offense led the nation in scoring three times. Off the court, he instilled old school values in his players.
“I want my players to be Superman on the court, and then go back to class and be Clark Kent,” said Jobe to The St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 1997.
Gaines amassed an incredible 828-447 record over his almost five decades with the Rams. He won 8 CIAA titles and in 1967, the Rams won the NCAA DII Championship, becoming the first HBCU program in NCAA basketball history to do so.
And of course, there’s John McLendon of Tennessee A&I, now known as Tennessee State. He was a 3x NAIA Coach of the Year award winner and won 3 consecutive NAIA titles, becoming the first basketball coach in history to win three consecutive national titles. In 1966, he was hired by Cleveland State, becoming the first Black coach to be hired at a PWI program.
McLendon was a mentor to Jobe and an inspiration to coaches like Thompson, Richardson and Jerry Tarkanian as he invented the full-court press and the four corners offense.
Women’s Basketball
Up until the last few years, women’s basketball wasn’t given the shine it deserved, which means that many missed seeing great coaches like C. Vivian Stringer and Carolyn Peck.
Stringer began her coaching career at Cheyney St. in 1971, a year before John Chaney joined the school. In 1982, when the first women’s NCAA tournament was played, Stringer led the HBCU program to the Final Four and was also named National Coach of the Year that season.
A year later, after amassing an astounding 55-6 record at Cheyney, she left to become the head coach at Iowa and built the program into a national powerhouse with nine NCAA tournament appearances and one trip to the Final Four. She also won two more National Coach of the Year awards as well (1988, 1993).
In 1995, Stringer returned East and built another powerhouse at Rutgers.
She won 535 games with the Scarlet Knights and led the team to 17 NCAA Tournaments, including 10 consecutive appearances between 2003 and 2012. She also made the Final Four in 2000 and 2007, the latter resulting in Rutgers’ first NCAA Championship game appearance where they lost to Pat Summitt and Tennessee.
In 2000, Stringer became the first basketball coach ever to lead three different programs to the Final Four (Cheyney in 1982, Iowa in 1993 and Rutgers in 2000).
Like her male counterparts, Stringer was also a mother to her players and fiercely protective of them; ask Don Imus about that. She was also an unabashed fighter for equal rights and a history maker.
She became the first Black coach with 1,000 career victories and when she retired in April 2022, she had 1,055 wins, 28 NCAA Tournament appearances and four Final Four appearances.
Carolyn Peck didn’t have as long a career as Stringer, but it was historic.
In 1999, her second year at Purdue, the Boilermakers went 34-1 and she became the first Black woman coach in history to win an NCAA DI Women’s Basketball Championship.
She left to coach the WNBA’s Orlando Miracle for three years but returned to the college ranks at Florida in 2002, where she led the Gators to two NCAA tournament appearances in five seasons.
Stringer and Peck opened the door to Dawn Staley, who is, arguably, the last of the legendary Black head coaches in NCAA basketball.
Dawn Staley- Last of the Icons
After an amazing individual career, Staley returned to her hometown of Philadelphia in 2000 to coach Temple and she quickly transformed the program into a team that made the NCAA tournament in six out of her eight years.
In 2008, Staley headed South to South Carolina, where, over 16 years, she has turned the Gamecocks into a national powerhouse and a 2x NCAA Champion.
After two losing seasons to start her tenure in Columbia, S.C. Staley has led the program to 14 straight winning seasons, 12 NCAA tournament appearances (before the Pandemic shut down the season in 2020, the Gamecocks were 32-1 and had just won the SEC Conference Tournament) and 5 Final Fours.
Staley grew up watching legends like Thompson, Chaney and Stringer, so it’s no surprise that she has the same qualities.
She’s fiercely protective of her program and players, guides them, helps them mature and develop and is unafraid to speak her mind and stand up for what’s right, something she did after George Floyd’s murder.
Staley has made her mark on history by becoming the first Black head coach, period, to win more than one NCAA DI basketball championship (2017, 2022). This year she has a great chance at securing her third as well. She’s also a two-time Naismith Coach of the Year (2020, 2022), has an overall record of 606-186 and became the “highest paid African-American head coach in her sport” after signing a new seven-year, $22.4 million deal in 2021.
So Who’s Next?
Dawn Staley appears to be the last in the mold of legendary Black college basketball coaches, so who will be the next to carry on the storied tradition?
While there are many great coaches in today’s game, including Marquette’s Shaka Smart and Notre Dame’s Niele Ivey, they haven’t yet achieved the level of success or impact off the court that puts them in the category of the aforementioned coaches.
There’s also Florida State’s Leonard Hamilton, who at 70, definitely has a generational connection but doesn’t seem to be mentioned in the same breath as those who came before him.
To be fair, we may never see the types of Thompson, Chaney, Gaines, Stringer and Staley again due to the nature of college sports. Money triumphs over loyalty, and in men’s basketball, it’s harder to develop teams due to NIL, transfer rules and the many other options players have on where they can play. Women’s basketball might yield a successor to Staley, but it will take more time.
The aforementioned coaches are all legends, history makers, hall of famers, educators, activists and leaders on and off the court. They’re mothers and fathers to players and inspirations to those who watch and celebrate them.
While some are no longer here, and all except one no longer roam the sidelines, their impact can still be felt.
So appreciate, respect and cherish the history and significance of these Black coaches and stay cheering for Dawn Staley as she continues her ascent up the ladder of coaching legends.
