Harold "Chief" Litwack (September 20, 1907 – August 7, 1999) was an American

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

coach. He served as head basketball coach at

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist ministe ...

from 1952 to 1973, compiling a record of 373–193. He was inducted into the

Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and pres ...

in 1973.

Coaching career

Litwack was born in Galicia, Austria-Hungary (modern-day

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

) but raised in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. He graduated from Temple in 1930. He began his coaching career at Simon Gratz High School (1930–31), then he became head coach of the freshman team at Temple. Meanwhile, he was playing pro basketball with

Eddie Gottlieb Edward Gottlieb (born Isadore Gottlieb; September 15, 1898 – December 7, 1979) was a Jewish-Ukrainian professional basketball coach and executive. Nicknamed "Mr. Basketball" and "the Mogul", he was the first coach and manager of the Philadelph ...

's all-Jewish Philadelphia Sphas, from 1930 to 1936. Before he became head coach at

Temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

in 1952, he also served briefly as assistant coach for the

Philadelphia Warriors The history of the Golden State Warriors began in Philadelphia in 1946. In 1962, the franchise was relocated to San Francisco, California and became known as the San Francisco Warriors until 1971, when its name was changed to the current Golden ...

(1948–51). He died at the age of 91 in 1999. He coached Team USA's gold medal-winning team at the 1957 Maccabiah Games in Israel, and its silver medal-winning team at the 1973 Maccabiah Games.

Head coaching record

References

1907 births 1999 deaths American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players American people of Polish-Jewish descent Basketball coaches from Pennsylvania Basketball players from Philadelphia High school basketball coaches in the United States Jewish American basketball players Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees Philadelphia Sphas players Philadelphia Warriors coaches South Philadelphia High School alumni Temple Owls men's basketball coaches Temple Owls men's basketball players 20th-century American Jews Jewish American basketball coaches Emigrants from Austria-Hungary to the United States Jews from Galicia (Eastern Europe) {{1900s-US-basketball-bio-stub

Coaching career

Head coaching record

See also

References