Charles Jerome Daly (July 20, 1930 – May 9, 2009) was an American

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other Coach (sport), coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manage ...

. He led the

Detroit Pistons The Detroit Pistons are an American professional basketball team based in Detroit. The Pistons compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division and play their home games at L ...

to two consecutive

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball sports league, league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues i ...

(NBA)

championships In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker ru ...

and

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

—during the team's "Bad Boys" era—and the

1992 United States men's Olympic basketball team The 1992 United States men's Olympic basketball team, nicknamed the "Dream Team", was the first American Olympic team to feature active professional players from the National Basketball Association (NBA). The team has been described by some jou ...

("The Dream Team") to the gold medal at the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

. Daly is a two-time

Naismith Memorial 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 ...

inductee, being inducted in 1994 for his individual coaching career, and in 2010 was posthumously inducted as the head coach of the "Dream Team". The

Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award is an annual award given by the National Basketball Coaches Association (NBCA) to a longtime NBA coach's life in basketball and his "standard of integrity, competitive excellence and tireless promotion" of t ...

is named after him.

Early life

Born in

Kane, Pennsylvania Kane is a borough in McKean County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, east by southeast of Erie. It was founded in 1864 by Civil War General Thomas L. Kane of the famous Bucktail Regiment at an elevated site 2210 feet (674 m) above sea level. ...

, to Earl and Geraldine Daly on July 20, 1930, Daly attended

Kane Area High School Kane or KANE may refer to: Art, entertainment and media Fictional entities *Kane (comics), the main character of the eponymous comic book series by Paul Grist * Kane (''Command & Conquer''), character in the ''Command & Conquer'' video game series ...

. He matriculated at

St. Bonaventure University St. Bonaventure University is a private Franciscan university in St. Bonaventure, New York. It has 2,381 undergraduate and graduate students. The Franciscan Brothers established the university in 1858. In athletics, the St. Bonaventure Bonn ...

for one year before transferring to

Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania (Bloomsburg, BU or Bloom) is a campus of Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania and it is located in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. It is part of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE). The ...

, where he graduated in 1952.''Official NBA Register''. 2003–04 Edition. St. Louis, MO: The Sporting News, 2003. After serving two years in the military, he began his basketball coaching career in 1955 at Punxsutawney Area High School in

Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania Punxsutawney (; Lenape: ' ) is a borough in southern Jefferson County, Pennsylvania. Punxsutawney is known globally for its annual Groundhog Day celebration held each February 2, during which thousands of attendees and international media outlet ...

College career

After compiling a 111–70 record in eight seasons at Punxsutawney High School, Daly moved on to the college level in 1963 as an assistant coach under

Vic Bubas Victor Albert Bubas (January 28, 1927 – April 16, 2018) was an American college basketball coach for Duke University and the first commissioner of the Sun Belt Conference.

at Duke University. During his six seasons at Duke, the Blue Devils won the Atlantic Coast Conference championship and advanced to the Final Four, both in 1964 and 1966. Daly then replaced

Bob Cousy Robert Joseph Cousy (, born August 9, 1928) is an American former professional basketball player. Cousy played point guard for the Boston Celtics from 1950 to 1963, and briefly with the Cincinnati Royals during the 1969–70 season. A 13-time N ...

as head coach at

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifi ...

in 1969. The

Eagles Eagle is the common name for many large Bird of prey, birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of Genus, genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Ou ...

recorded an 11–13 record in Daly's first year at the school, and improved to 15–11 in 1971. Daly became the head coach at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universit ...

in 1971, succeeding

Dick Harter Richard Alvin Harter (October 14, 1930 – March 12, 2012) was an American basketball coach who served as both a head and assistant coach in both the NBA and NCAA. Early life Born in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, Harter attended the University o ...

. Penn won 20 or more games and captured the

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schoo ...

title in each of its first four seasons with Daly at the helm.University of Pennsylvania 2008–09 Men's Basketball Media Guide.
The most successful campaign was his first in 1972, when the Quakers recorded a 25–3 record overall (13–1 in their conference), and advanced to the NCAA East Regional Final, eventually losing to

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia a ...

. An additional significant success for Daly was in 1979, when all five starters on Pennsylvania's Final Four team had initially been recruited by Daly. His overall record after six seasons at Penn was 125–38 (74–10 within the Ivy League).

NBA and national team career

In 1978, Daly joined the NBA's

Philadelphia 76ers The Philadelphia 76ers, colloquially known as the Sixers, are an American professional basketball team based in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The 76ers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Ea ...

as an assistant coach. During the 1981 season, the

Cleveland Cavaliers The Cleveland Cavaliers (often referred to as the Cavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Cleveland. The Cavaliers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Ea ...

hired him as the third head coach that season, but he was fired with a 9–32 record before the season ended. He then returned to the 76ers as a broadcaster until he was hired in 1983 by the

. The Pistons, a franchise that had not recorded back-to-back winning seasons since the mid-1950s, made the NBA playoffs each year Daly was head coach (1983–1992), and reached the NBA finals three times, winning two consecutive NBA championships in 1989 and 1990. While serving as the Pistons coach, Daly was also a color commentator for TBS's NBA Playoff coverage. Daly was named head coach of the U.S. Dream Team that won the gold medal at the 1992 Olympics, before moving his NBA career onto the New Jersey Nets for the 1992–93 season. Daly stayed with the Nets for two seasons, before resigning over frustration over the immaturity of some of the players on his team. Daly again took up a role as color commentator for

TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reage ...

's NBA coverage during the mid-1990s. Daly rejected an offer to coach the

New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associa ...

over the summer of 1995 after deciding he was not ready for the NBA coaching grind. He would return to coaching with the

Orlando Magic The Orlando Magic are an American professional basketball team based in Orlando, Florida. The Magic compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The franchise was estab ...

at the beginning of the 1997–98 season. Daly stayed two seasons with the Magic and then retired permanently.

Death

Daly was diagnosed with

pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a mass. These cancerous cells have the ability to invade other parts of the body. A number of types of panc ...

in March 2009 and died on May 9, 2009, at the age of 78. He is buried at Riverside Memorial Park in

Tequesta, Florida Tequesta is an incorporated village in Palm Beach County, Florida, Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The population was 6,158 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 Census. It is the northernmost municipality in the South Florida- Miami me ...

Head coaching record

College

NBA

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Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U ...

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Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Daly, Chuck 1930 births 2009 deaths American men's basketball coaches American Olympic coaches Basketball coaches from Pennsylvania Basketball players from Pennsylvania Bloomsburg Huskies men's basketball players Boston College Eagles men's basketball coaches Deaths from cancer in Florida Cleveland Cavaliers head coaches College men's basketball head coaches in the United States Deaths from pancreatic cancer Detroit Pistons head coaches Duke Blue Devils men's basketball coaches FIBA Hall of Fame inductees High school basketball coaches in Pennsylvania Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees National Basketball Association broadcasters National Basketball Association championship-winning head coaches New Jersey Nets head coaches Orlando Magic head coaches Penn Quakers men's basketball coaches People from Elk County, Pennsylvania Philadelphia 76ers assistant coaches St. Bonaventure Bonnies men's basketball players United States men's national basketball team coaches American men's basketball players

Early life

College career

NBA and national team career

Death

Head coaching record

College

NBA

See also

References