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 Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

. 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 Central Division (NBA), Central Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), East ...

to two consecutive

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

(NBA) championships in

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

and

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

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

1992 United States men's Olympic basketball team The United States men's national basketball team, men's national basketball team of the United States at the 1992 Summer Olympics, United States competed at the Basketball at the 1992 Summer Olympics, 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, a ...

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

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics (, ), officially the Games of the XXV Olympiad (, ) and officially branded as Barcelona '92, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994 ...

. 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 pre ...

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 is named after him.

Early life

Born in Kane, Pennsylvania, to Earl and Geraldine Daly on July 20, 1930, Daly attended Kane Area High School. He matriculated at

St. Bonaventure University St. Bonaventure University is a private university, private Franciscan university in St. Bonaventure, New York. It has 2,760 undergraduate and graduate students. The Order of Friars Minor, Franciscans established the university in 1858. In ath ...

for one year before transferring to

Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania Commonwealth University-Bloomsburg (CU-Bloomsburg, or Bloomsburg) is a campus of Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, United States. 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 (; Unami language, Lenape: ') is a Borough (Pennsylvania), borough in southern Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 5,769. It is located approximately ...

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 at

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

. During his six seasons at Duke, the Blue Devils won the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the ACC's eighteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athlet ...

championship and advanced to the

Final Four In sports, the final four is the last four teams remaining in a playoffs, playoff tournament. Usually the final four compete in the two games of a single-elimination tournament's semi-final (penultimate) round. Of these teams, the two who win in ...

, both in 1964 and 1966. Daly then replaced

Bob Cousy Robert Joseph Cousy ( , born August 9, 1928) is an American former professional basketball player. He 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 NBA ...

as head coach at

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private university, private Catholic Jesuits, Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1863 by the Society of Jesus, a Catholic Religious order (Catholic), religious order, t ...

in 1969. The

Eagles Eagle is the common name for the golden eagle, bald eagle, and other birds of prey in the family of the Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of Genus, genera, some of which are closely related. True eagles comprise the genus ''Aquila ( ...

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 (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

in 1971, succeeding Dick Harter. Penn won 20 or more games and captured the

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...

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 U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

. 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, also known colloquially 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 Atlan ...

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 Central Division (NBA), Central Divis ...

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 Troponin T (shortened TnT or TropT) is a part of the troponin complex, which are proteins integral to the contraction of skeletal and heart muscles. They are expressed in skeletal and cardiac myocytes. Troponin T binds to tropomyosin and helps ...

'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 Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the Na ...

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 Southeast Division (NBA), Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference (NB ...

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 cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of ...

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

Head coaching record

College

NBA

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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Daly, Chuck 1930 births 2009 deaths American men's basketball coaches Olympic coaches for the United States Basketball coaches from Pennsylvania Basketball players from Pennsylvania Bloomsburg Huskies men's basketball players Boston College Eagles men's basketball coaches Cleveland Cavaliers head coaches College men's basketball head coaches in the United States Deaths from pancreatic cancer in Florida 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 NBA broadcasters NBA 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 20th-century American sportsmen

Early life

College career

NBA and national team career

Death

Head coaching record

College

NBA

See also

References

External links