College•More PHL•Unique Columns
Upon Philadelphia’s Highest Basketball Pedestal
Fran Dunphy Wasn’t Just One of Our Greatest Collegiate Coaches; He’s All Philadelphia.
PHOTO: La Salle University/Instagram
Philadelphia will always have a rich college basketball history—especially among its coaches: John Cheney, Dr. Jack Ramsey, and Speedy Morris. Fran Dunphy will always be on a pedestal with all of those great coaches.
On Thursday night — one week after an 81–74 LaSalle victory over St. Joe’s to end the NCAA regular season — the Hawks got revenge in an A10 Tournament 75–70 win to effectively end LaSalle’s season.
The loss wasn’t just the end of a college basketball season. It was truly the end of an era.
Thursday night was the last game in the coaching career of the legendary Fran Dunphy. Dunphy didn’t just have a record-setting college career as a coach.
In every step of his career — Fran Dunphy was all Philadelphia.
After graduating from Malvern Prep — Dunphy attended LaSalle College and was on that incredible 1968–1969 roster coached by Tom Gola. He then played briefly for the Cherry Hill Rookies of the Eastern Basketball Association until 1975.
After a stint as an assistant coach at Malvern Prep and LaSalle, Dunphy arrived at the University of Penn in 1988, where he would coach until 2006. That same year, after 17 years with Penn, Dunphy would be the first Coach to lead two Big 5 Schools. During his thirteen seasons with the Owls, Dunphy made the NCAA tournament seven straight years. In 2019, he stepped down to become the athletic director at Temple.
When the school where Dunphy played called in 2022, he once again answered. Dunphy would coach his 1,000 games at LaSalle amid a 33-year career and win 45 games with LaSalle over three seasons. Dunphy was a two-time ACC Coach of the Year in 2015 and 2016 and a two-time A10 Coach of the Year in 2010 and 2012.
In a city with deep roots in great college coaches — Dunphy will be remembered as one of its best. He deserves every bit of it.
He doesn’t know basketball like any other person. He’s all Big 5 Basketball. He’s all Philadelphia.
PHOTO: La Salle University/Instagram
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