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Class of 1995
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Charles "Lefty" Driesell
Although the NCAA championship title eluded his teams, Charles “Lefty” Driesell molded his men’s basketball teams into winners and led them into postseason play time and time again. In 41 years at four schools, he amassed 786 wins and made 13 trips to the NCAA playoffs in addition to 8 NIT appearances. When he retired as head coach at Georgia State University in January 2003, Driesell had the fifth-most wins in Division I history.
A native of Norfolk, Virginia and a 1954 graduate of Duke University, where he played on the nation’s 10th ranked team as a senior, Driesell first began coaching at the high school level. He quit his job at a Ford plant and took a 50% pay cut to coach at Norfolk’s Granby High School. Driesell then took an opportunity at Newport News High School, where he coached fellow Hall of Famer Bucky Keller and produced a 25-0 state champion. His overall high school record was 97-15 (.866).
Driesell began his college coaching career at Davidson College in 1960, compiling a 176-65 (.730) record. He led Davidson to five regular season conference titles and three conference tournament titles in nine years. Under Driesell’s leadership, Davidson finished in the Associated Press top 10 four times, and three times they advanced to the NCAA Tournament. He was named Southern Conference Coach of the Year four times.
In 1969, Driesell was named the head coach at the University of Maryland, where he stayed 17 seasons and compiled a 348-159 (.686) overall record. With Driesell at the helm, Maryland won two regular season conference titles and one ACC Tournament crown. Eight times his Maryland teams were ranked in the Associated Press Top 10, and in the 1971-72 season, they won the National Invitation Tournament (NIT). Driesell was twice named ACC Coach of the Year.
From 1988 to 1997, Driesell coached at James Madison University. In his nine years at JMU, he led the Dukes to a 159-111 (.588) overall record while winning the conference regular season title five times and the CAA Tournament title once. Driesell was named CAA Coach of the Year twice. In his last season at JMU, he led the Dukes to a 16-13 finish and the conference tournament finals.
In March 1997, Driesell, then the 11th winningest college basketball coach in Division I men’s basketball history, became the 11th head coach at Georgia State University. He led Georgia State to a single season record of 16 wins in 1997-98. The Panthers reached a new school record 17 wins in 1998-99, and Driesell joined a very select group of Division I coaches with over 700 career victories.
Driesell is enshrined in the Duke Athletic Hall of Fame, the Davidson Athletic Hall of Fame, and the University of Maryland Athletic Hall of Fame. He was the first coach to receive the NCAA’s Award of Valor after helping to save the lives of at least 10 children and several adults from a townhouse fire near Bethany Beach, Delaware in 1973. In all, the NBA has drafted 33 of Driesell’s former players.
(To Sports Inductees List) |
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