MIES, SWITZERLAND – Kane graduate and former Punxsutawney boys’ basketball coach Chuck Daly, who was the coach of the gold medal USA Dream Team at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, was recently inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame.
The indication was done via an online ceremony that was filmed on June 2 and released on June 18, 2021, on the 89th anniversary of the founding of FIBA, the International Basketball Federation. The FIBA Hall of Fame is located at the Patrick Baumann House of Basketball in Mies, Switzerland.
Daly, who passed away in 2009, was inducted along with fellow coaches Tom Maher (Australia) and Ettore Messina (Italy) as well as players Mathieu Faye (Senegal), Hana Horakova (Czech Republic), Stanislav Kropilak (Slovakia), Oscar Moglia (Uruguay – posthumously), Detlef Schrempf (Germany), Penka Stoyanova (Bulgaria – posthumously), Sergey Tarakanov (Russia), Panagiotis Giannakis (Greece) and Haixia Zheng (China) as part of the Class of 2021.
Each inductee or a representative of each gave a brief acceptance speech. Daly’s was done by his daughter, Cydney.
Watch Cydney Daly’s acceptance speech for her father.
In addition to leading the Dream Team to the gold medal, Daly also coached the Detroit Pistons to back-to-back NBA titles in 1989 and 1990. He was the coach of the Pistons from 1983 to 1992. In addition to the two NBA titles, Daly also led Detroit to the Eastern Conference championship in 1988.
Daly also coached the Cleveland Cavaliers (1981-82), the New Jersey Nets (1992-94), and the Orlando Magic (1997-99) in the NBA and was the head coach in the college ranks at Boston Collge (1969-71) and the University of Pennsylvania (1971-77). While at Penn, he led the Quakers to four straight Ivy League titles (1972-75).
A 1948 graduate of Kane High School, Daly got his start in coaching as the head coach at Punxsutawney High School from 1956-63. He recorded 111 wins as the Chucks head coach and won a District 9 title in 1958 and league titles in 1958, 1962, and 1963.
Daly moved into the college ranks following the 1963 season becoming an assistant coach at Duke under Vic Bubas before taking the Boston College head job.
A 1994 inductee into the James Naismith National Basketball Hall of Fame, Daly’s name lives on in the NBA with the league honoring his coaching legacy with the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award given annually to a longtime NBA coach’s life in basketball and his “standard of integrity, competitive excellence and tireless promotion” of the game.
A 1952 graduate of Bloomsburg State College (now Bloomsburg University), Daly played basketball for the Huskies for two years and averaged 13.5 ppg in the 1951-52 season. He was inducted into the Bloomsburg in 1983.
In 2016, The Chuck Daly Foundation was formed in Punxsutawney by 1960 PAHS graduate George “Butch” White, who played basketball under Daly. The foundation was formed primarily to create scholarships for both male and female student/athletes in both basketball and golf. The foundation sponsors the D9and10Sports.com District 9 and District 10 boys’ and girls’ Basketball Coaches of the Year award.
Daly is also a Warren County Hall of Fame inductee.
Read more about Daly on his FIBA Hall of Fame page
Find out more on the FIBA Hall of Fame here
