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Mike Krzyzewski | Biography, Record, & Facts
Mike Krzyzewski
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- Born:
- February 13, 1947 (age 75) Chicago Illinois
- Awards And Honors:
- Basketball Hall of Fame (2001)
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Mike Krzyzewski, byname of Michael William Krzyzewski, also called Coach K, (born February 13, 1947, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.), American college basketball coach who amassed the most coaching victories in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men’s basketball history while leading the Duke University Blue Devils to five national championships (1991, 1992, 2001, 2010, and 2015) and 13Final Four (championship semifinals) berths.
As a high-school basketball player, Krzyzewski led Chicago’s Catholic League in scoring for two years. He played collegiately at the United States Military Academy (Army) under legendary coach Bob Knight.![]()
He coached service teams and the U.S. Military Academy Prep School for five years, then was Knight’s assistant at Indiana University for one season before Army hired Krzyzewski in 1975.
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He was a surprising selection in 1980 to coach Duke—on Knight’s advice—and his career there began shakily with no recruits in 1981 and a combined record of 21–34 the next two seasons. But Krzyzewski’s fourth Duke team, in 1983–84, went 24–10 and began a streak of 11 consecutive seasons with at least 20 victories and NCAA tournament berths. He led the Blue Devils to five consecutive Final Fours between 1988 and 1992, the second longest such streak in NCAA history. Included in that run were the school’s first two national championships, coming in 1991 and 1992. The second championship-winning team went 34–2 and was the top-ranked team in the country for the entire season.
The Blue Devils reached the national championship game again during the 1993–94 season but lost to the University of Arkansas. Duke went 13–18 the following season as Krzyzewski missed 19 games due to back surgery, and the Blue Devils failed to participate in March Madness for the first time since 1982–83. Krzyzewski guided Duke to increasingly better tournament finishes over the next four years, ending in another national championship game berth in 1998–99, where the Blue Devils were defeated by the University of Connecticut. Duke returned to the final in 2000–01, beating the University of Arizona to win its third title. In 2005 Krzyzewski won his record 66th career NCAA tournament game. He became the fourth NCAA Division I coach to garner 800 career victories in 2008, and two years later he directed Duke to the school’s fourth national championship.
In 2011 Krzyzewski won his 903rd career game to pass Knight as the winningest coach in Division I history. In 2014–15 Duke went 35–4 and captured a fifth national title under Krzyzewski.
In June 2021 he announced that he would retire at the end of the upcoming college basketball season. Duke went on to win the ACC regular-season title, its 13th during Krzyzewski’s tenure. The team entered the 2022 NCAA tournament as a two seed and advanced to the semifinals with relative ease, giving Krzyzewski an unprecedented 13 Final Four appearances. However, in that game the Blue Devils were defeated by archrival North Carolina. Krzyzewski ended his 42-year career at Duke with a record of 1,202–368.
In addition to his collegiate coaching success, Krzyzewski led the U.S. men’s national team to gold medals at the 2008, 2012, and 2016 Olympic Games and at the 2010 and 2014 world championships (known as the World Cup for the 2014 iteration). He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001.
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Adam AugustynThe Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
How old is Coach K? Duke's Mike Krzyzewski is venerable, but not oldest in college basketball history
Mike Krzyzewski is among the most venerated and venerable coaches in college basketball — not just currently, but all-time.
The Duke icon has only a month left in his storied career, as he announced prior to the start of the 2021-22 season that this would be his final year leading the Blue Devils on the hardcourt. It remains to be seen whether Krzyzewski's farewell tour ends with another national championship, but one thing is certain: His departure from the sport will mark the end of one of the greatest runs in college basketball history.
Krzyzewski is among the sport's most decorated coaches: He has 15 ACC Tournament championships, 13 regular-season championships, 12 Final Four appearances, five national titles and 1,170 wins and counting. Krzyzewski certainly didn't earn those numbers, staggering as they are, overnight. It took time — lots of it — for Coach K to become synonymous with Duke and college basketball.
COACH K'S FINAL SEASON
Chapter 1: Ending the era
Chapter 2: Inside the greatest game
Chapter 3: Getting recruited by the legend
Chapter 4: Redeeming USA Basketball
Chapter 5: Coaching against K
With that, Sporting News breaks down Krzyzewski's long and storied history, both at Army and at Duke, and where he ranks among the all-time pantheon of the sport's longest-tenured coaches:
How old is Coach K?
Krzyzewski is 75, having reached that age on Feb.
13. He was born on Feb. 13, 1947. He is also among the oldest to have ever done it. But he is not the oldest. That distinction belongs to another ACC contemporary.
Who is the oldest coach in college basketball history?
Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim is the oldest coach in NCAA Division I history. And the Syracuse head man — who turned 77 on Nov. 14, 2021 — has held that distinction for a couple years now.
Boeheim officially came into the record on his 75th birthday in 2019, passing John Chaney in the process. Chaney — who experienced success in both Division I and II but who is perhaps best known for his success at Temple — retired at the age of 74 following the completion of the 2005-06 season.
MORE: March Madness bracket predictions 5.0: Projecting the Field of 68 for 2022 NCAA Tournament
Krzyzewski himself has passed Chaney on the list of all-time oldest coaches, but will have to settle for third place behind Boeheim and Coastal Carolina's Cliff Ellis (aged 76).
Still, Krzyzewski — who has coached for six years as a septuagenarian — is one of a select few coaches who have led teams into their 70s.
As pointed out by Mark Titus of The Ringer, only a few notable coaches have coached in their 70s, including Phog Allen, Ray Meyer, Eddie Sutton, Lou Henson, Jerry Tarkanian, Steve Fisher, Lefty Driesell, Adolph Rupp and Lute Olsen.
It's worth pointing out, however, that four of the ACC's oldest coaches in league history are still active: Boeheim, Krzyzewski, Florida State’s Leonard Hamilton (73) and Miami’s Jim Larranaga (72). North Carolina's Roy Williams was 70 at the time he retired following the end of the 2020-21 season.
High Point's Tubby Smith is also coaching in his age-70 season.
MORE: When is March Madness 2022? Dates, TV schedule, locations, odds & more for the NCAA Tournament
Longest-tenured coaches in college basketball history
Krzyzewski is not only among the oldest coaches in college basketball history, but also its longest-tenured coaches.
He is currently the longest-tenured active coach in college basketball, and will complete his 47th season as of the completion of the 2021-22 season. Boeheim is second among active coaches with 46 seasons.
That said, the entirety of Boeheim's tenure came with Syracuse, whereas Kryzewski spent five years at Army before joining Duke for a 42-year run.
Here are the other coaches to have coached 40-plus seasons in NCAA history:
- Phog Allen (50 seasons)
- Jim Phelan (49 seasons)
- Mike Krzyzewski (47 seasons)
- Jim Boeheim (46 seasons)
- Cliff Ellis (44 seasons)
- Jim Calhoun (43 seasons)
- Bob Knight (42 seasons)
- Ed Diddle (42 seasons)
- Ray Meyer (42 seasons)
- Jerry Slocum (42 seasons)
- Adolph Rupp (41 seasons)
- Henry Iba (41 seasons)
- Lefty Driesell (41 seasons)
- Lou Henson (41 seasons)
- Rollie Massimino (41 seasons)
- Tony Hinkle (41 seasons)
- Bob Huggins (40 seasons)
- Marv Harshman (40 seasons)
"Dad of Russian basketball": Alexander Gomelsky was born 90 years ago
January 18, 2018, 06:45
January 18 marks the 90th birthday of the famous basketball coach Alexander Gomelsky.
The renowned specialist led the USSR national team to victory at the 1988 Olympics, won the world championships twice, and won five European Cups with SKA Riga and CSKA Moscow.
Gomelsky coaching career lasted almost 40 years, he ended it after the Games 1988 years old. In Seoul, Gomelsky's coaching talent was fully manifested, he relied on Arvydas Sabonis, who had barely healed his injury, and did not lose.
After the defeat of the Americans from the Soviet team in the semi-finals, the National Basketball Association decided to open the Olympic Games to its players - and four years later the world saw the invincible "Dream Team".
Gomelsky became a coach at the age of 18 after graduating from the Higher School of Coaches at the Lesgaft Institute in Leningrad. In parallel, he himself played basketball. Here, Alexander's character first manifested itself - having set himself the task of becoming a basketball player, he trained almost at night, honing first of all the throw.
In the future, Gomelsky used this practice already with his students - his wards were always distinguished by an accurate throw.
Strength test
In 1949, Gomelsky headed the women's Spartak, where his pedagogical skills came in handy. After the war, there were not enough male professionals in the country, but to lead an adult women's team at the age of 21 was a serious test anyway. Gomel passed it successfully, the team showed a good result, despite the fact that the coach himself still went to the court in the other team. Gomelsky even expected to go to the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, where the USSR national team made its debut, but was not included in the squad. Let Alexander act as a defender, he clearly lacked growth.
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As a result, Gomelsky made a choice in favor of a coaching career. Having stopped going to the site, he headed the Riga SKA - and two years later he won the USSR championship.
The first major success for the Gomel coach came at the age of 27, and a year later he received the title of Honored Coach of the USSR and joined the coaching staff of the national team.
His brother Yevgeny, Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, tells about the scale of Alexander’s personality, under whose leadership the United Team became the Olympic champion 1992 years old in women's basketball. “When they talk about Alexander Yakovlevich, they mean a person who has a core. Who knows how to fight for victory, recognizes only first place and no other,” he told TASS.
"His character was formed largely due to the fact that Alexander Yakovlevich is a child of war. He was 13 years old when the war began. And when we were evacuated from besieged Leningrad to the Chkalovsky (now Orenburg) region, he began working as a groom on a collective farm. In in terms of his development as a person, he was ahead of his time by many years," says Evgeny Gomelsky.
Young "dad"
It was in Riga that Gomelsky, who was about the same age as the players, was called "dad".
He managed to achieve success with basketball players of the same age thanks to the unquestioned authority - the players believed in their coach. Gomelsky offered his wards amazing training methods, each time bringing something new to them. Subsequently, Gomelsky himself recalled that he never came to training without some kind of novelty in the exercises. In his opinion, this increased the interest of the players themselves, which was very important for achieving the result.
In the future, Riga residents won the national championship twice more and won the European Champions Cup three times. In 1961, for the first time, the specialist led the USSR national team, which was invincible at the European Championships, but regularly lost to American students in the international arena.
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Only in 1967, in Uruguay, Gomelsky managed to get ahead of the Americans at the World Championship for the first time, although the Soviet team of the US team lost in the full-time match of the final tournament.
But at 19In 70, in Yugoslavia, the Americans took revenge at the World Championships, while the Gomel team was content with only bronze.
After this tournament, Gomelsky resigned as head coach of the national team, giving way to Vladimir Kondrashin, who created the excellent Spartak team in Leningrad. In 1972, the USSR national team defeated the Americans in the Olympic final - the dramatic events of Munich are described in the recently released film "Upward Movement". Gomelsky, since 1966, has already worked in CSKA, which since 1969 to 1984 lost the championship title only once - to "Spartak" Kondrashin.
In 1969 and 1971, CSKA won the European Cup, while the next trophy had to wait more than 30 years - it was won in 2006, after the death of Gomelsky. By the age of 43, he won this trophy five times, which was noted by the Euroleague. The prestigious prize for the best coach of the season bears the name of Alexander Gomelsky.
Seoul triumph
In 1976, Gomelsky again headed the national team.
At 19On the 82nd at the World Championships in Colombia, the team defeated the Americans in the final - 95:94. It was then that the famous USSR national team began to be created, brilliantly winning the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. At the World Championships in Colombia, 17-year-old Sabonis had already performed, who was soon to become the best basketball player in Europe.
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Kirilenko and Bazarevich will play in the match dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Gomelsky
In 1986, Sabonis received a severe injury to the Achilles tendon, returned to the court without really healing it, and as a result there was a relapse. Before the Olympics in Seoul, the USSR national team seemed to have lost its best player, but basketball fans were looking forward to these Games - a very strong team was created by Gomelsky, and before that she had to miss the Olympics for political reasons 1984 years old in Los Angeles. For the 60-year-old coach, this was almost the last chance to win the Olympics.
The decision to include Sabonis in the squad was risky - Gomelsky played actions for almost a year without his best center. The first game confirmed the fears - the Soviet basketball players lost to the Yugoslavs in all respects (79:92). However, Gomelsky's calculation was that Sabonis would get in shape during the tournament, although the risk of re-injury was very high. Ten days remained before the decisive meetings, and Sabonis lived up to expectations.
Medal for the coach
Due to the defeat from the Yugoslavs, the Americans had to play already in the semi-finals, where the USSR team won, then taking revenge from the Yugoslavs in the final. It is curious that, according to the rules that existed at that time, the coaches were not entitled to medals, and Sarunas Marciulionis tried to give Gomelsky his award. As a result, the players themselves ordered gold medals identical to the Olympic ones, and handed them over to the coaching staff and staff.
Although inter-ethnic tensions already arose in the country, Gomelsky managed to make the USSR national team, where half of the Balts were, truly friendly.
And visitors to the Olympic Village in Seoul still remember how Soviet basketball players celebrated their victory - several floors stood on their ears.
There are no situations in sports without defeats, without dismissals from work. Alexander courageously endured everything that happened to him. If we talk about the contribution to the army and domestic basketball, then his record is unlikely to ever be broken. The number of medals goes off scale. He had a dream to win the Olympic Games, but he achieved this dream when he was already 60 years old." Shortly after the Olympics, Gomelsky left CSKA and the national team, although he continued to coach abroad for some time. In 1991, Alexander Yakovlevich headed the basketball federation, worked on television - together with his son Vladimir, who remains one of the leading basketball experts. He headed CSKA as president - it was under him that the army team became one of the strongest clubs in Europe. Largely due to the position of Gomel CSKA began to play in the new Euroleague, and its management remembers well the merits of Alexander Yakovlevich.
Father and sons
"The Father of Russian Basketball" not only achieved numerous victories on the coaching bench, but also brought up a whole galaxy of coaches and players," says Euroleague President Jordi Bertomeu.
"The Father of Russian Basketball" not only achieved numerous victories on the coaching bench, but also brought up a whole galaxy of coaches and players.I am happy and proud that I was able to work with Gomelsky
Jordi Bertomeu
president of the Euroleague
"I am happy and proud that I was able to work with Gomelsky, the president of CSKA, who did a lot to create and develop the Euroleague. The Euroleague annually expresses respect to Alexander Gomelsky, presenting a prize named after him to the best coach of the season, besides, in 2008 Gomelsky was included in the list of 50 outstanding people in European basketball," Bertomeu said.
Gomelsky was a real Pope with a capital letter - and not only for his players.
He has four sons, the youngest of whom is now only 20 years old. And for Yevgeny, he was more than an older brother - he even went to parent meetings. “Until the age of 25, I was more like a son to him,” says Evgeny Gomelsky.
Alexander Gomelsky died of leukemia on August 16, 2005 at the age of 77.
Evgeny Trushin, Andrey Kartashov
Bill Foster (Basketball, born 1929)
- On the former coach of Charlotte, Clemson and Virginia Tech See Bill Foster (Basetbol, 1936 g. .).
William Edwin Foster (August 19, 1929 – January 7, 2016) was the chief men's basketball coach at Rutgers University, the University of Utah, Duke University, the University of South Carolina, and Northwestern University. He is best known for leading Duke to the NCAA Championship 1978 years old, and that same year he was named National Coach of the Year by the National Basketball Coaches Association. Foster was inducted into the Rutgers Basketball Hall of Fame and was the first NCAA coach to lead four teams to 20-win seasons (Rutgers, Utah, Duke, and South Carolina).
Foster was an alumnus of Elizabethtown College.
Content
- 1 Early years
- 2 Coaching career
- 2.1 Rutgers
- 2.2 Utah
[3] Coaching career
Foster began his coaching career in Philadelphia high schools in the 1950s. One of his students in the typing class at Abington Senior High School was the daughter of Harry Litvak, a longtime basketball coach at Temple University. [4] Foster and Litvak became friends and business partners, and ran a popular summer basketball camp in Pennsylvania for about 25 years. Pocono mountains.
In 1960, Foster was hired as head coach at Bloomsburg State College (now Bloomsburg University), NCAA Division II in eastern Pennsylvania where he compiled a 45–11 record in three years.
Rutgers
Foster's Division I career began in 1963 at Rutgers where he led the Scarlet Knights to an overall record of 120–75 (.615) over eight seasons.
In the 1966–67 season, the Scarlet Knights finished with a 22–7 record and were invited to the tournament. National Invitational Tournament, the first time the school has qualified for postseason play.
Utah
After the 1971 season, Foster took over as head coach at Utah, replacing legendary Utah basketball coach Jack Gardner. Although his tenure with Utes was short-lived, only three seasons (1971–1974), he led the Utes to a 43–39 (.524) record. He also led the Cliffs to the 1974 NIT championship game, where they finished second to Purdue. Foster took over as head coach with a 22–8 record. Duke.
Duke
Bill Foster's greatest success as a head coach came with Duke, taking on a tough program with a proud history that was focused on finding stability and strong leadership. Duke was one of only eight schools at the time to reach a 1,000-win plateau and at one time see the Final Four and conference championships. "I knew Duke from [Vic] Bubas years when they were great and I thought they could be great again, should be great again.
I was a bit shocked when I was offered this job, it just seemed like a great place to learn." ", Foster once said.
In 1974-75 Foster's first season had few highlights, but one. In the early 1970s, four North Carolina schools competed in a tournament called the Big Four Tournament. Duke, battling eighth-place contender North Carolina, produced a shock by upsetting the Tar Heels 99–96 in overtime. Foster began to slowly rebuild the program, bringing in one future great player a year. First, it was future All-American Jim Spanarkel in 1975, future Duke Grand Mike Gminsky at 1976 year. The two joined the senior scoring scorer. Tate Armstrong for the 1976–77 season That year, the Devils started 12–3 with wins over No. 15. State NC and later ranked 15th Tennessee. But it didn't last long. In a game at the Virginia Tate, Armstrong broke his wrist and lost the season. The young Blue Devils, full of potential but still fragile, will never bounce back, but next year will kick off a season that will almost stun the college basketball world.
Besides talented returnees Spanarkel and Gminski, Foster added: Indiana transfer Bob Bender who was on the legendary undefeated 1976 NCAA championship team and stunned everyone by receiving a verbal commitment from one of America's top players, Gene Banks. Banks was joined by two good players - Kenny Dennard and John Harrell from neighboring countries. North Carolina Central. In 1977–78, the Duke Blue Devils begin to gain momentum after a 92–84 win in mid-January over second-placed North Carolina. Duke will win 15 of his last 19games en route to a 27–7 season, a seventh-place finish, their first ACC Tournament title since 1966, and a trip to the NCAA Final Four. It looks like the trip will end in the national semi-finals as Duke faces 6th place. Notre Dame A team of eight future NBA players advanced to the semi-finals. But Duke scored 90–86, setting up a title game with the Powerhouse. Kentucky. The Duke fought superbly, but Kentucky was too experienced and shouldered the burden of the world from the bluegrass fans who wanted that long-awaited title.
However, despite the loss, the Duke's future looked great.
In the 1978–79 season, Duke started the season as the No. 1 team in the nation. The Devils sent 14th-place North Carolina to win the Big Four Tournament for the first time, but chemistry problems and bad luck with injuries didn't bring back the magic of 1978. Duke shared the ACC regular season title, but illness and injury crippled them both. The ACC Tournament and NCAA tournament are hopeful as Duke finished 22–8 and 11th in the AP Poll. Duke had another solid season in 1979–80, defeating runners-up Kentucky in an early-season game to win another Big Four tournament over No. 6 North Carolina, 86–74. Duke was scheduled to be number one in the nation's rankings for several weeks and start at 12–0 for the year. But an injury to valuable forward Kenny Dennard saw the team's ups and downs in the league season. After Dennard returned, Duke regrouped and won ACC 1980, finished 14th in the AP Poll, tallied the season 24–9, advancing to the Elite Eight after Kentucky's sweet 16 loss at Rupp Arena.
Foster led Duke to a 113–64 (.638) record from 1974 to 1980. ACC Coach of the Year in 1978 and led Duke to two ACC Men's Basketball Tournament titles, two Big Four titles, an ACC championship title in 1979, and an appearance in the 1978 NCAA Final Four where they finished second in the NCAA. While Foster is overlooked in the wake of the accomplishments of Duke coaches Mike Krzyzewski and Vic Bubas, the Foster era brought the Duke back to prominence and paved the way for Krzyzewski's success. [5]
Blue Devils 1977–78 Were the subject of John Feinstein's 1989 book "Forever's Team".
South Carolina
Foster left Duke after six seasons to become head coach of the University of South Carolina, prolific legendary coach Frank McGuire. In December 1983, Foster's health became a problem when he suffered what doctors called a "moderate heart attack". He fell ill late in the game against Purdue, which South Carolina won by 59.-53, and then passed out in the locker room.
Although he recovered, he was never the same coach, and he eventually resigned in 1986 after losing a season. In 1987, the NCAA placed the program on two-year probation for rule violations that occurred during Foster's tenure. [6]
Northwestern
In April 1986, Foster was named head coach at Northwestern University, where he would retire from coaching. He compiled record-breaking non-conference results, including wins over regional rivals Marquette, DePaul, and Chicago's Loyola. However, like his predecessors, he could not compete with the Big Ten's top talent programs. His Wildcats have only won 13 games in Big Ten play and finished last in the conference in six of his seven seasons.
The highlight of Foster's tenure as Foster was a nationwide broadcast on how to defend the national champion. Indiana in 1988. But the program was destroyed in 1990 when four of the Northwestern's most talented players dropped out of the program, including Rex Walters, who left for Kansas (and was later selected in the first round of the 1993 NBA Draft).
The following season, Northwestern lost in the Big Ten (0–18) and 5–23 overall. But two newcomers in the squad of 1990–91: PG Patrick Baldwin and forward center. Kevin Rankin, will lead the Wildcats to 1994 NIT as seniors.
However, this 1993–94 team was not coached by Foster. When Northwestern athletic director Bruce Corry resigned in April 1993, Foster agreed to step down as men's basketball coach and become interim athletic director. Foster hired by Ricky Birdsong as his successor as coach and then continued as athletic director until January 1994 when Rick Taylor was hired as the school's permanent athletic director.
Later career
After leaving the Northwestern, Foster became assistant commissioner and director of basketball for the now-defunct Southwestern Conference. He later served as a consultant to the Western Athletic Conference and the Big 12 Conference. He was a longtime board member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, serving as chairman since the age of 19.
