Legendary Temple Owls men's basketball coach John Chaney died Friday morning after a short illness at the age of 89, the university announced.
Chaney won the NCAA Division II title as the head coach of Cheyney State in 1978 and coached at Temple for 24 years (1982-2006). He compiled a 741-312 record at the collegiate level and won six Atlantic 10 regular-season titles with the Owls
"John Chaney was a great coach, but he was so much more," Temple president Richard M. Englert said in a statement. "For generations of Temple University students, he was a wise counselor, a dedicated teacher, an icon of success, and a passionate leader who always led by example and with conviction."
He led Temple to 17 NCAA tournament appearances and advanced to the Elite Eight five times. In 1988, the year the Owls entered the tournament as the No. 1 overall seed, Chaney won consensus Coach of the Year honors. He was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006.
"Coach Chaney was like a father to me," said current Temple men's basketball coach Aaron McKie. "He taught not just me, but all of his players more than just how to succeed in basketball. He taught us life lessons to make us better individuals off the court. I owe so much to him. He made me the man I am today."
One of Chaney's fiercest rivals for a time was current Kentucky coach John Calipari, who began his college coaching career at the University of Massachusetts in the 1988-89 season when Temple was dominating the A-10 conference. As Calipari grew the Minutemen program, the rivarly with Chaney grew, and Calipari finally scored a win over the Owls coach in the 1991-92 season after eight consecutive losses.
From there their battles for A-10 supremacy only grew as UMass began to regularly challenge and beat Temple. The rivarly between the two coaches famously came to a head on Feb. 13, 1994 following a one-point UMass win over Temple, when Chaney stormed in to Calipari's post-game press conference, threatened to kill the Minutemen coach and tried to choke him after he had allegedly been told Calipari was chastising officials after the game.
Chaney, who served a one-game suspension for the incident, apologized to Calipari three days later, but their on-court rivalry continued through the 1995-96 season before Calipari departed for the NBA. In all, Chaney and Calipari teams faced off 24 times — including three games when Calipari returned to the college ranks at Memphis in the 2000-01 season — with Chaney winning 11 games to Calipari's 13.
Despite their legendary battles, Chaney and Calipari became close friends. Calipari took to Twitter on Friday afternoon to praise the man he called, "a coaching icon, a Hall of Famer, a molder of young men, the ultimate competitor and a dear friend."
"Coach Chaney and I fought every game we competed – as everyone knows, sometimes literally – but in the end he was my friend," Calipari wrote. "Throughout my career, we would talk about basketball and life. I will miss those talks and I will my friend. Rest in peace, Coach!"
Chaney retired following the 2005-06 season, after he led the Owls to the final of the A-10 tournament and a berth in the NIT.
Chaney is a member of the Big 5 Hall of Fame, which honors the greats among Philadelphia basketball schools Temple, St. Joseph's, Penn, Villanova and La Salle.
Contributing: Ellen J. Horrow
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