John Chaney
From Hoopedia
John Chaney (born January 21, 1932 in Jacksonville, Florida) is a retired American college basketball coach, best known for his tenure at Temple University.
Chaney began his career after graduating from Bethune-Cookman College, an historically Black university, and spending some time in the Eastern Professional Basketball League.
Coaching Career
Chaney's first team was at the middle school level in 1963. He moved to Simon Gratz High School in Philadelphia where he had an impressive 63-23 record. Chaney then moved to college basketball.
Chaney's first collegiate position was at NCAA Division II Cheyney State University. At Cheyney, Chaney was 225-56. He won the NCAA Division II Men's Tournament championship in 1978.
After a decade at Cheyney, Chaney moved to NCAA Division I Temple University in Philadelphia. Chaney built a reputation as a tough coach who always demanded excellence on and off the court. He is well known for his 6 AM practices, unique match-up zone defense, tough non-conference scheduling, and winning basketball teams.
Chaney won a total of 724 career games. He took Temple to the NCAA Division I Men's Tournament 17 times. His 1987-88 Owls team entered the NCAA tournament ranked #1 in the country. He reached the Elite Eight on five different occasions. He was consensus national Coach of the Year in 1988.
On December 20, 2004, Chaney became the fifth active coach and 19th all-time to appear on the sidelines for 1,000 games, joining Lou Henson (New Mexico State, Illinois), Bobby Knight (Army, Indiana, Texas Tech), Eddie Sutton (Creighton, Arkansas, Kentucky, Oklahoma State), and Hugh Durham (Florida State, Georgia, Jacksonville). With the win over Princeton that night, the coach now owns a career record of 724-297.
Looking back on his career that spans four decades and now 1,000 games, Chaney downplayed the numbers. “It’s about names and faces, the people you meet. That’s what it means to me.”
On March 13, 2006, Chaney announced his retirement from coaching at a press conference, to be effective after Temple finished its season in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT). Fran Dunphy was named Chaney's successor following the season.
In 2001, Chaney was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach.
Controversy
Chaney's behavior has been controversial at times. On February 13, 1994, he said "I'm gonna kick your ass!", and threatening to kill then-University of Massachusetts coach John Calipari at a post-game news conference, nearly assaulting him before security pulled him away. Since then he has called Calipari a friend.
Chaney made headlines in 2005 after ordering seldom-used forward Nehemiah Ingram into a game to commit hard fouls against Philadelphia Big 5 rival Saint Joseph's University in response to what he thought were several missed calls by the referees. After the game Chaney admitted to "sending a message" and stated "I'm going to send in what we used to do years ago, send in the goons." John Bryant of Saint Joseph's suffered a fractured arm as a result of an intentional foul. Following the incident, Chaney suspended himself for one game, and upon hearing the severity of the injury, suspended himself for the remainder of the regular season and the Atlantic Ten tournament. After weeks of a media storm, Chaney apologized to Bryant, his family, and Saint Joseph's. Although he returned for a farewell season, it is widely believed that the incident vs. Saint Joseph's coupled with other embarrassing run-ins with the media that season resulted in the Temple administration telling John that the following season would be his last.
