THE HUGH DURHAM STORY

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Hugh Durham, one of the winningest coaches in college basketball history, has left his mark on yet another basketball program. In eight seasons as the head coach at Jacksonville University, Durham became the Dolphins’ all-time winningest Division I coach (106 wins), making him the only coach in NCAA history to be the winningest coach (pct. or wins) at three different Division I schools. He had the longest tenure (8 seasons) of any coach in the 56-year history of Jacksonville University basketball. He built national programs at Florida State – where he holds the record for
best winning percentage with a 230-95 (.708) record in 12 years – and at Georgia – where he is also the all-time winningest coach in the 99-year history of the Bulldog program, having won 297 games in 17 seasons.

Durham’s career reached new heights in 2003 when he became the 32nd coach all-time to win 600 career games and just the 17th D-I coach to eclipse 1,000 career games. The accomplishments don’t end there:

􀁘 Durham ranked 8th among active Division I coaches with 633 career wins and is the 25th winningest Division I coach in the history of college basketball.

􀁘 He led his teams to 15 postseason appearances.

􀁘 Durham earned five conference Coach-of-the-Year awards.

􀁘 Durham is the only coach in NCAA history to be the all-time winningest coach at three different Division I schools.

􀁘 He is one of just 12 coaches to have led two different teams to the NCAA Final Four (Florida State, 1972 & Georgia, 1983). However, Durham is the only coach to lead BOTH teams to their ONLY Final Four appearance.

􀁘 Durham is one of just eight coaches to win 200 games at two Division I schools: Ralph Miller (Oregon St. & Wichita St.); Norm Sloan (Florida & N.C. State); Jim Calhoun (Northeastern & UConn); Lou Henson (New Mexico St. & Illinois); Neil McCarthy (Weber St. & New Mexico St.); Johnny Orr (Michigan & Iowa State); Eddie Sutton (Arkansas, Oklahoma).

􀁘 Durham is one of seven coaches with 100-or-more wins at three Division I schools: Tom Davis, Cliff Ellis, Mike Jarvis, Frank McGuire, Jerry Tarkanian and Butch van Breda Kolff.

Durham restored Dolphin Pride at Jacksonville as the Dolphins went from the doormat of the Atlantic Sun Conference to one of top programs in the league. Durham’s signature defense and JU’s home court dominance at Swisher Gymnasium were the keys to JU’s resurgence the last five seasons:

􀁘 JU won 78 games over the last five years, which ranks 4th among all A-Sun schools.

􀁘 Durham led the Dolphins to 50 conference wins in the last five seasons, which ranks 4th among Atlantic Sun programs (1st among the 7 private universities).

􀁘 In the last five years, JU has a 49-19 record at home, which ranks 5th among all Division I schools in Florida.

􀁘 JU had at least one player on the Atlantic Sun All-Conference Team in each of its seven seasons in the league, including two-time A-Sun All-Conference selection and 2004 A-Sun Freshman of the Year, Haminn Quaintance.

􀁘 The Dolphins have limited opponents to just 69.5 points per game the last five seasons, which ranks 2nd among all A-Sun schools.

􀁘 JU has led the Atlantic Sun in blocked shots for 4 consecutive seasons (632), averaging 158.8 rejections per year, while also ranking among the nation’s top-25 teams the last four years.

􀁘 Since his arrival prior to the 1997-98 season, 18 players who have completed their eligibility at JU have graduated, with three more expected to earn their degrees this year.

Not only does Durham’s 44-year coaching career contain just about every award and honor given in college basketball, but he has coached some of the game’s best, a “Who’s Who” list that includes nine All-Americans, four Academic All-Americans, four first-round NBA draft picks and a pair of Olympians. Fifteen of his former players have gone on to play in the NBA, while he has had 31 players selected in the NBA Draft. His first recruiting class at Florida State in 1966 contained Dave Cowens, who is a member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. He also coached Dominique Wilkins, one of the top-10 scorers in NBA history, as well as former Olympian and NBA standout Vern Fleming, who helped Durham lead Georgia to the 1983 Final Four. In 1972, Durham led Florida State to the NCAA Championship Game, eventually falling to perennial powerhouse UCLA, 81-76.

A native of Louisville, Ky., and a four-sport prep standout at Eastern High School, Durham began his coaching career as an assistant to long-time Florida State coach Bud Kennedy in 1959. This followed an outstanding playing career at Florida State, where his name still decorates the FSU record books in a dozen different categories after scoring 1,381 points during his three-year career. Florida State’s annual Team MVP award was re-named the “Hugh Durham Most Valuable Player” award in 1999.