City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
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They know the exterior, the understated everyman with the monotone voice and dry sense of humor who could have coached in a hard hat. The shell is pretty close to the soul, because in many ways, that is who Fran Dunphy is: The understated everyman who loved coaching.

What most never saw was the fire, what made the legendary Fran Dunphy Fran Dunphy. It’s that burning tenor that powered the former La Salle coach to be worthy enough one day—and hopefully, one day soon—for induction into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.

When Dunphy walked off the court the last time as a coach on March 13, after La Salle's 75-70 Atlantic 10 tournament loss to St. Joe's, the Philadelphia basketball community, and college basketball in general, lost a vital connection to history with him. 

A living, breathing, Philadelphia basketball institution, Dunphy's core values were inbred. He was honed on repetition, diligence, preparation and sacrifice. And that is what he instilled in his teams. 

Over a decade ago, at Temple’s McGonigle Hall, when Dunphy was coaching the Owls, the Big 5 Hall of Famer was going over a certain defense during practice. He meticulously went over it once, then twice, … a fourth, and fifth time, demonstrating the exact spot, to the inch, where he wanted his players positioned. He showed them what angles they needed to take to double the ball, where their slides should be and rotations should be, where to keep their eyes.

The Owls starters ran it and missed their spots. That was when the other side of Dunphy surfaced. The coach exploded, “What did we just go over, this is where you need to be,” pointing to the exact spot, inches from where his player was standing.

They ran it again.

The player Dunphy scolded minutes ago was where he was supposed to be this time, intercepting a pass from the scout squad and running the length of the court for a layup. As the player returned to the other end of the floor, Dunphy made sure he gave him a wink and a pat on the butt, “Good job! Run it again!”

There was nothing fancy to it. There were no iPads to go over it. Dunphy did not get out a telestrator and a pointer. He had his team run the defense again.

It was old-school repetition, attention-to-detail, try-to-be-perfect coaching.

“That’s coach,” former Chester star and Temple forward Rahlir Hollis-Jefferson said back then in 2013. “People think Coach Dunph is this quiet, unassuming guy, but Coach Dunph is really a madman (laughs). No, really, I love him. I love playing for him. Anyone who wants to be better, anyone who wants to improve as a player or a person would love Coach Dunph. He’s about his players getting it right on the court, and he’s someone who cares about his players getting it right in life. He keeps it basic, simple, but there is no letting up. He gets on us. You want to play for a coach like that.

“He will be in your face. But he always tells you things that are productive. It’s just a matter of us listening (laughs). People see this mild-mannered guy but put a whistle in his hands and there is an intensity there, an intensity he brings every day. It’s contagious.”

That was in January 2013—over 12 years ago. The 76-year-old was 64 then. It was almost, what seems, a lifetime ago.

Dunphy has lived many. He earned the nickname “Mr. Big 5” and he has had a perpetual ability to adapt to the times while changing nothing, because there was nothing to change.

He holds the record for the most career wins (625) by a coach in Big 5 history, and is the only coach, and will probably be the only coach, who has coached three of the Big 5 schools (Penn, Temple, La Salle). He has a degree in marketing from La Salle and a master’s in counseling and human relations from Villanova. St. Joe’s is the only school missing on his resume that he has no Big 5 affiliation with.

His coaching career covered five decades, from Penn (1989-06) to Temple (2006-19), to La Salle (2022-25), running the course of 33 years, a 625-380 lifetime record, with a .622 winning percentage, nine Ivy League titles at Penn, 17 NCAA Tournament appearances and countless lives that he has touched in that time.

In his final season at Temple, the Owls went 23-10, made the NCAA Tournament, beat two Top 25 programs, and tied for third in the American Athletic Conference, after being a preseason pick to finish sixth. The Owls’ season ended in the NCAA First Four after a strong, late-season run that saw them win six of their final seven regular season games.

He returned to his alma mater, La Salle, in 2022 and somehow managed to go 45-55 in those three years, infusing a new vitality into the sagging program and helping create La Salle's shiny, new John Glaser Arena. 

Dunphy did not have to go back to coaching. He wanted to return. He recognized the program needed to sturdy foundation to rebuild towards being competitive again, while he could have been sleeping in, enjoying late-morning tee times, and being a fundraising glad-hander for his beloved La Salle.

Instead, he wanted to work a sideline, go through the drudgery of long overnight bus rides, and once more run a practice, trying to convince a bunch of guys in their early-20 that they can win against larger teams with bigger payrolls.

It goes back, he says, to those Augustinian values of humility and service instilled in him at Malvern Prep.    

What kept this giant Philadelphia treasure going for so long?

In these contemporary times, when some college coaches tend to go into WWE mode grasping for an over-the-top answer, he resorted back to homespun simplicity. 

“You have to love what you do,” said Dunphy, the grandfather of three who was raised in Drexel Hill, Delaware County. “My attitude has always been to do your job and you do it the best that you can. No one has been luckier than me. What kept pushing me is that you are at your happiest when you are doing for others, and that came from my parents. It comes from all of us. We are looking for peace in our lives, and everything does not always go perfect, and when that happens, I would tell myself, ‘Be ready for the test when it comes.’ Hopefully, you are at great peace otherwise. You want everyone to be happy and everyone around you to be happy.

“We are all driven. We are all respectfully demanding. We want the job done, but there is a level of freedom within that. For example, I would always tell my guys to give everything they have at the defensive end, make sure you’re in the right position, and give a great effort. Let’s get the rebound. It’s probably what I did at that (Temple) practice (12 years ago). On offense, I’m going to give you freedom. I don’t want anyone to throw the ball away. It’s a good way to play the game. The other thing is to think about your teammates first. I think what defines you is on any particular day, you gather yourself at the end of the day and you say, ‘I did a pretty good job today,’ or, ‘I had a really tough day today, I’m sure I didn't speak to that kid the right way. I better get to him tomorrow and see if I can make a difference.’ You take stock in yourself. I learned to take stock in myself.

“I’m retired. Or supposed to be retired (laughs), but I never sleep. That would be very unusual for me.”

The state of college basketball has changed drastically since Dunphy first began coaching in the late-1980s. There is the transfer portal making college basketball into an annual free agent feeding frenzy, where the haves lord over the have-nots with big NIL deals and Power Five conference TV exposure.

There is a wild west aspect to the game Dunphy once knew. He is in favor of players being compensated. But it comes with a caveat: “I don’t know where the game is headed. Right now, it is free agency. There is no salary cap and there is no governance right now. We need to come together and figure out what is the best move going forward. One of the troubling things is lessening the value of education provided by these college scholarships. Everyone is much more concerned about the money being paid to some of these athletes. I am absolutely fine with the athletes getting money, but it is all over the place. We need to figure it out. It will be a number of years for that to happen.”

Dunphy is still working for La Salle in the capacity as special assistant to the president. A few weeks ago, he made sure he to check a retirement bucket list point when he saw the ballet Swan Lake. His late brother, Dennis, who passed in 2023, had suggested it. Another bucket list check is to visit Normandy.

“I went to see Swan Lake and it was amazing,” he said. “Dennis went to see it. He suggested it. He was worldly beyond most people. The level of athleticism was off the charts. The balance, the creativity, the discipline, it was amazing. I went backstage to meet the young people in it and I was awed by them. I said to myself, ‘I’m a knucklehead, I should have had some of these young people teach our guys some of these moves.’

“It would have been great at practice. The best part would have been to see my guys trying to do some of the jumps these dancers did and see them laugh at each other as they tried, which is part of the great camaraderie that teams are all about.

“It’s all about the team. I think what I will always take with me are the relationships you get involved with in your assistant coaches and the players. It’s great seeing your players and coaches in later stages of their lives, how productive they are. That’s the most satisfying. I was around good people. For me, I have had an amazing life.”

Pushed by a flame that never dims.

Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter based in the Philadelphia area who began writing for CoBL in 2021 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on BlueSky here.