Born in 1930, this "kid from Kane" played basketball and football for Kane High School in the late 1940's. He began his coaching career at Punxsutawney High School and was an assistant coach at Duke University from 1963-69. Chuck was the head basketball coach at Boston College from 1969-71 and at the University of Pennsylvania from 1971-77. Daly was also an assistant coach for the Philadelphia 76ers for 4 years, before serving as head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Detroit Pistons. Chuck Daly gained worldwide fame as coach of the legendary Olympic Dream Team in 1992, but long before Barcelona and the gold medal, the respected NBA coach established his legacy as one of the game's premier mentors. A player’s coach, Daly’s success at all levels was built around his ability to take diverse personalities and create a harmonious, winning team. In 1983, the stylish Daly became coach of the Detroit Pistons, a club that had never before recorded back-to-back winning seasons. Daly changed that when he led the Pistons to nine straight winning seasons and nine straight playoff appearances. Daly became only the fifth coach in NBA history to win back-to-back championships when he led his Detroit Piston “Bad Boys” to titles in 1989 and 1990. In a coaching career filled with memorable achievements, Chuck Daly is known worldwide as the head coach of the 1992 Dream Team. Featuring basketball's best of the best, he blended the superstars on that Dream Team, led by Larry Bird, Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson, into a selfless, cohesive team that took the world by storm. He is the also the first coach to win both an NBA championship and an Olympic gold medal. In 1996, he was voted as one of the Top Ten Coaches in NBA history. Not bad for just a "kid from Kane."
