Fran Dunphy, coach of the Temple Owls, became the winningest coach in Big 5 history surpassing his predecessor John Chaney. Dunphy started his head coaching career at the University of Pennsylvania where he spent 17 years and then received the nod from John Chaney to take his place at Temple.
Dunphy has been just about everywhere in the Big 5, playing and coaching at La Salle, coaching at Penn and Temple then earning a Master’s degree in counseling and human relations from Villanova University. The only Big 5 school he hasn’t been affiliated with is St. Joe’s.
Most people only see Coach Fran Dunphy on TV and aren’t really able to see who he really is outside of all of that. All he wants to be is a regular guy and that is where the focus is going to be.
It’s a rare chance to learn how he came to be and what made him into the type of person we see today. Just to give you an idea, when Fran Dunphy was asked about his historic 517th victory he said, “I’m the luckiest guy you know.”
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Q: What does it mean to you to be part of Big 5 history?
A: The thought for me is, I just happened to be around longer than most guys. There were plenty of good basketball coaches that would’ve won way more games than me if they decided to stay in Philadelphia such as Jack Ramsey and Jimmy Lynam from Saint Joe’s and Dick Harter from Penn. There are a bunch of people who did great work. So it’s nice, but it’s not something you think about at this moment, my thoughts were we have a tough game coming up against Connecticut and that’s where the focus was important. In a couple years, maybe I will look back at it and appreciate it a little more.
Q: How did growing up in Pilgrim Gardens and Drexel Hill prepare you for life?
A: Well I think we had a great neighborhood. I also think everybody who grew up there had a great understanding of what it was like to be loved and what it was like to be mentored and cared for, not only by your parents/immediate family, but the people in the neighborhood took good care of you. They helped us learn to make our lives about others and not ourselves and those are great life lessons. Pilgrim Gardens was a wonderful place to grow up and the people were phenomenal.
Q: Who were your role models growing up?
A: Certainly my family, my mother, father, brothers, and sisters were really important to me. I had some great friends growing up and had relationships with some older gentleman like Jim Stewart, Jack McGuinn, and Adrian King. They were just a bunch of guys, who would never let you go astray, they guided you and kept you on the right path. Also Mr. Smith, who coached us in CYO, was a role model and a majority of my teachers, just endless folks who touched you from the moment you got started.
Q: What made you want to be a college basketball coach?
A: I never really did. I didn’t have a real sense of this is what I wanted to do, it just sort of happened to me. I got into coaching because one of my college teammates got the job at La Salle. As a result, I was able to go with him to be an assistant coach at La Salle and that helped me. Then I moved to Washington, D.C. at American University and got a little more experience in college coaching. Of course, I didn’t think I would ever be a college basketball coach, I wanted to be an athletic director at La Salle and they said it wasn’t going to happen. So I moved to Penn and all of the sudden one year later, the head coach Tom Schneider left and I was sitting there as an assistant coach. Sometimes life happens to you and you have to be ready to accept it. It was really just a great break that I was at Penn when Schneider decided to leave, so I was very fortunate.
Q: If you weren’t coaching (in college), what would you be doing?
A: My plan was to wind up being a high school basketball coach and a teacher. I was very fortunate at the time to be deep into college basketball coaching and I’m not sure what I’d really being doing if that hadn’t happened.
Q: What is the most memorable win in your coaching career?
A: Probably games that helped us clinch a championship, either at Penn winning the regular season championship or whether it was at Temple in the Conference Championship tournament. I say those were the most memorable. The first championship we had at Temple in our second year was very emotional, we won three straight games and beat St Joe’s in the final. It was an important win for us and I was so happy for the guys because a lot of them had never been to the NCAA Tournament.
Q: What qualities do you look for in a player when recruiting?
A: Obviously they have to pass the eye test and be good athletes and be good basketball players. For the most part you’re looking for good people, you don’t want high-maintenance guys because that isn’t really a lot of fun. The low-maintenance guys, who care about others, do their work, and take care of their academics are truly good teammates. Those are the guys you’re looking for.
Q: What are your biggest challenges at Temple University? Whether it’s recruiting or academics?
A: Recruiting is the lifeblood of what we do. We all think that we’re great basketball coaches with genius minds. The reality is we need good players to make us a good team and recruiting is important as is the academic piece. The players have to do great work academically and being a college basketball player is serious stuff. You are getting paid for a free education, you have to give back to the school and work very hard. That’s where having a lot of low-maintenance guys is important, who know their role and can take care of business. Having high-maintenance guys isn’t really any fun and I’ve luckily haven’t had to deal with many of them.
Q: Who is the most memorable player that you coached?
A: The guy that gave me my credibility that I could coach was Jerome Allen. He was a terrific basketball player and great guy and leader. So he was the guy who probably saved my career and he created the credibility I needed so people could believe that I could do a good job.
Q: Who do you attribute your success to?
A: Jerome Allen was as much a part of the success that I’ve had as anybody because again he was low-maintenance and great leader. When the leadership comes from within the group then you’re in pretty good shape. My family, the people in the neighborhood, my college coach (Tom Gola) and my high school coach (Dan Dougherty), who got me started were important. Also spending 18 months in the United States Military was very important to me as well.
Big 5 Rapid Fire Questions:
Q: What is your favorite movie?
A: Tuesday’s with Morrie.
Q: Who is your favorite musical group?
A: I’m a big Marvin Gaye fan, anything he sang I was interested in. I grew up in the age of the Beatles as well so they were pretty special and very charismatic. I’m pretty eclectic in my music taste, I like everything.
Q: Best player you ever played against?
A: Probably Calvin Murphy. He scored 52 points at the Palestra as a sophomore, I had to guard him the last 10 minutes of the game and I didn’t do so great. But then the next couple of years, we held him to 24 points. Just truly a spectacular basketball player.
Q: Favorite golf course besides Rolling Green?
A: Shinnecock.
Q: Favorite philly sports athlete?
A: I’m such a baseball nut that I would say Richie Ashburn and Robin Roberts back in the day when I first started following baseball very closely.
Interviewing Fran Dunphy was a great honor. He is a class act of a coach and a person, and I wish the best for him in his future, and for the Temple Owls basketball team on the home stretch of their 2015-16 regular season campaign. Let’s hope the Owls go dancing again this year.
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