DAYTON, Ohio — Don Donoher, the winningest basketball coach at Dayton and a member of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, has died. He was 92.
The university announced Donoher’s death Friday night. No cause of death was given.
Donoher went 437-275 in a 25-year coaching career, all with the Flyers. He led Dayton to the NCAA tournament nine times and to the NIT seven times.
Under Donoher, the Flyers played for the NCAA championship in 1967, losing to UCLA and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was then known as Lew Alcindor. Donoher and Dayton advanced to the Sweet 16 five times and reached the Elite Eight two times. The Flyers won the NIT title in 1968.
Donoher was a three-year letter-winner with the Flyers as a player and participated in three postseasons. He was team captain as a senior and scored 388 of his 578 career points in 32 games in his final season.
After starting as a scout for his alma mater in 1957, Donoher began his coaching career in 1961 as an assistant at Chaminade High School. He became an assistant with the Flyers in February 1963 and, just over a year later, was named Dayton’s coach, succeeding Tom Blackburn, who coached Donoher when he played.
Donoher was the first coach to lead his alma mater to the NCAA title game after appearing in the tournament as a player.
He was an assistant coach on the U.S. gold-medal-winning team at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984. He also served as Dayton’s athletic director from 1976 to 1980.
