General | 6/4/2019 11:20:00 AM

BLOOMSBURG, Pa. - Chuck Daly, inducted into the Bloomsburg University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1983, will be among the 2019 inductees into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame as announced during the state's spring Hall of Fame meetings in Harrisburg. Daly will be inducted, posthumously, along with some other distinguished Pennsylvania sports figures, at the state's 2019 Induction Dinner, scheduled for Saturday night, October 5, at the Radisson Hotel Philadelphia Northeast.

Daly joins two other former Bloomsburg standouts - Frank Sheptock and Joe Bressi - as members of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame. Sheptock, who was inducted into the Bloomsburg University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1997 for his tremendous career on the gridiron with the Huskies, earned a spot in the state Hall of Fame in 2010. Meanwhile, Bressi, who coached the women's basketball program from 1986-1994 and is still the all-time winningest coach in school history, was inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 2014 and into the Bloomsburg Hall of Fame last October.
 
A graduate of Bloomsburg State Teachers' College in 1952, Daly was a member of the men's basketball team for two years and averaged more than 12 points a game, including a team-high 13.5 during the 1951-52 season. After serving two years in the military, Daly began his legendary basketball coaching career in 1955 at Punxsutawney Area High School in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.

Following his eight-year tenure with the Chucks where he won 111 games, Daly moved on to the collegiate level in 1963 as an assistant coach at Duke University. During his six seasons at Duke, the Blue Devils won the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) championship and advanced to the Final Four - both in 1964 and 1966. He then replaced Bob Cousy as head coach at Boston College in 1969 before taking over as head coach at the University of Pennsylvania in 1971. As head coach of the Quakers, Daly led his teams to a record of 125-38 in six years, winning four Ivy League titles and three Big Five crowns.

Daly moved on to the National Basketball Association (NBA), starting as an assistant coach for the Philadelphia 76ers in 1978 before earning his first head coaching gig with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1981. Daly is best known for his nine-year (1983-1992) head coaching career with the Detroit Pistons where he led the team to the postseason every season and back-to-back NBA Championships in 1989 and 1990. Daly also had two-year stints with the New Jersey Nets and the Orlando Magic before retiring from coaching in 1999. Daly was also the head coach of the inaugural "Dream Team" that won the gold medal at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.

In 1996, as part of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the NBA, Daly was named one of the ten Greatest Coaches in NBA History. Daly also had his number "2" retired by the Pistons in 1997 with the jersey number representing the number of championships he won in Detroit.

Daly was born in Kane, Pennsylvania, and was a two-time Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee - being inducted in 1994 for his coaching career, and in 2010, posthumously, as the head coach of the "Dream Team." He was also inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006. He finished with a record of 638-437 in 14 NBA seasons as a head coach. Add 151 collegiate victories and 111 high school wins, and Daly finished with exactly 900 career wins.
 
Daly died on May 9, 2009, at the age of 78 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

For additional information on the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame, please visit the website at https://www.pasportshof.org/.