Temple Basketball’s Fran Dunphy Cements Legacy With Big 5 Win No. 517

Even more impressive than the cement Fran Dunphy engraved his name into as the winningest coach in the history of Philadelphia’s fabled Big Five on Saturday, was the company he surpassed forever with the achievement.

With Temple basketball’s 62-60 win at Central Florida on Saturday, Dunphy earned his 517th win and put himself at the top of a list that included guys like Jack Ramsay and Phil Martelli (St. Joseph’s), Jay Wright and Rollie Massimino (Villanova), Dick Harter and Chuck Daly (Penn), Tom Gola and Paul Westhead (LaSalle) and of course the record holder he succeeded, John Chaney. After the game, Dunphy told ESPN he wished all metro areas had Division I basketball as good as Philadelphia. In reality, Philadelphia holds that unique honor. Now Dunphy holds a similarly special place in that history.

At Temple, Chaney was 516-253. Between a 310-163 stint at Penn and a 207-116 job at Temple, Dunphy passed his close friend as the Big Five all-time leader in Division I wins. All 516 of Chaney’s wins were at Temple, which included 12-straight NCAA tournaments and five Elite Eight appearances. Also, Chaney had 225 additional wins at Division II Cheyney State, including one national championship at that level.

When fans consider that Dunphy hung around the top level at two Big 5 schools to beat Chaney’s mark, it is all the more impressive. Westhead, who was the coach at LaSalle, won an NBA title with the Los Angeles Lakers, as did Ramsay with the Portland Trail Blazers and Daly with the Detroit Pistons. For one unofficial conference in a metropolitan area like Philadelphia to produce coaches of that quality, Dunphy topping the list is an achievement not only of longevity but of sustained excellence.

Who knows what Dunphy could have done in the NBA, but at least two schools (Temple and Penn) are glad he remained a college coach.