Charles Grice Driesell (abt. 1931 - abt. 2024)

Born about 25 Dec 1931 in Norfolk, Virginia, United States

Ancestors

Died about 17 Feb 2024 at about age 92 in Virginia, United States

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Biography

Highly successful college basketball coach

Charles Driesell better known as Lefty was born in 1931. He received the nickname "Lefty" for his left handedness. He was a college basketball coach at Davidson College, the University of Maryland, James Madison University, and Georgia State University. He was the first coach to win more than 100 games at four different NCAA Division I schools. He had the reputation of being "the greatest program builder in the history of basketball. When he retired in 2003, he was the fourth-winningest NCAA Division I men's basketball college.

He coached the Maryland Terrapins basketball team to eight NCAA Tournament appearances, a National Invitation Tournament (NIT) championship, two Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season championships, and one Atlantic Coast Conference tournament championship. Among the notable players he recruited and coached are Tom McMillen, Len Elmore, John Lucas, Albert King, Buck Williams, and Len Bias. He was also the first coach to start the season with "Midnight Madness" - now an annual event celebrating the upcoming college basketball season in which a team opens its first official practice to the public, often combining it with a pep rally and other fan-friendly activities. The tradition originated from teams holding public practices at midnight on the earliest day.

In 1973, he saved the lives of at least ten children from several burning buildings. When he saw flames from townhouses, he broke down a door and rescued several children from the fire that eventually destroyed four townhouses. As a result, he was awarded the NCAA Award of Valor.

He was inducted into both the Basketball Hall of Fame and the Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. The NCAA annually awards the Lefty Driesell Defensive Player of the Year Award to the most outstanding men's college basketball defender in NCAA Division I competition.

He died in 2024. ^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/39544700/hall-fame-hoops-coach-charles-lefty-driesell-dies-92

• 1940 United States Federal Census Ancestry.com Publication: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 2012 Provo, UT, USA Record Collection 2442 Note: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. T627, 4,643 rolls.
• Basketball Hall of Fame, Charles 'Lefty' Driesell, https://www.hoophall.com/hall-of-famers/charles-lefty-driesell (Accessed June 4, 2022)
• Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, "Lefty" Charles Driesell, https://collegebasketballexperience.com/members/charles-lefty-driesell/ (Accessed June 4, 2022)
• Lefty Driesell Defensive Player of the Year Award, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lefty_Driesell_Award (Accessed June 4, 2022)

See Also:

• Wikipedia: Lefty Driesell
• Wikidata: Item Q16091796, en:Wikipedia