FORMER HEAD COACH BIOS HEAD COACH
ELMER GROSS
Years: 1950-54 (5) Record: 80-40 (.667) NCAA Tournament: 2 (4-3) 1954 FINAL FOUR Munhall, Pa., native Elmer Gross served as John Lawther’s assistant for four years and assumed the head coaching position from Lawther following the 1948-49 season. Captain of Penn State’s 1942 NCAA team, Gross directed the Nittany Lions to an 80-40 record and two NCAA Tournament berths. He used Lawther’s sliding-zone defense and added a fast-break offense which saw the Nittany Lions top 1,000 points for the first time in 1950. His 1954 squad, paced by All-America center Jesse Arnelle, placed third in the NCAA Tournament, finishing No. 9 in the final AP poll. The Lions shocked eighth-ranked Louisiana State and ended Notre Dame’s 18-game winning streak to advance to Kansas City for the Final Four. Gross was praised for masterful use of his bench and a full-court press which confused tourney opponents. Penn State has had two teams finish in the nation’s Top 10 (1942: No. 10 Dunkel Index) and Gross was a key figure on both. A World War II Purple Heart veteran, Gross was wounded in 1944, following one of the early amphibious landings on the coast of France. He returned to PSU as a graduate assistant coach in 1945 and earned his master’s degree in 1947. He was the first coach in NCAA tourney history (1952) to also have played in the tournament (1942). Dr. Gross retired from Penn State in 1978 and died in Sun City, Ariz., in 2007. HEAD COACH
JOHN EGLI
Years: 1955-68 (14) Record: 187-135 (.581) Postseason: 2 NCAA (1-3), 1 NIT (0-1) The all-time winningest coach in Penn State basketball history, John Egli, like his predecessor, Elmer Gross, was a John Lawther disciple. In 14 seasons at the helm, Egli guided the Nittany Lions to an overall mark of 187-135, including NCAA bids in 1955 and 1965 and an NIT berth in 1966. A native of Williamsport, Pa., Egli was a co-captain on the 1943 Penn State basketball team and was named to the NCAA East Regional all-tournament team in 1942. Egli entered military service in 1943. He received the Purple Heart after being wounded at Bastogne on Christmas Day, 1944, and was hospitalized in England for six months. In 1947, he was appointed instructor of physical education and director of the intramural and varsity athletic programs at Penn State-DuBois. Two years later, Egli was named assistant coach at University Park under Elmer Gross. After five seasons, he was elevated to head coach in 1954-55. His first team topped 2,000 points for the first time in school history. He was one of the nation’s foremost authorities on the tactics and strategy of the zone defense. His teams ran off a string of 15-5, 16-7, 20-4 and 18-6 records between 1963 and 1966. In 1962, Egli presented the sliding zone defense at the National Association of Basketball Coaches convention in Louisville, Ky. Four years later, he was installed as the fourth vice
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president of the NABC. His book, Sliding Zone Defenses for Winning Basketball, still is used by many coaches. Egli died in 1982; he was posthumously inducted into the Pennsylvania and Clearfield County Sports Halls of Fame. HEAD COACH
JOHN BACH
Years: 1969-78 (10) Record: 122-121 (.502) A 1948 Fordham graduate, John Bach was considered one of the giants in the coaching profession. He arrived at Penn State in 1968, after 18 seasons as head coach and 11 years as athletic director at his alma mater. A schoolboy star at St. John’s Prep in Brooklyn, N.Y., Bach’s collegiate playing career was interrupted by World War II and four years of service as a Naval officer. He played two seasons of professional basketball with the Boston Celtics and Hartford before returning to Fordham as head coach. He guided the Rams to an overall mark of 292-193 and appearances in two NCAA Tournaments and five NITs. At Penn State, Bach’s teams were renowned for their pressure man-to-man defense with four squads ranked in the nation’s top 20 in scoring defense. His teams posted back-to-back records of 17-8 and 15-8 in 1972 and 1973 respectively, behind Brooklyn native Ron Brown. He coached Penn State through 1977-78. Bach served as Henry Iba’s assistant at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, when the U.S. lost the controversial title game to the Soviet Union. Following a stint as head coach of the Golden State Warriors (1983-86), he served as an assistant coach to Phil Jackson and the three-time NBA champion (1991-93) Chicago Bulls. Bach was inducted into the NIT Hall of Fame in March, 1995. He passed away in January 2016 at the age of 91. HEAD COACH
DICK HARTER
Years: 1979-83 (5) Record: 79-61 (.564) Postseason: NIT (0-1) Dick Harter sparked a rebirth of basketball at Penn State when he was appointed head coach for the 1978-79 season. He directed the Nittany Lions to the 1980 NIT, the school’s first postseason appearance in 14 years. A native of Pottstown, Pa., Harter served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps for three years following graduation from Pennsylvania in 1953. He was the freshman athletic director at Penn for seven years (1958-65) before a one-year stint as head basketball coach at Rider, producing a 16-9 season. Harter returned to Penn as head coach for the 1966-67 school year and in five seasons fashioned an 88-44 mark, including a 25-2 NCAA team in 1970 and a 28-1 NCAA squad in 1971. He left Penn for Oregon in 1971 and in six seasons in Eugene guided the Ducks to a 113-81 mark and three NIT appearances. He joined the NBA coaching ranks as an assistant to Chuck Daly with the Detroit Pistons, and later became the first head coach of the Charlotte Hornets (1988-89). He passed away in March 2012 at the age of 81.