Hugh Durham

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Hugh Durham (born October 26, 1937) is a successful former basketball coach.

Durham coached basketball for 45 years and was ranked eighth among active NCAA Division I coaches at the time of his retirement.

Durham was a native of Louisville, Kentucky and played four sports at Eastern High School there. He continued his playing career at Florida State University. Durham scored 1,381 points in three years at Florida State; his average of 21.9 points per game in 1958-59 is the seventh best tally in Florida State history. Durham's career average of 18.9 points per game is still the ninth best in school history. in the Seminole record book. On January 19, 1957 Durham scored 43 points against Stetson University and that performance is still the second-best in Florida State history. In 1999 Florida State renamed its annual team Most Valuable Player award the "Hugh Durham Most Valuable Player" award in his honor.

Durham completed his education and graduated from Florida State with a B.A. in business administration in 1959 where he was a member of the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity. He also earned an M.B.A. from Florida State in 1961.

In 1959 Durham began his coaching career as an assistant coach at Florida State.

In 1966 Durham was named head coach at Florida State. He coached there for 12 seasons into 1978. In 1972 Durham led Florida State to second place in the NCAA tournament. A hard-fought 81-76 loss to a great UCLA team in the championship game prevented Durham's Florida State from winning the NCAA crown. Durham's overall record at Florida State was an outstanding 230-95 (.708) with three NCAA tournament bids. His .708 winning percentage is the highest ever posted at Florida State.

In 1979, Durham became head coach at the University of Georgia. In 1980-81 he was the Southeastern Conference coach of the year, taking the Bulldogs to the NIT then and also the following year. In 1982-83 Georgia won the Southeastern Conference tournament and went to the NCAA Final Four, losing in the semifinals to eventual champs NC State. Georgia returned to the NIT the following year, then the year after that (1984-85) finished 21-8 (.710) with an NCAA tournament bid. In 1986-87 Durham was the SEC coach of the year again, a feat he repeated in 1989-90 when he led Georgia to the Southeastern Conference title outright and another NCAA tournament bid. Durham finished his seventeenth and final season at Georgia in 1995, leaving the school with an overall record of 297-215 (.580) and five NCAA tournament bids. His 297 wins are the highest for any coach in Georgia history.

In 1997 Durham took the head coaching job at Jacksonville University. He coached there for eight seasons, finishing in 2005 with a record of 106-119 (.471). Durham was initially hired in 1997 as head basketball coach and assistant athletic director at Jacksonville. In 2000 Durham served as interim athletic director. He became Jacksonville's permanent athletic director in 2001 and served in that role until 2004.

Durham's career totals as an NCAA Division I head coach were 633 wins, 429 losses (.596), eight NCAA tournament appearances, two Final Fours, and seven NIT bids. At the time of his retirement only two NCAA Division I coaches had more games under their belt (Durham had 1,062).

Durham coached nine All-Americans, four Academic All-Americans, four first-round NBA draft picks and a pair of Olympians. Fifteen of his former players went on to play in the NBA and he had 31 players selected in the NBA draft. Durham's first recruiting class at Florida State in 1966 contained Dave Cowens, a member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Durham also coached Dominique Wilkins, one of the top 10 scorers in NBA history, and former Olympian and NBA star Vern Fleming.

Durham is the only coach in NCAA history to be the all-time winningest coach (percentage or wins) at three different Division I schools.

In 2003 Durham became the 32nd coach in NCAA history to win 600 career games and just the 17th Division I coach to coach in 1,000 games in his career games.

Other career notes as of the time of Durham's retirement in 2005:

  • Durham ranked 8th among active Division I coaches with 633 career wins
  • Durham was the 25th winningest Division I coach in the history of college basketball
  • Durham earned five conference Coach-of-the-Year awards.
  • Durham was the only coach in NCAA history to be the all-time winningest coach at three different Division I schools.
  • Durham was one of just eleven coaches to have led two different teams to the NCAA Final Four (Florida State, 1972 & Georgia, 1983).
  • Durham was the only coach to lead two different schools to their only Final Four appearance.

Durham was inducted into the FSU Hall of Fame in 1990 and the Kentucky High School Hall of Fame in 1994. He was also inducted into the Florida Sports Hall of Fame in 1999.

Preceded by
?		 Georgia Head Men's Basketball Coach
1979 – 1995		 Succeeded by
Tubby Smith
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