Charles Grice “Lefty” Driesell, a Hall of Fame coach who made Maryland into a national power, died today at 92. He died at his home in Virginia Beach, Virginia, his family said, but did not disclose the cause.
Maryland planned to honor Driesell with a moment of silence before its game against No. 14 Illinois later today. The university said the team would wear throwback uniforms from the 1970s, last worn on Jan. 21, when the Terrapins honored Driesell with an “Ode to Lefty.”
Driesell finished with 786 victories over parts of five decades and was the first coach to win more than 100 games at four NCAA Division I schools. He started at Davidson, and then brought Maryland into national prominence from 1969-86, a stay that ended with the death of All-American Len Bias from a cocaine dose.
Driesell then won five regular-season conference titles over nine seasons at James Madison and finished with a successful run at Georgia State from 1997 to 2003.
“His contributions to the game go way beyond wins and losses, and he won a lot,” former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said after Driesell finally made the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2018. “It’s an honor he’s deserved for a long time.”
Driesell is credited with starting the college basketball tradition known as “Midnight Madness’ on Oct. 15, 1971. At three minutes after midnight on the first day of practice as sanctioned by the NCAA, Driesell had his players take a mandatory mile run on the track inside the Maryland football stadium. 800 students attended.
Driesell made George Raveling the first Black coach in the Atlantic Coast Conference by hiring him as an assistant in 1969.
Driesell was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007, but his entry into the Naismith shrine proved more elusive. He was a finalist four times before receiving the necessary 75% vote three months after his 86th birthday.
Maryland won or shared five ACC regular-season titles and captured the league tournament in 1984 on Driesell’s fifth trip to the final. Before Driesell arrived, the team was an ACC doormat and had trouble drawing fans to old Cole Field House.
Driesell is survived by four children. While at Duke, Driesell eloped with Joyce and got married in December 1952. She died in 2021.
