The University of Pennsylvania’s T. Gibbs Kane, Jr. W’69 Director of Athletics and Recreation, Alanna Wren, has announced the hiring of Fran McCaffery W’82 as the new John R. Rockwell Head Coach of Men’s Basketball.
McCaffery will be introduced to the community on Monday, April 7 during a press conference at 10 AM at The Palestra.
The announcement marks a return to University City for McCaffery, who played three seasons for the Quakers after transferring in from Wake Forest. Nicknamed “White Magic,” he led the Ivy League in assists (105) and steals (51) as a senior in 1981-82 and was voted recipient of the Bus MacDonald Award as the team’s most inspirational player that season. Penn went 36-6 in Ivy League play across the three seasons that McCaffery wore the Red and Blue, winning three Ivy League titles, and playing in the NCAA Tournament his sophomore and senior seasons. McCaffery then made his coaching debut with the Quakers following his graduation, as assistant varsity coach and head sub-varsity coach under head coach Craig Littlepage.
“I am thrilled to bring Fran back to Penn and Philadelphia as our next head men’s basketball coach,” Wren said. “Fran has had success at every level of Division I and is passionate about restoring our program to glory. His energy and enthusiasm for leading young men was apparent throughout the process and he has proven to be committed to player development and relationship-building with his student-athletes throughout his storied career.”
“I am excited and honored to return to my alma mater and the city of Philadelphia to lead the Penn men’s basketball program,” McCaffery said. “It is a program that I have fond memories of from my previous time there as a student-athlete and assistant coach. My vision is to return Penn to prominence in the Ivy League and beyond and bring an exciting style of play to The Palestra. I want to thank President Larry Jameson, AD Alanna Wren, Provost John Jackson and Senior Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli for providing me with this opportunity to return home. I relish the challenge and look forward to getting started.”
McCaffery has been a college basketball coach for 43 years, 29 of those as a head coach at Lehigh (3 seasons), UNC Greensboro (6), Siena (5), and most recently the University of Iowa where he spent 15 seasons and departed as the Hawkeyes’ all-time winningest coach with 297 victories. McCaffery joins Hall of Fame coaches Rick Pitino, Bob Huggins, Eddie Sutton and Lefty Driesell as the only Division I coaches to lead teams to conference tournament titles in four or more different leagues, and he is also one of just 14 Division I head coaches to take at least four different programs to the NCAA Tournament.
McCaffery’s head coaching record is 548-384 overall, a .588 winning percentage. Perhaps more impressive, the four programs he inherited over the years had a combined record of 35-84 (.204) the season prior to his arrival. By year three, they had a combined record of 89-45 (.664). McCaffery has coached 12 teams to NCAA Tournament appearances and five to the NIT.
McCaffrey enjoyed a successful 15-year campaign in Iowa City. The Hawkeyes appeared in a postseason tournament 11 of the last 13 completed seasons (7 NCAA, 4 NIT) and he guided them to seven of the last 11 NCAA Tournaments (2014, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023). Iowa also reached the NIT championship game in 2013. Over the last six seasons, Iowa combined to win 123 games, finished fifth place or better in the Big Ten standings four times, won a Big Ten Tournament title (2022), competed in three NCAA Tournaments, and won 21 games over AP Top 25 opponents.
McCaffery recruited and coached a consensus All-America four of his last ten seasons at Iowa.
Iowa was ranked as high as No. 3 nationally during both the 2016 and 2021 seasons. The Hawkeyes were ranked for 16 consecutive weeks in 2019, the final nine weeks of the 2020 season, went wire-to-wire in 2021 in the top 15 of the AP Poll for the first time since the 1989 campaign, and ranked No. 16 in the final poll in 2022.
During the 2023 and 2024 seasons, Iowa won 19 games in both campaigns including 10 Big Ten victories—the team’s record fifth and sixth straight seasons with 10 or more conference wins. Iowa played in the NCAA Tournament in 2023 and advanced to the second round of the NIT in 2024.
McCaffery’s up-tempo style of play is a favorite among his players. Iowa led the Big Ten in scoring in five straight seasons before finishing second in 2024. The team was fifth nationally in both 2021 and 2022. Iowa averaged more than 83 points in consecutive seasons (2021, 2022) for the first time in 27 years. Additionally, Iowa was tops in Division I in assist-to-turnover ratio in 2021 (2.0) and 2022 (1.74).
McCaffery came to Iowa following a five-year stint at Siena where he led the program to the best stretch in its 70-year history—one that earned him entry into the Siena Athletics Hall of Fame in 2018. He led the Saints on an incredible run that ended with three straight conference championships and NCAA Tournament appearances, and in NCAA play the Saints defeated Vanderbilt (in 2008) and Ohio State (in 2009). Under McCaffery—who was the MAAC Coach of the Year in 2008-09 and NABC District I Coach of the Year in 2009-10—Siena was the only Division I program in the country to win both its regular season and postseason tournament titles from 2008-10.
McCaffery’s Siena stint came on the heels of a successful six-year run at UNC-Greensboro. In his second season, he guided the Spartans to unprecedented heights with a 19-12 record and the 2001 Southern Conference (SoCon) Tournament championship. The Spartans defeated Chattanooga in the final and received the SoCon’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The following year (2001-02), McCaffery led the Spartans to their first 20-win season since joining the conference, and the program claimed a share of the SoCon North Division title for the first time, as well. After falling to eventual tournament champion Davidson in the conference tournament semifinals, the Spartans were awarded a berth into the 2002 NIT. In his final year in Greensboro, McCaffery brought the Spartans to the brink of the NCAA Tournament before a SoCon Championship game loss to Chattanooga. He led UNCG to a victory over Davidson in the semifinals, defeating a Wildcats steam that had been 16-0 in conference play.
McCaffery was the nation’s youngest Division I head coach when, at the age of 26, he was named head coach at Lehigh on September 11, 1985—a promotion after he had spent two years on the bench as an assistant coach. McCaffery capped his three-year tenure with the Mountain Hawks with a 21-win season and an NCAA Tournament berth in 1988, at the time making him the youngest head coach to lead his team to March Madness.
In addition to assistant coaching stints at Penn and Lehigh, McCaffery spent 11 years as an assistant coach at Notre Dame under Digger Phelps and John MacLeod. During his tenure in South Bend, the Fighting Irish made NCAA Tournament appearances in 1989 and 1990, reached the NIT final in 1992, and advanced to the NIT quarterfinals in 1997.
Off the court, The McCaffery family has long been a champion for Coaches vs. Cancer and the American Cancer Society (ACS). The McCafferys have been actively involved with the Coaches vs. Cancer program and have raised significant funds to support ACS efforts, including more than $5.0 million since he became Iowa’s head coach in 2010. His efforts were honored during the 2015 Final Four weekend, as McCaffery was honored with the Coaches vs. Cancer Champion Award. The distinction is awarded annually to a college coach who has been engaged vigorously in the Coaches vs. Cancer program’s fundraising, education and promotional initiatives and has demonstrated leadership in the fight to save more lives from cancer. The ACS awarded the McCafferys with the Fighting Spirit Award in 2015.
In addition to their work with the American Cancer Society and Coaches vs. Cancer, the McCafferys helped spearhead the launch of a new Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Program in Iowa City.
A Philadelphia native, McCaffery attended La Salle College High School. He and his wife, Margaret, have four children: sons, Connor, Patrick and Jonathan and a daughter, Marit.
Connor and Patrick played a combined 11 seasons for their father at Iowa, helping Iowa win the 2022 Big Ten Championship. Connor is the all-time winningest player in Iowa history with 111 victories and is second in NCAA history in assist/turnover ratio. Patrick scored 1,417 points in his collegiate career at Iowa and Butler.
OFFICIAL: McCaffrey named Head Basketball Coach at Penn
