The eighth head coach in the 32-year history of UNC-Greensboro men’s basketball is an Ivy League-educated student of the game who has coached and competed in the NCAA Division I Championship and arrived with a flourish on the college scene 22 years ago as a high school All-American who learned to play on the streets of his native Philadelphia.

Thirty-nine-year-old Fran McCaffery was named head coach of the Spartans, succeeding Randy Peele, at a news conference at noon on campus.

“Fran McCaffery is a dynamic leader who has all the qualities necessary to successfully guide the UNCG men’s basketball team,” said Nelson E. Bobb, director of athletics.  “He has an outstanding coaching, competitive and educational background and is as much a role model for our student-athletes as he will be a mentor and coach.  We are very fortunate that Fran has accepted the challenge of continuing to build our program to the level we desire in the Southern Conference and nationally.”

McCaffery has coached Division I men’s basketball for 16 years. He spent the last 11 years as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Notre Dame, working on the staffs of Richard “Digger” Phelps and John MacLeod.  He was the nation’s youngest Division I head coach when he was hired Sept. 11, 1985, at Lehigh, and capped his three-year tenure with the Engineers with a 21-win season and an NCAA berth in 1988.

 At Notre Dame, he helped the team to NCAA Tournament appearances in 1989 and 1990.  The Irish reached the NIT finals in 1992, losing to Virginia in overtime, and advanced to the quarterfinals of the event in 1997.  Among the players he recruited to play for Notre Dame were Pat Garrity, Academic All-American of the Year in 1998, and Troy Murphy, Big East Rookie of the Year in 1999.  Garrity was a first-round NBA draft pick and the Big East Player of the Year in 1997.

In three seasons as head coach at Lehigh, he compiled a 49-39 overall record and guided the team to the NCAA Tournament in 1988.  At the time, 
he was the youngest head coach to reach the NCAA Tournament. His Lehigh teams had two winning seasons in three years, and the 1987-88 squad’s 21-10 record was the best in program history.  The Engineers compete in the non-scholarship Patriot League.

McCaffery was assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Lehigh from 1983-85 and helped the team to its first NCAA Tournament appearance ever in 1985.

He was assistant varsity coach and head sub-varsity coach at Pennsylvania during the 1982-83 season.

McCaffery lettered three years as point guard on the men’s basketball team at Penn as one of the first transfers to play for the Quakers.  He earned a bachelor of science degree from the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce in 1982.

In three seasons, he helped Penn to a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances and Ivy League titles and one berth in the NIT.  As a senior in 1981-82, he led the Ivy League in steals and assists and was voted the team’s most inspirational player.