Early history
The history of basketball at Duquesne University can be dated back to 1914, when the university administration established basketball as a varsity sport. The first game, against Bethany College, was won in a gym under the college chapel on January 9, 1914 (Rishel 23). The team was first coached by Alexander Hogarty, whose tenure lasted only one season. The position was filled by Father Eugene McGuigan, who was called "Father Mac" on campus and "Coach Gene Martin" in newspaper reports in order to prevent the name of a Holy Ghost father from being associated with the rowdiness of "Basket-ball". Father McGuigan coached football, baseball, and basketball until he was transferred from Duquesne University in 1923 (Rishel 38).
When a proper gymnasium was constructed in 1923, Duquesne Basketball was finally allowed to come into its own, as the previous court was in reality a stage below the chapel and was not only slanted but demarcated by a steel cage on its perimeter. Teams had previously refused to play the "Bluffites" on their home court. Coach "Chick" Davies initiated a new era in the basketball program, filling the 1,200-seat gymnasium and bringing the team into national prominence. In its first season with Davies, Duquesne tied with Waynesburg University for the Tri-State Conference championship and dominated the same conference in 1926 and 1927 before moving to a higher level of competition. The season expanded from 20 to 28 games and became more competitive in 1930 when the team faced the University of Iowa, Loyola University Chicago, Adrian College, Elmhurst College, Alfred State College, John Carroll University, American University, Catholic University, Colgate University, St. Bonaventure University, Seton Hall University, Manhattan College, and the City College of New York. Davies, immensely popular, coached Duquesne basketball until 1948 (Rishel 40–41).
World War II era
The university tried to hold on to basketball during World War II, having reworked the gymnasium in 1942 to seat an extra 800 spectators, but was forced to drop the sport at the end of the 1943 season (Rishel 81–82). However, the sport was reinstated in the spring of 1946. During the 1946–1947 season Davies led the Dukes to 19 straight victories before a loss to Georgetown University. In that same season, Duquesne received its third invitation to the NIT, losing by one point to the University of Utah, the eventual champion, which it had defeated during the regular season (Rishel 101).
During this first postwar season, the University of Tennessee refused to play a scheduled game against Duquesne at the McKeesport (PA) Vocational High School because the Dukes had a black player--Chuck Cooper. The December 23, 1946, game had been highly anticipated since Tennessee had two All-Americans and four other returning lettermen. As Davies refused to remove Cooper from the squad, Tennessee canceled at the last minute. In 1950, Cooper became the first African-American drafted to play professional basketball when he joined the Boston Celtics (Rishel 101).
Mid-century success
Dukes Basketball continued to impress with a new coach in the 1948–49 season--Donald "Dudey" Moore, who had also played for Duquesne.[4] In the 1949–50 season, Moore's team achieved a 17–5 record in the 1948–49 season, and in 1950, 23 wins and another bid to the NIT. By the 1950s, Duquesne's Locust Street gym had become inadequate to seat the team's spectators, so games were usually played in a high school gym in McKeesport or the Duquesne Gardens in Oakland. Even at this point, daily practice was held at North Catholic High School (Rishel 102).
The 1950s marked an age of immense success for Dukes Basketball, with Moore leading his team to six NIT bids (1950, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956). The team went 21–1 during the 1951–52 regular season and was the top seed in the tournament. Moore was named "Coach of the Year" by the New York Basketball Writers Association.[4] In 1953, Duquesne was rated as a preseason "best in the East" and possibly the nation.[citation needed] With a 23–2 record, they were top seed for the NIT that year. Although they lost to the College of the Holy Cross, they achieved a new record of 26 victories in a season. Top-seeded again in '54, Duquesne, following a 19–4 regular season, finally won the title of NIT Champions in 1955 (Rishel 137–138).
The 1956 season almost came to an early end, as the Duquesne Gardens, then Duquesne's home court, was to be demolished. However, in a gesture which athletic director Doc Skender called "one of the finest acts of sportsmanship I've ever known," long-standing rival the University of Pittsburgh allowed the Dukes use of the Fitzgerald Field House for home games (Rishel 138).
Coach Red Manning, initially unpopular, soon led the Dukes to another era of postseason play, ending up in the Final Four in the 1962 NIT tournament, with further appearances in the NIT in 1964, 1968, and 1970, plus appearances in the NCAA Tournament in 1969 and 1971.
Notable in this decade was Willie Somerset, nicknamed by the press as "Wonderful Willie." Though only 5'11", he could jump higher than any other player on the team (Rishel 177).
1970s to 1990s
More information Retired basketball jerseys, Number ...
Close
The 1970s saw the end of Manning's tenure. Duquesne had seen only four different basketball coaches in fifty years, but this decade alone saw three coaches: Red Manning, John Cinicola, and Mike Rice. The decade was relatively lackluster, although it saw the likes of "the greatest guard in Duquesne basketball history"--Norm Nixon (Rishel 216). The 1980s were marked by problems with many players' academic eligibility—calling into question the university's recruiting and support procedures—and are best described as "trying times" for the Dukes (Rishel 246). There were only two winning seasons in the decade--'80–81 and '85–86. Even so, the 1988 construction of the A. J. Palumbo Center—Duquesne Basketball's current home—is a notable event of this time period.
21st century
The Dukes have had mixed success in the 21st century, reaching one NCAA Tournament (reaching the second round in 2024), one NIT Tournament (eliminated in the first round in 2009) and four College Basketball Invitational tournaments (twice making the second round). Despite coming off a second straight winning season and losing to Temple in the Atlantic 10 Conference Championship Game in 2009, coach Ron Everhart was fired after the 2011–2012 season; the university cited a lack of postseason success as the main reason for the firing.[6] Jim Ferry was hired but failed to improve the team's performance and was fired in 2017 with an overall record of 60-97.[7] Keith Dambrot was hired away from Akron and coached the team to a bid in the 2024 NCAA Tournament as an 11 seed after winning the Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament for the second time. They defeated the 6th-seeded BYU Cougars in the first round 71-67, their first NCAA tournament win in 55 years.[8]
