PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Herb Magee, Thomas Jefferson University’s Hall of Fame men’s basketball coach, has announced that the upcoming season will be his last. He will retire following the 2021-22 season.
Magee has been at the NCAA Division II school since arriving as a player in 1959 when it was known as Philadelphia Textile.
He scored more than 2,000 points for the Rams, before turning to coaching and becoming an assistant under then-head coach Bucky Harris.
Magee took over the program in 1967 and the rest, as they say, is history.
He led the Rams to a national championship in 1970 and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011.
When it comes to what he will miss the most when his coaching days are done, Magee said the interaction with the kids is at the top of the list, as well as the feeling of victory.
"Nothing can touch when we have played a tough game, it’s been back and forth, and then all of a sudden, somebody makes a play at the end of the game, there’s still time on the clock, but it’s obvious we are going to win the game," said Magee.
"That’s the best time of the game, and best time of the day.”
Magee’s long time assistant coach Jimmy Reilly will take over as head coach starting with the 2022-23 season.
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As he enters his final season, Magee has 1,123 coaching wins, second in the history of NCAA men’s basketball behind only Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski.
“Each year, in the past 'x' number of years, I would sit down with the family, my wife and kids, and we would talk about it. It wasn’t, at the time, the right time, but this time just turns out to be the right time," Magee told KYW Newsradio.
"54 years, I think, might be enough.”
