PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Tom Shirley, long-time head coach of women’s basketball at Thomas Jefferson University, reached a historic milestone Wednesday night in East Falls: He picked up his 900th career win.
The Rams beat the Caldwell University Cougars 58-33 at the Gallagher Center. Shirley now has a career coaching record of 900 wins and 384 losses. He is ranked 10th among coaches across all college divisions in coaching victories, and he is just the second women’s coach in Division II history to hit this milestone.
He said getting to this point has truly been a team effort.
“It’s the people behind the scenes that have helped,” he said. “It’s the assistant coaches that have helped through the years. It’s certainly the players that have been here and the alumni who are here tonight to support us and the current players that we have.
“As the saying goes, it’s a village that makes this happen.”
Shirley has coached for 43 seasons — 35 of them at Jefferson. Wednesday night’s milestone win was his squad’s 10th in a row this season, improving their record to 19-6.
Shirley said he sets his mind on a goal, and once he reaches it, he sets another.
“Once I got to 800, I thought, well, let’s see if we can get to 900. So it’s great, but as I said earlier, it’s not an individual award,” he added. “It’s a team award for all the people that helped make this program successful.”
So, does the march to win No. 1,000 start now?
“I don’t know,” he laughed. “You know what, the next goal: 901, Saturday, Georgian Court.”