Vic Bubas - - Staff Directory

Staff Directory

Vic Bubas

Career Record at Duke:
213-67 (10)

One of the first college coaches to run a basketball team with the vision and efficiency of a corporate CEO, Vic Bubas’ results more than validated the process. Bubas directed the Blue Devils for exactly one decade, 1960 through 1969, and there was only one coach on the planet who accomplished more during that time -- UCLA’s John Wooden. Bubas’s teams reached the ACC championship game in eight of his 10 years and won the title four times; they made the first three Final Four trips in school history and played for the national championship once (losing to Wooden); they were ranked in the top 10 of the final AP national poll seven times; and overall they won 213 games against just 67 losses.

Bubas elevated the profile of Duke basketball from regional to national. The Blue Devils had participated in the NCAA Tournament just once before his arrival, as a replacement for NC State (then on probation). But Duke earned a bid in Bubas’ first year and went three more times. Given that the only method of entry during that era was winning a conference championship, Bubas concentrated on ACC superiority and was wildly successful. Thirty-five years after his retirement, Bubas’ overall conference record of 106–32 still stood as the best winning percentage in league history (76.8), as did his 22–6 mark in the ACC Tournament (78.6). Overall, during the middle eight years of his reign the Blue Devils won 81 percent of their games, went 76–5 at home, and posted a 91–24 mark against the ACC. From 1961 to 1967 Duke’s record of 159–37 was the best in the nation.

Following the example set by his mentor Case, Bubas was an innovative CEO. He started a basketball camp, a weekly television show, and ladies’ clinics. He added names to the backs of the jerseys, brought in a pep band and dancing girls to the Indoor Stadium, and favored a fast-paced, fan-friendly offensive attack. His recruiting, national in scope and highly organized, lured several future Duke Hall of Famers to campus, beginning with his pioneer player, Art Heyman, who had committed to UNC before Bubas was hired. And Bubas always insisted on surrounding himself with excellent assistants. Coaches Bucky Waters, Fred Shabel, Tom Carmody, Chuck Daly, and Hubie Brown all went on to head coaching positions.

After resigning from the head coaching position at the age of 42, Bubas remained on campus for another seven years working for the university administration. Then he was hired as the first commissioner of the Sun Belt Conference and served from 1976 to 1990. During that time he spent five years on the NCAA Basketball Committee, at a time when decisions were made to expand the field to 64 teams and use domed stadiums for the Final Four.

Bubas was enshrined in the Duke Sports Hall of Fame in 1977, and the concourse at Cameron Indoor Stadium was named in his honor in 2001. In 1996 the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame presented him with the John Bunn Award, its most prestigious honor short of enshrinement, for his great contributions to the game.