Iowa Hawkeyes coach, Fran McCaffery became the winningest coach in the program's history when his team beat the Minnesota Golden Gophers 86-77 on Monday evening.
Win No. 272 for McCaffery came in his 14th season and he finally surpassed Tom Davis for the most wins in Iowa men's basketball history. Davis won 271 games in 13 seasons as Hawkeyes coach between 1986-1999.
McCaffery has a 129-121 Big Ten record alongside a 272-182 overall record since he was appointed Iowa coach in the 2010-2011 season. He has 8 seasons of 20 or more wins and 7 NCAA tournament appearances during that time.
Fran McCaffery's son, Connor McCaffery who is dating current Iowa Hawkeyes women's basketball star, Caitlin Clark got emotional on his Instagram stories after his father bagged the historic win.
Earlier in the week, after the Iowa Hawkeyes' 86-77 win against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights making it win No. 127 in the Big Ten, finally going past Tom Davis, McCaffery had the following to say about getting the record:
“Well, considering the amount of respect I have for that man and how long I’ve known him and the standard that he’s set for anybody that came after him, it’s a tremendous feeling. It’s also an indication, it’s indicative of, I have really good players. I have really good players with character. I’ve had great staff, an unbelievable support of my family and I’m just proud to be the Hawkeye coach."
Fran McCaffery supports his son after accident
In May 2022, Jack McCaffery, Fran McCaffery's son was involved in an accident where the car he was driving hit a national guardsman, Corey Hite who was three weeks away from retirement.
Hite later died from the injuries sustained during the accident and Fran McCaffery released a statement after the incident in support of his son.
"On May 22nd, just after leaving school, our 16-year-old son was the driver in a vehicle/pedestrian accident," the statement read. "Investigators have told us that it was an unavoidable accident with no evidence to suggest distracted driving. The pedestrian, who was jogging at the time of the accident, was waved in front of our son's passing vehicle by the driver of another vehicle."
"The jogger, Sgt. First Class Corey Hite, passed away two weeks after the accident from the injuries he sustained," statement further added. "We are devastated by this tragedy. SFC Hite’s family has our deepest sympathies. While our family continues to process the events of the past weeks and help our son cope with this accident, we will have no further comment at this time."
Jack was cited for failure to yield to a pedestrian on a crosswalk and ordered to pay a $1,000 fine including the loss of his license for 180 days.
Considering the severity of the incident, Fran McCaffery's son can consider himself lucky with that outcome.
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