Skip Prosser facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Skip Prosser

Biographical details
Born	(1950-11-03)November 3, 1950 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	July 26, 2007(2007-07-26) (aged 56) Winston-Salem, North Carolina, U.S.
Playing career
1969–1972	Merchant Marine
Position(s)	Guard
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1977–1979	Linsly Military Institute
1979–1985	Wheeling Cent. Catholic HS
1985–1993	Xavier (assistant)
1993–1994	Loyola (MD)
1994–2001	Xavier
2001–2007	Wake Forest
Head coaching record
Overall	291–146
Tournaments	6–9 (NCAA Division I) 5–3 (NIT)
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
MAAC tournament (1994) MCC regular season (1995) Atlantic 10 regular season (1997) Atlantic 10 tournament (1998) ACC regular season (2003)
Awards
ACC Coach of the Year (2003) MCC Coach of the Year (1995)

George Edward "Skip" Prosser (November 3, 1950 – July 26, 2007) was a famous American college basketball coach. He was known for leading his teams to many victories. He even took three different schools to the big NCAA tournament in his very first year with each team! This was a record. Over 21 years, his teams played in the postseason 18 times.

Before coaching at Wake Forest University, he coached at Xavier University for seven years. He also spent a year coaching at Loyola College in Maryland. There, he helped the Greyhounds team reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time in a long while. In 2003, he was named the Atlantic Coast Conference Coach of the Year.

Early Life and Coaching Beginnings

Skip Prosser grew up in Carnegie, Pennsylvania. He loved sports from a young age. He played football and basketball at Carnegie High School. Later, he played basketball and rugby union at the United States Merchant Marine Academy. He earned a degree in nautical science in 1972.

Prosser started his coaching career at Linsly Military Institute in Wheeling, West Virginia. His teams had a great record of 38 wins and 9 losses. After that, he became a history teacher at Wheeling Central Catholic High School. He also coached basketball there. His teams won a state championship in 1982. They also won five regional championships and three conference titles. He had a record of 104 wins and 48 losses over six years. Prosser later said he would have been happy to keep teaching and coaching there. One of his championship players was Doug Wojcik, who later became a college coach himself. While at Wheeling Central, Prosser earned his master's degree from West Virginia University.

College Coaching Career

Skip Prosser coached for 15 seasons as a head coach in college basketball. He began his college coaching journey as an assistant coach. He worked for eight seasons at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, starting in 1985. He became the top assistant coach there.

Loyola College and Xavier University

Prosser became a head coach at Loyola College in Maryland on April 1, 1993. The team had been struggling, but Prosser quickly turned things around. In his only season at Loyola, the Greyhounds finished with 17 wins and 13 losses. They also won the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championship. This earned them their first-ever trip to the NCAA Division I tournament.

Exactly one year later, on April 1, 1994, he returned to Xavier University. He took over as head coach. He became the second-winningest coach in Xavier's history.

Wake Forest University Success

Prosser started coaching at Wake Forest University in 2001. He led the Demon Deacons to the NCAA tournament in each of his first four years. Prosser helped make games exciting for fans. He encouraged student participation and increased attendance. For example, the Demon Deacon mascot would enter games on a Harley Davidson motorcycle. The arena would also play "Kernkraft 400" by Zombie Nation at the start of games.

During Prosser's time, home season tickets sold out for the first time ever in 2004. In the 2004–05 season, the team was ranked #1 by the Associated Press. This was a first for the school. They also won a school-record 27 games that year. Prosser reached 100 wins at Wake Forest faster than almost any other coach in the ACC. In 2003, his team was the first from the ACC to lead the nation in rebounding.

Prosser coached many players who went on to play in the NBA. These include Aaron Williams, James Posey, David West, Josh Howard, Darius Songaila, and Chris Paul. He was very good at recruiting top players like Chris Paul. Overall, he had a career record of 291 wins and 146 losses. Every senior player he coached earned their college degree in four years.

Coaching Style and Philosophy

Prosser's teams were known for playing with a fast pace. They had an exciting offense that scored a lot of points.

He often used quotes from famous thinkers like Thomas Paine, Henry David Thoreau, and William Shakespeare to inspire his players. Before summer trips, Prosser would make his team take a class about the history of the place they were visiting. He would even attend the class and write the required paper himself.

Personal Life and Legacy

Skip Prosser and his wife Nancy met in Cincinnati. He had two sons, Scott and Mark, from his first marriage. Mark Prosser is also a college basketball coach.

Prosser was a huge sports fan. He loved the Pittsburgh Steelers since he was a kid. He would often find sports bars to watch their games when he was traveling. He saw many famous sports moments, like the Immaculate Reception and Roberto Clemente's 3,000th hit. He once even hitchhiked across the country.

People in college basketball knew Prosser for being very smart and having a great sense of humor. He enjoyed reading books about history, philosophy, and politics. He was called a "renaissance man coaching basketball" by a former athletic director. A former player said Prosser was always quoting famous authors like Winston Churchill.

Prosser once said his favorite quote was from Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Our chief want in life is someone who will make us do what we can." He felt it was important to be around people who challenge you to be your best.

Since 2009, Prosser's memory has been honored in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The annual READ Challenge is part of the Skip Prosser Literacy Program. This program encourages fourth-grade students to read. It is a partnership between Wake Forest Athletics and the Wake Forest Department of Education. In 2019, over 1,400 fourth graders participated. More than 900 of them read 1500 minutes or more!

Death

On July 26, 2007, Skip Prosser collapsed in his office. This happened after he had been jogging near his office at Wake Forest. A staff member found him. Medical staff tried to help him, but he was pronounced dead shortly after. He was 56 years old. The cause was a sudden heart attack.

The news of his death was kept quiet for a while. This was so his wife could be reached before the public found out. His players were also gathered and taken to a private location.

Two funeral services were held for Prosser. The first was in Clemmons, North Carolina, near Wake Forest. The second was at Xavier University in Cincinnati. Prosser was buried at the Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati.

Head Coaching Record