Sports
Coach Gets 1,000th Win In Final Home Game Of 54-Year Career
The timing worked out perfectly for Tom O'Malley, the Saint Xavier University basketball coach who is ending a 54-year career in the game.
CHICAGO (MT. GREENWOOD) — The timing worked out perfectly. Tom O'Malley, the retiring Saint Xavier University men's basketball coach, earned his milestone 1,000th career coaching victory Wednesday night in his final home game as head coach of the Cougars. The Chicago basketball legend is ending a career that dates back 54 seasons and had stops at Leo, Reavis and Evergreen Park high schools before SXU.
RELATED: SXU Basketball's Tom O'Malley Retiring After 54 Years Of Coaching
O'Malley announced before the 2019-2020 season began that it would be his last. At the time he needed 19 wins to reach 1,000 for the career. It just so happened that his final home game, a 90-69 win over the University of Saint Francis on Wednesday at the SXU Shannon Center, would get him his 19th win of the season and 1,000th overall.
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The coach's milestone win puts SXU at 19-9 overall this season and 14-7 in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference. The Cougars have won several conference titles and NAIA tournament games in O'Malley's time at the helm. They were ranked as high as No. 2 in the nation at one point and advanced to the NAIA Elite Eight in 2005.
O'Malley has a chance at win No. 1,001 as the Cougars close out the regular season on Saturday, Feb. 22 on the road against Indiana University-South Bend. The team will also compete in the CCAC postseason tournament next week.
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The first 474 wins of O'Malley's career came at the high school level, where he was the head coach at Leo High School on the South Side of Chicago from 1965-1974, Reavis High School in Burbank from 1974-1983 and Evergreen Park High School from 1983-1997. He's been the head coach at SXU since 1997 and is the school's all-time men's basketball coaching wins leader with 526.
"We just don't see that kind of longevity anymore, let alone his sustained success," Saint Xavier University Director of Athletics Allison Kern said. "In my short time here I have met many former athletes whose lives have been touched by Coach O."
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