Longtime Ohio State men’s tennis coach and philanthropist John Daly died Wednesday at the age of 78.
He won 431 matches while leading the Buckeyes from 1972 to 1999, and 449 career matches overall, including the season he coached at Northern Illinois prior to his tenure at OSU.
Daly coached Francisco Gonzalez, Ernie Fernandez, and Ty Tucker – the first three All-Americans in the history of the Ohio State men’s tennis team. Tucker, who competed for Daly during the team’s 1991 Big Ten Championship season, is the current Buckeyes coach. At the time, the 1991 conference title was one of just two in the men’s tennis trophy case.
When he retired from coaching, Daly became, as The Dispatch put it, the “keeper of the visual history of Ohio State athletics,” with athletic director Andy Geiger appointing him the program’s film archivist.
Daly also raised thousands of dollars for charity and hosted wheelchair tennis tournaments.
He and his wife, Sandra, were married for 56 years, raising two daughters and a son, all of whom attended Ohio State.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State men’s tennis mourns death of longtime coach John Daly
