Congratulations to the South Carolina Gamecocks and the UConn Huskies

The NYAC Winged Foot Award offers congratulations to Coaches Dan Hurley and Dawn Staley for guiding their teams to victory in the 2024 men’s and women’s NCAA Division I Basketball Tournaments.

Coaches Staley and Hurley, regarded as two of the top basketball minds at the college level, led their teams on similar paths this season on the way to their respective titles. Both squads were the top ranked team in the country for much of the season; both won conference regular season and conference tournament titles; both entered the NCAA Tournament as the number one overall seed; and, of course, both the Gamecocks and the Huskies won the national championship, cementing their claim as two of the most dominant teams in NCAA history. UConn won a school record 37 games, including its six NCAA Tournament games by a record margin of 23.3 points, and South Carolina became just the 10th women’s team in Division I history to complete an undefeated season, finishing with a record of 38-0.

The women’s championship game took place on April 7th at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, OH. The matchup pitted two talented teams against each other, with Coach Staley's South Carolina Gamecocks finishing on top, defeating the Iowa Hawkeyes by a score of 87 to 75. The victory marked the third women’s basketball championship in university history, all of which have come under the guidance of Coach Staley. In recognition of her exceptional work this season, Coach Staley was named the Naismith Women’s College Coach of the Year, the fourth time in her career she has earned this honor (2020, 2022-2024), and she also earned SEC Coach of the Year honors for the seventh time. Coach Staley has had an incredibly successful career as a player and coach. Her accolades include two-time Naismith College Player of the Year (she is the only individual ever to win the Naismith Trophy as a player and a coach); five-time WNBA All-Star; induction into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame (2013); and three Olympic gold medals (1996, 2000, 2004). Coach Staley has also coached three Olympic gold-winning teams (2008, 2016 – assistant coach; 2020 – head coach). In doing so, she is the only individual in the history of Olympic basketball to win a gold medal as a player and serve as the head coach of a gold medal-winning team.

In the men’s championship, the game was hard fought, but Coach Hurley’s UConn Huskies proved to be too much for the Purdue Boilermakers, earning a 76-59 win in a battle of top seeds on April 8th at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, AZ. The victory makes UConn the first back-to-back champions in men’s basketball since Florida achieved the feat in 2006 and 2007. UConn has now won six men’s basketball championships, the last two of which have come with Coach Hurley at the helm. In recognition of his tremendous work this season, Coach Hurley was named Big East Coach of the Year and earned Naismith Men’s College Coach of the Year honors for the first time in his career. After playing college basketball at Seton Hall, Coach Hurley has had a remarkably successful coaching career, compiling a 223-21 record at St. Benedict’s Preparatory School in New Jersey before successful spells as head coach at Wagner College (2010-2012) and the University of Rhode Island (2012-2018). Now, after six years at UConn, Coach Hurley has established the program as one of the foremost in the country.

In earning the 2024 Division I titles and the NYAC Winged Foot Award, Coaches Staley and Hurley personify all for which the Award stands: dedication, passion, commitment and the unfailing belief that those attributes developed on the field of play will serve young athletes well throughout their lives.

About the Winged Foot Award

Established in 1996 by the celebrated New York Athletic Club, the Winged Foot Award recognizes the coaches of the winning teams of the NCAA Division I men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. In the years since its inception, the Winged Foot Award has become synonymous with the spirit of collegiate basketball. Having been presented to some of the most accomplished coaches in NCAA history, the Award recognizes and acknowledges those men and women who guide, motivate and enable scholar athletes to reach the peak of their endeavors, both on and off the basketball court.

The annual presentation of the Award takes place at the NYAC’s elegant City House overlooking Central Park South in mid-town Manhattan. Within those confines, a glittering array of coaching and athletic talent gathers each year once the NCAA Division I men’s and women’s tournaments are concluded. To say that the event is celebratory hardly does it justice. As coaches such as Kim Mulkey, Geno Auriemma, Mike Krzyzewski, Jay Wright, Jim Boeheim and Carolyn Peck, to name just a few, will certainly attest, it is an evening that lives in memory.

In addition to recognizing the winning coaches, the Winged Foot Award ceremony intermittently honors a select individual as a Winged Foot Award Legend. Reserved for the men and women whose impact on the game of basketball has been extraordinarily profound, this prestigious honor is bestowed on select coaches, broadcasters and administrators. To date, the Winged Foot Award has recognized nine such Legends. Among these celebrated figures are Dean Smith, John Wooden, Pat Summitt and Billy Packer.

While the spotlight of the Winged Foot Award shines brightly on the winning coaches, significantly the award also serves an altruistic purpose, with a donation being made in the name of each winning school to the Jimmy V Foundation. In that, the Award seeks not only to celebrate an invariably rousing tournament but also to lend support where it is decidedly needed. It need hardly be said that lending support is the very essence of good coaching.

Every year, the NCAA Division I basketball tournaments capture the imagination of sports fans across the USA. It is now a tradition that, having captured the titles and cut down the nets, the season is not truly over until the Winged Foot Award has been presented to the coaches who have guided their athletes to the pinnacle of their dreams.