Bill E. Foster
| Sport(s) | Basketball |
|---|---|
| Biographical details | |
| Born |
August 19, 1929 Ridley Park, Pennsylvania |
| Died | January 7, 2016 (aged 86) Chicago, Illinois |
| Playing career | |
| ?–1954 | Elizabethtown |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| 1960–1963 | Bloomsburg State |
| 1963–1971 | Rutgers |
| 1971–1974 | Utah |
| 1974–1980 | Duke |
| 1980–1986 | South Carolina |
| 1986–1993 | Northwestern |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 467–409 |
| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Awards | |
| NABC Co-Coach of the Year (1978) | |
William Edwin Foster (August 19, 1929 – January 7, 2016) was the head men's basketball coach at Rutgers University, University of Utah, Duke University, University of South Carolina, and Northwestern University. He is best known for guiding Duke to the NCAA championship game in 1978, and that year he was named national Coach of the Year by the National Association of Basketball Coaches. Foster was inducted into the Rutgers Basketball Hall of Fame and was the first NCAA coach to guide four different teams to 20-win seasons (Rutgers, Utah, Duke, and South Carolina). Foster was a graduate of Elizabethtown College.
Foster was born in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania in 1929 and grew up in Norwood, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. After serving in the U.S. Air Force, he graduated from Elizabethtown College in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, in 1954 with a bachelor of science degree.
Foster began his coaching career at Philadelphia-area high schools in the 1950s. One of his students in a typing class at Abington Senior High School was the daughter of Harry Litwack, the longtime basketball coach at Temple University. Foster and Litwack became friends and business partners, and for about 25 years they operated a popular summer basketball camp in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains.
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