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Click here for photos from the retirement party at Episcopal, 5/20/10.

The Rest of the Story . . .

  She added, "Dan's not really a hobby guy. Doesn't like traveling that much, either. Maybe I can get him to do some gardening."

  Dan's response: "Good luck with that. We live in Roxborough. Too many rocks in the ground."

  In all, Dougherty, 74, posted a 40-season high school record of 679-322, counting three (1959-61) at St. Pius X, in Pottstown, and one at Penncrest ('76). He was also the freshman coach at Villanova from 1967-69, a varsity assistant in '70 and '71 and the head coach at Army from 1972-75.

  Oh, and his total, complete, counting-everything record should be 746-407. You see, there was the time - in 1960, he's pretty sure - when he served as a fill-in coach for a team of nurses representing St. Joseph's Hospital, on Girard Avenue.

  "Maryellen was the coach and her sister, Peg, was one of the players," he said. "Got about an eighth-of-an-inch off the floor, but had a great hook shot. Maryellen was sick one time and I wound up coaching. We lost, and she has never let me forget it."

  Basketball was truly a family affair for the Doughertys.

  Dan, Mike and Brian all played for their dad at Episcopal, and Brian in recent years was an assistant. Mom figures she attended 90 to 95 percent of the games. One of her greatest joys was riding the bus to road games and treating the players to cookies, Hershey kisses, tangerines, etc.

  Dinners at the Dougherty house were also commonplace.

  Just as impressive as Dougherty's win total, perhaps even more so, is that three of the city's Division I college coaches played for him. Fran Dunphy (Temple) did so at Malvern, followed by James "Bruiser" Flint (Drexel) and Jerome Allen (Penn) at Episcopal.

  Two other college head coaches, Hartford's Dan Leibovitz, who resigned from that postion yesterday, and Boston University's Patrick Chambers, also played at Episcopal while Fran O'Hanlon (Lafayette) was on the 'Nova freshman squad in '67. Another former Doc Era Churchman, Eugene Burroughs, is an assistant at Navy.

  "I'm so proud of those guys," Dougherty said. "It's pretty neat that they all came out of a small private school with only about 200 boys [ninth grade on up]."

  So did a pair of NBA rookies, Gerald Henderson (Charlotte) and Wayne Ellington (Minnesota), whose 2006 squad (27-4) was dubbed the best in Inter-Ac history by the Daily News. (Allen also played in the NBA.)

  This past season, Dougherty experienced a bit of a disconnect with his players. His teaching involvement at Episcopal these last 2 years has been limited to math tutoring 3 days a week.

  "This was the first time I had a team with no players I'd ever taught in a regular classroom setting," he said. "That was different. Before, if any issues came up, you always knew you'd see the kids in school and talk things over after class, if need be.

  "Overall, I was happy with how the season wound up. We played pretty good ball over the second half. Only lost by one to [league champ] Chestnut Hill and then finished with that B Bracket championship [in the Pennsylvania Independent Schools Tournament] after the bad weather forced that change [from a 16-team overall session to two with eight apiece].

  "We had some good younger players. There's a little bit in the cupboard."

  Dougherty said he has recommended assistant Bud Tosti as his successor. Tosti was 346-229 overall in 23 seasons (1980-2002) at Malvern.

  When asked what he'll miss most about coaching, Dougherty said, "The association with the players, my assistants and coaches around the Inter-Ac. My guys were such a fun group to be around. Swapping those locker- room stories.

  "The Inter-Ac is a unique league. Maybe because it's so small with just the six schools. It's like everyone's a friend. I'm not aware of any animosity."

  As he eases into sports retirement, Dougherty and his wife are looking forward to one wonderful trip. Son Brian, a first-magnitude lacrosse star, will be the goaltender for Team USA during the World Championships in England in July.

  As Dougherty prepared to meet with Episcopal higher-ups and reveal his intentions, he first called many former players.

  "Most of them said, 'No, you gotta stay,' " he reported, laughing.

  "Dan did struggle with this decision," Maryellen Dougherty said. "But he feels at peace with it."

  Next stop: The local garden center . . . Maybe.

-----

And here's another story, from February of 2005

Can't knock the win out of EA coach
Dougherty owns victory mark, long list of admirers

By TED SILARY

  AS REQUESTED, the trinket still holds a place of honor in Dan Dougherty 's Episcopal Academy mathematics classroom.

  Front blackboard. Upper right corner.

  It's one of those refrigerator magnets and it shows a young girl with these words: "Erin is a super kid. "

  It was given to Dougherty in 1987 by one of his students/advisees and she playfully told him to never take it down, and that she'd be back through the years to check.

  She has kept that promise and now has children in EA's lower school, so she makes occasional visits to speak with the man, as have so many others over 29 years, she came to admire.

  Her identity? Too overwhelming a coincidence. You'd never believe us. But here we go anyway . . .

  The woman is Erin O ' Brien Dugery. Her grandfather was Charles "Obie" O ' Brien . And until just recently, until Dougherty dislodged him, O ' Brien was the winningest coach in the history of city-leagues basketball (Public, Catholic, Inter-Ac. )

  "The next time I see Erin, she probably won't be too happy with me," Dougherty said, smiling.

  O' Brien - Sixers coach Jim O ' Brien is his nephew - won 541 games over 34 seasons (1935-41, 1944-70) at La Salle High and coached, among others, the great Tom Gola ('51). Dougherty is 548-218 in three stints over 31 seasons, thanks to records of 74-31 at Malvern Prep from 1962-66, 381-150 at Episcopal from 1977-97 and 93-37 at EA again from 2001 to the present.

  Overall, he owns 606 high school victories, adding in a 51-26 mark at St. Pius X, in Pottstown, from 1959-61 and 7-11 at Penncrest in '76.

  No. 600, in fact, was garnered Jan. 14 before 3,000-plus at Saint Joseph's University, his alma mater (along with St. Joseph's Prep), when the Churchmen (now 19-2) edged Germantown Academy, 52-51.

  (Father Judge coach Bill Fox, who played for him at La Salle, will be the next to surpass O' Brien 's total. He needs two wins for 542.)

  Dougherty, still with boundless energy at 69, grew up near 4th and Spencer in Olney. His wife, Maryellen ("She says she'll never marry another basketball coach," Dan quipped), lived right nearby on Lawrence Street.

  At the Prep, Doc knew all about La Salle because then, as now, the schools were rivals. And of course, O ' Brien was a big name around the city, and especially in Olney, because he'd coached Gola, who was a product of Incarnation School. Dougherty was a product of the next Catholic school up along 5th Street, St. Helena.

  When Dougherty, fresh from assisting Jack Kraft at Villanova, was Army's coach for four seasons beginning in '72, O ' Brien offered to help by scouting future opponents, and did so for two seasons.

  "Yes, I knew Obie," Dougherty said, when that question first was posed. "A great man and great coach. He set some lofty standards. "

  Ditto for Doc.

  Dougherty has produced 11 Inter-Ac champions (just one had to share) and this season will undoubtedly yield a 12th. Seven titlists have frolicked perfectly through league play.

  Even his few unsuccessful teams have played the right way, and have been devoid of knuckleheads. When Dougherty does have talent, watching his teams ranks high on the list of most enjoyable Philly sports experiences.

  Dougherty figured he was truly finished and would "just fade away" when he stepped down from coaching the Churchmen after the '97 season. Except to make occasional practice visits to help his daughter, Kathy Marshall, then the girls' coach at Abington Friends, he mothballed his clipboard and even went to watch fewer and fewer EA games as time moved on.

  Jim Farrell, one of his former players, coached the Churchmen for the three missing seasons on Dougherty's resume.

  "Jim had an unfortunate experience," Dougherty said. "There were some things going on here that weren't really his fault . . . When Jim stepped down, some of the kids on the team asked me to come back.

  "When I did, I came back refreshed. Winning makes it enjoyable, of course, but even aside from the winning I'm just having fun.

  "I love the challenge of putting together teams with a couple of basketball players and mostly role players. Guys for whom basketball is not even a primary sport. Even on our best teams my first time around, that was usually how we did it. "

  This year's headliners, juniors Wayne Ellington and Gerald Henderson, are among the country's top prospects. Mike Yocum, a 6-9 junior, also shows D-I promise. But hoops is sport No. 3 for forward Joe Rosati (baseball, football) and point guard Dylan Brown (lacrosse, football).

  Dougherty calls Rosati the best possible leader a team could have. Meanwhile, he has an interesting relationship with Brown. They, um, tend to drive each other nuts, in a fun kind of way.

  At practice recently, during a defensive drill, Brown insisted he was able to see his man even though, according to Dougherty, the guy was behind him on a pretty severe angle.

  "I asked Dylan how he could see him," Dougherty said. "He told me, 'peripheral vision. ' I told him to get out of the gym and use his 'peripheral vision' to find the showers.

  "When I throw a kid out of practice, he has to miss the next game. "

  Dougherty smiled mischievously.

  "I put in Dylan during mopup time so it would lower his scoring average. " (Not exactly astronomical, by the way. )

  Penn coach Fran Dunphy and Drexel's James "Bruiser" Flint played for Doc. As did assistants such as Pat Chambers (Villanova), Eugene Burroughs (Navy) and Dan Leibovitz (Temple).

  His youngest son, Brian, a first team All-America goalie at Maryland and still active in Major League Lacrosse, is Episcopal's JV coach. Mike, the middle, is the head coach at Charlotte (N.C.) Country Day School. Dan, the eldest, went to training camp with the New York Giants in '84 and is now a commodities trader.

  "On 9/11," Dougherty said, softly, "we went about 4 hours not knowing where he was. "

  Dougherty said he was convinced to go into coaching by Jack Ramsay, of St. Joe's and NBA fame.

  "I've had a lot of fun," he said, "and have tried to be a positive influence. And none of this would be possible without a very understanding wife. Actually, I think she likes this more than I do. She fawns over the kids. Bakes them cookies and things. "

  With Ellington and Henderson still around, everyone figures Dougherty will stay on the scene for one more season. There's also another reason: his grandson, Kieran Marshall, a junior, is on the junior varsity.

  "His sport is lacrosse, really," Dougherty said. "He's a goalie. He's also good at water polo. "

  Ah, grandpop's kind of guy. A role player to mix with the stars.