Fran Dunphy set to become Temple's acting athletic director

Temple is set to announce Wednesday afternoon that former men’s head basketball coach Fran Dunphy will become the university’s acting athletic director on an interim basis, OwlScoop.com has learned.

Pat Kraft, who had spent the last five years as Temple’s athletic director, will become the new AD at Boston College effective July 1 after signing a 5-year contract with the school earlier this month.

Dunphy played basketball at La Salle from 1967-1970 before embarking upon a coaching career that included a combined 30 years of head coaching experience at Penn (1989-2006) and Temple (2006-2019). He amassed 580 wins in that 13-year career, including a mark of 270-162 at Temple.

Dunphy coached at Temple for 13 seasons, taking over for Hall of Fame coach John Chaney in 2006 and eventually stepping aside at the end of the 2018-2019 season. In that span, he was named Philadelphia Big 5 Coach of the Year four times. Following a 12-18 record in his first season on North Broad Street, the Owls won three consecutive Atlantic 10 tournament titles and began a run that saw the program advance to the NCAA Tournament eight times.

Off the court, Dunphy is an honors professor at Temple’s Fox School of Business teaching Management, Theory & Practice: From the Locker Room to the Board Room.

Dunphy will be walking into a big workload, as he’s taking over at a time when the Athletic Department is working to get student-athletes back on campus safely amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.