Jack Nagle

Joel "Jack" Nagle (1917 – 1991) was the head coach of the Marquette University men’s basketball team from 1953 to 1958.

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Nagle was educated at Marquette and lettered in both the 1938-39 and 1939-40 seasons, as a reserve guard on the team.

Following graduation, Nagle served in the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) from 1940-44. After leaving the military, Nagle was named an assistant coach at Marquette under his former coach, William "Bill" Chandler, and later under Fred "Tex" Winter. Nagle was named head coach of the Warriors in 1953 after Winter left to return to Kansas State as that school’s head coach.

Nagle was also instrumental in the renaming of the team from the Marquette Hilltoppers to the Warriors.

The first Marquette men’s basketball team to earn a trip to the NCAA Tournament was the 1954-55 team, in Nagle’s second year as head coach. The team had its first ever 20-win season, compiling a 24-3 record. The team reached as high as No. 4 in the AP Poll before finishing the season ranked No. 8. Marquette beat Miami (Ohio) University in the first round of the tournament 90-79 and then beat No. 2 Kentucky, 79-71 in the second round. Marquette then lost to No. 5 Iowa in the Elite Eight, 86-81.

Nagle’s record over five seasons at Marquette was 69-55 (55.6%).

In 1958, Nagle left the college coaching ranks and took a position at Whitefish Bay High School in suburban Milwaukee, Wisconsin, teaching freshman English grammar, composition and literature, and coaching the boys’ varsity basketball team from 1958–1973 and the girls’ varsity team from 1973-1988. Both his boys and girls teams made appearances in the Wisconsin state high school basketball tournament. Nagle is the only coach in American basketball history to coach teams in the NCAA tournament and both a boys and girls state high school tournament.

In the 1980s, Nagle was a scout for the Cleveland Cavaliers and later the Dallas Mavericks.

He was a charter member of the Wisconsin High School Basketball Association Hall of Fame and was voted Wisconsin High School Coach of the Year 10 times. Nagle also served as commissioner of the Continental Basketball Association.

Nagle was one of the early proponents of summer basketball camps to teach skills, beginning day camps in the mid-1960s.

In 1986, he authored a popular coaching book called Power Pattern Offenses for Winning Basketball. He died in 1991 in Shorewood, Wisconsin.

Son, Chuck Nagle, was a three-year starter at Wisconsin (67/68-69/70).

Books authored

 * Jack Nagle, Power Pattern Offenses for Winning Basketball, West Nyack, NY: Parker Publishing, 1986 (ISBN 0136877087)