November 03, 2022
Friar basketball superstar Johnny Egan ’61
John Francis Egan ’61, who with Lenny Wilkens ’60 was one of Providence College’s first basketball superstars, leading the Friars to their first NIT Championship in 1961, died on July 21, 2022, in Houston. He was 83.
Mr. Egan came to PC following a standout career at Weaver High School in Hartford, Conn. The team, undefeated with 24 wins his senior year, won the New England Championship at Boston Garden, rallying from a deficit. Mr. Egan sank two free throws as the clock expired, then dominated in overtime.
In a 2013 interview with Providence College Magazine, he said he decided to attend PC to please his mother, an Irish immigrant who felt comfortable knowing he would be at a Catholic college. “I was a cocky kid and a flashy player,” Mr. Egan recalled. But under coach Joe Mullaney ’65Hon., ’98Hon., “we worked as a cohesive unit, and no one had a huge ego. We had talent but we weren’t overly talented. We played for the good of the team and it seems like every practice, we had fun.” He remained close to his teammates all his life.
In 1959, Mr. Egan helped the Friars to their first-ever win over a nationally ranked opponent, beating Villanova 90-83 at the Palestra in four overtimes. That ignited a streak of 20-win seasons that made PC a postseason regular. Mr. Egan averaged 18.8 points per game in the NIT championship season of 1960-1961 and scored 1,434 points in three years of varsity play.
He was selected by the Detroit Pistons in the second round of the NBA Draft. He played for 11 seasons, from 1961-1972, with six teams — the Pistons, New York Knicks, Baltimore Bullets, Los Angeles Lakers, Cleveland Cavaliers, and San Diego/Houston Rockets. He coached the Rockets from 1973-1976.
At 5 feet, 11 inches tall, he was the shortest player in the NBA for most of his career. But he could dunk from a standing start, and he invented a shot dubbed the alley-oop, now called a teardrop or a floater. Into his 80s he kept in shape with fingertip pushups, yoga, basketball, and golf.
Mr. Egan ran an insurance business in Houston. After the death of his wife, Joan, from ovarian cancer in 1998, he remained in the city and found a new vocation at his local Starbucks, which he visited every morning. He befriended the baristas and eventually learned about their private lives and needs, collecting donations to assist them and winning the nickname “the mayor of Starbucks.”
Mr. Egan had been scheduled to return to Providence for Homecoming Weekend in October 2021 for a conversation with Edward A. Iannuccilli, M.D. ’61, and to distribute copies of the book The Johnny Egan Story by Howard Greenblatt. He decided not to travel because of concerns about COVID-19.
He is survived by a daughter, a son, and five grandchildren.
Tim Moynahan ’61 remembers Johnny Egan ’61 remembering the nit champions
