Charles "Lefty" Driesell, Hall of Fame basketball coach and an iconic figure in Georgia State Athletics and across college basketball, died peacefully early Saturday morning at his home in Virginia Beach, Va. He was 92.

Born Dec. 25, 1931 in Norfolk, Va., Charles Grice Driesell gained his forever nickname in school and found his forever sweetheart at Granby High in Joyce Gunter. Charles and Joyce were married 70 years when she died in 2021 at their home in Virginia Beach. The couple had four children: Patti, Pam, Chuck and Carolyn; as well as 11 grandchildren. 

The lefthander, who won 786 games at four schools, was inducted into his 14th Hall of Fame when he entered the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. in 2018. Driesell had been inducted in the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame (NABC) in Kansas City in its second-ever class in 2007. He is in the Hall of Fame at all four colleges he coached, as well as his college alma mater. 

His last coaching stop was at Georgia State, where he took over a program in 1997-98 that had experienced little success, and he immediately elevated the profile and fortunes of not only Georgia State basketball but the entire athletic program. 

Driesell posted a 103-59 record in four-plus seasons at Georgia State, highlighted by a 29-5 record in 2000-01, when he guided the Panthers to conference regular-season and tournament championships and a stunning upset over No. 6 seed Wisconsin for the first NCAA Tournament win in school history. His Panthers also reached the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) in 2001-02 after winning their third-straight conference regular-season title.

Here are some of his many accomplishments in a 41-year college coaching career:

• Driesell was fourth in NCAA Division I career wins (786 total) behind only Bobby Knight, Adolph Rupp and Dean Smith when he voluntarily stepped down in midseason 2003, a week after his 72nd birthday. 

• "Lefty" was the first coach in NCAA history to win more than 100 games at four schools, as well as guide each of them into the NCAA Tournament after rebuilding each of the four programs. Billy Packer officially called Driesell "the greatest program builder in the history of college basketball" after he took over floundering programs at Davidson, Maryland, James Madison and Georgia State, then started winning traditions at all four.

• One of college basketball's all-time defensive and fundamentals tutors, Driesell was acclaimed by the NCAA when they named the annual "Lefty Driesell Award for best defensive player" in his honor. 

• The enthusiastic coach and basketball promoter created "Midnight Madness" to start the first day of college basketball practice around the country. He understood the importance of fans and their passions and worked hard to increase attendance and interest.

• Driesell is the only college basketball coach to receive an NCAA Award of Valor for helping rescue 10 children from a townhouse fire in 1973 in Bethany Beach, Del. 

• His legacy included a lengthy list of players who went on to the NBA and an equally impressive roll of assistant coaches who became head coaches. When Driesell took the Maryland job in 1969, he hired George Raveling, the first black assistant coach in ACC history.

• All told, Driesell won 883 games as a head coach in college and high school. In addition to his 786 NCAA college wins, Driesell had first gained recognition as a high school coach. "Lefty" excelled with a 97-15 (.866) career prep record at Granby (33-9) and Newport News High Schools (64-6) in Virginia. Driesell mentored an unbeaten 25-0 team and won a state record (that still exists) 57 consecutive games at Newport News High. 

• He was named conference Coach of the Year nine times in his NCAA career (at least once at all four schools). He produced his first 20-win season at age 31 in 1962-63 that would start his total of 22 seasons with 20-plus. And, basketball seasons were only 25 regular season games for his first decades as a coach.

• Driesell won the 16-team NIT Championship in 1972 at Madison Square Garden as the best 16 teams that did not qualify as tournament champion in the small 25-team NCAA Tournament fought for that respected prize.

• When his fourth-ranked Maryland team in 1974 lost the ACC tournament final in OT to eventual NCAA champ NC State and didn't qualify for the NCAA, that sparked the flame that expanded the NCAA field to 32 and then onwards to its 68 today. That ACC Championship game is still considered one of the greatest college basketball games of all time.

• "Lefty's" career success was achieved always as an underdog. His budgets were tight and his support staffs were small. He did not inherit powerful programs with booster support, plus he played most "big games" on the road since the big schools would not come play at Davidson, JMU or GSU. Even in the ACC, he had to chase down the well-established perennial powerhouses of America's toughest collegiate league. 

The early years of basketball player Charles Driesell:

• A distinguished 6-foot-5 post player in high school at Granby in Norfolk, Va., Driesell led the Comets to a Virginia State Championship as he was chosen the State tournament Most Valuable Player, as well as the city of Norfolk Most Outstanding Player. 

• He received multiple college scholarship offers to places like Duke, Tennessee, NC State, William & Mary, and Richmond. He said his first choice was going to be Tennessee, but they did not allow players to be married. Driesell chose Duke and played on a nationally-ranked Blue Devil team that won the inaugural Atlantic Coast Conference regular season title in that 1953-54 season with a 9-1 ACC record and 21-6 overall. Driesell later earned a master's degree from William & Mary.

Where Driesell built programs and earned his stellar reputation:

• First - Driesell left his high school coaching job to accept the opening at virtually unknown Davidson College (N.C.) in 1960 with a salary of $6,000 and a recruiting budget of $500. Davidson had 912 students in 1959-60, smaller than many high schools and just a 2,000-seat gymnasium. The Wildcats were burdened by 11 consecutive losing seasons when Driesell arrived at the Southern Conference school. He recruited from his Chevy station wagon, and his first college recruit was Terry Holland, a future ACC coaching success himself. He recruited the first black player to Davidson in 1966 in Mike Maloy, who became an All-American. Freshmen were not eligible to play in the NCAA then, so the 28-year-old Driesell sustained a 9-14 first-year coaching record, his only sub .500 season until 35 years later in 1995-96 at James Madison. His nine-year record at Davidson was 176-65 (.730) with a meteoric rise into Top Ten rankings, plus three NCAA bids, with All-America players and NBA draft picks. By 1969, American basketball knew Davidson and its coach "Lefty" Driesell.

• Second - Maryland of the powerful ACC desperately needed help after just 27 wins combined in its three previous years plus six losing seasons in its previous eight years.  Driesell faced a massive uphill climb in the powerful ACC, but by his third year he had a strong 27-5 team that cracked the AP Top Ten. In 1973-74, Driesell and Maryland played "one of the greatest games in college basketball history" and changed the NCAA Tournament forever. In the ACC Tournament final, #1 nationally ranked NC State met the then #5 Terps, who had just beaten #4 ranked UNC the day before in the conference tournament. In a game with seven future NBA players, NC State prevailed in OT, 103-100 after Maryland missed a game-winning shot at the end of regulation. NC State went on to win the national title and end UCLA's seven-year run. His 17-year career at Maryland included a 348-159 (.686) record with eight NCAA bids, three Elite Eight finishes, plus the NIT Championship and two ACC Coach-of-the Year awards. "Lefty" put Maryland on the top national level with elite basketball programs. 

• Third – James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va. (a 30,000-city population in the Shenandoah Valley) in the CAA called with a new challenge. JMU had a five-year mark of 64-79 (.447), so Driesell immediately began his next reconstruction project in 1988. With a first-year winner of 16-14, "Lefty" led the Dukes to a 101-51 (.664) mark in nine years with regular season titles and then a conference tournament title as well as an NCAA bid in 1994. 

• Fourth - At age 66, Driesell was lured to downtown Atlanta and unknown Georgia State, with then one of the worst all-time NCAA basketball records. "Lefty" immediately went about creating a winner in 1997 with a pair of regular season titles in his first three years. By 2000-01, the 70-year-old Driesell had the Panthers known in the basketball world with a 29-5 record. GSU shocked No. 25 Wisconsin for the first NCAA Tournament win in school history. A 20-11 season followed with an NIT bid. After the holiday break in early season of 2002-03, "Lefty" decided to turn the program over to his top assistant and retire from coaching. Driesell finished at Georgia State with an improbable 103-59 (.636) in his four-and-a-half seasons. "Lefty" never lost a game to a school in Georgia (17-0) in his time at GSU. Since his foundation for success, Georgia State has gone back to the NCAA tournament four more times and become the winningest program in the State of Georgia over the last decade.