Thanks Professor Dunphy

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It's certainly sad to see Fran Dunphy leave Penn. He was a fantastic coach, a great guy and to me -- as well as countless other sportswriters at The Daily Pennsylvanian -- the greatest journalism professor at Penn.

You see, this University has a lot of things (heck, we even have a huge white button sitting in the middle of campus) but one thing it lacks is a journalism department. Those of us with an interest in the subject are left to fend for ourselves at a student-run newspaper, learning from each other and every so often from the people we cover.

Dunphy used to tell me that everyone at a University is supposed to learn from each other. And his relationship with our newspaper definitely an educational experience unlike any other. He recognized the enthusiasm writers at the DP had for covering his team, even if he would always chide us for writing about him too much. He knew that it was our job to criticize him if he was doing something wrong.

At the same time, he was unafraid to call you out when you asked a bad question. I'll never forget the press conference after a loss at Yale my sophomore year, when I asked Dunphy about how "many were speculating" that he'd use a smaller rotation of players. In reality, I was the only one speculating and it was a bad question.

"Who speculated that David?" he shot back at me.

I was speechless. Coaches aren't supposed to be the ones asking questions at press conferences after the games. But it taught me the art of asking better and more honest questions.

Dunphy was never afraid to tell me when he disagreed with something I wrote. There was the time he called me out for printing an incoming recruit's SAT scores. And then there was the time he criticized me for something I wrote about a small golf tournament that Penn lost -- he didn't like that I noted that a Penn player had the worst score in the entire tournament. He was probably right.

And despite his criticism, he always was willing to talk to us. He always answered every question honestly.

But it's not just DP writers that Dunphy respected. Jack Scheuer, who has covered Philadelphia sports for over 30 years, pointed out the other day that once the regular basketball game of Philadelphia sportswriters at the Palestra conflicted with a Penn basketball practice. Guess who moved to another court? Dunphy's team.

So on behalf of all DP sportswriters who have had the pleasure of working with Dunphy over the past 17 years, I'd like to say thank you. Thanks for teaching us how to ask good questions. Thanks for teaching us how to write better stories. Thanks for teaching us about the history of the Palestra.

Thanks for teaching us that it's not a good thing when your opponent makes more free throw than you've attempted. Thanks for telling us every week that you had "a lot of respect for our opponent" because they are a "very good basketball program" with a "very good basketball coach" who leads a "very good basketball team." Thanks for teaching us to stick up for ourselves. We'll miss you.