Rewind 17 years. The Penn men's basketball team had just capped off a third-place finish in the Ivy League, marking the end of coach Tom Schneider's sub .500 tenure. His winning percentage was the worst of any Penn coach with four or more years at the school.
One day after Princeton clinched the Ivy League, Schneider left to take the head coaching job at Loyola College of Maryland.
Then-assistant Fran Dunphy was tapped as the interim head coach, and Penn's search for a full-time replacement was under way.
And the search ended right where it started, with Dunphy.
Today, the story is much different. Dunphy has departed -- with one of the most impressive resumes in the history of the Ancient Eight -- to fill the shoes of one of college basketball's most famous figures.
And as this year's search unfolds, it remains unclear whether this process will be in any way similar to what turned out to be an extremely successful search back in 1989.
Under the guidance of then-athletic director Paul Rubincam -- now executive director of the Big 5 -- Penn amassed close to 100 applications to fill the void, including several from experienced coaches with national recognition.
"Penn was and still is a very special place," Rubincam said of the current situation. "Playing in the Palestra and competing in the Big 5 attracts a lot of people to what is a great program."
At the time, some of the top candidates included former NBA coach Jack Ramsay, former Siena head coach John Griffin and former Notre Dame assistant Fran McCaffrey, who worked under the renowned Digger Phelps, now an ESPN analyst.
As it turns out, none of these viable applicants ended up landing the job. But they all had quite a bit in common with the man who did.
Each of the three had a tangible connection to Philadelphia basketball.
Ramsay earned his doctorate of education at Penn and coached across the Main Line at Saint Joseph's, the same school at which Griffin played and served as an assistant. McCaffrey was a point guard at Penn from 1980-82.
Dunphy also had plenty of Big 5 experience under his belt. Before his one year as an assistant coach under Schneider, he was also on the sidelines at La Salle from 1985-88, where he starred as a player from 1968-70.
"With experience at Penn and in the Big 5, there's a limited learning curve," Dunphy said. "At the time I understood what was going on with issues at Penn with respect to admissions and financial aid, which are so unique to Penn and different from the rest of the NCAA."
Rubincam noted that Dunphy's year of coaching experience at Penn proved to be a pivotal factor in his ultimate hiring.
"It really helps to understand the Big 5 and the unique situation that Penn is in," Rubincam said.
"Fran wasn't the most outgoing guy then, and he wouldn't have even gotten an interview, much less the job, if he hadn't been an assistant under Schneider."
In fact, including Dunphy, the past four coaches at Penn have all had experience in some capacity at the University before taking over the head coaching role.
It's therefore no surprise that this year two early possibilities -- Cornell head coach Steve Donahue and Lafayette head coach Fran O'Hanlon -- were both assistants at Penn under Dunphy.
Regardless of the strategies current athletic director Steve Bilsky plans to employ in securing a new coach, Dunphy believes that quality matters most.
"While it would be great to have someone with ties to Penn, the administration will look for good people" with or without ties to it, he said.
And Penn does seem to be a popular place for rising figures in basketball.
The trend started most notably because of former Penn head coach Chuck Daly, who, after coaching the Quakers in the early 1970s, went on to become a successful NBA coach with the Detroit Pistons as well as three other teams.
"With Daly, our coaches started going on to professional and recognizable jobs, and I think it increased the allure of coaching at Penn," Rubincam said.
Following in Daly's footsteps were former Penn coaches Bob Weinhauer -- who went on to become general manager of the Minnesota Timberwolves -- and Craig Littlepage, who moved on to become Virginia's athletic director, and most recently served as the head of the NCAA Tournament selection committee.
Now Dunphy has left Penn for a more prestigious basketball program in Temple.
And even those who were passed over in 1989 proved to have the ability, desire and drive to move up in the basketball world.
Griffin served as head coach of St. Joe's, McCaffrey led UNC-Greensboro and Siena, and additional candidates John Carroll and Butch Beard took on head jobs in the NBA.
Now, some of the possible replacements for Dunphy could be interested in Penn not only because of its prestige but also because of the impact it can have on a resume.
At age 32, Lehigh head coach Billy Taylor, whose name is beginning to surface, has many years ahead of him and could benefit from a strong tenure at Penn. Similarly, Cornell's Donahue and Brown's Glen Miller, both 43, could be primed for a change before it's too late.
Dunphy was named head coach at 37.
And past history indicates that Bilsky will likely encounter little difficulty in finding a pool of strong candidates.
Said Dunphy: "Penn has had a long and successful history, and Philadelphia is a great college basketball environment."
