Peter Jok

Fran McCaffery returns to Penn as new head men’s basketball coach

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New Penn head coach Fran McCaffery has an overall record of 548-207, while taking four different programs to the NCAA Tournament. (Iowa Athletics)

With apologies to Thomas Wolfe, it appears you can go home again… even if it takes 42 years.

Former Iowa men’s basketball coach and 1982 Penn alum Fran McCaffery was named the University of Pennsylvania’s new coach in a Penn Athletics announcement Thursday.

The hire will be a homecoming for McCaffery, who grew up in Northwest Philadelphia, attended La Salle College High School and played for the Quakers from 1979 to 1982.

“I am thrilled to bring Fran back to Penn and Philadelphia as our next head men’s basketball coach,” Penn director of athletics Alanna Wren said in the press release. “Fran has had success at every level of Division I and is passionate about restoring our program to glory. His energy and enthusiasm for leading young men was apparent throughout the process and he has proven to be committed to player development and relationship-building with his student-athletes throughout his storied career.”

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Former Penn captain Dau Jok deploys to Iraq

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Dau Jok spoke at the Penn School of Arts & Sciences Commencement in 2014, one of many honors that Jok has earned through his educational programming and advocacy. (Penn Hillel)

WHO TV in Des Moines, Iowa reported earlier this week that Dau Jok, a member of Penn basketball from 2010 to 2014, departed Monday for Iraq as a member of the United States Army Reserve’s 103rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command.  According to the station, Jok and his unit will be in Iraq for at least a year.

Jok, along with his younger brother Peter were born in Khartoum, Sudan.  When Dau was six and Peter three, their father Dut, a general in the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, was killed during the Second Sudanese Civil War.  Their grandfather Jok Dau Kachuol, the chief of their village, would be killed in 2010, during a clash between the Sudan People’s Liberation Army soldiers and armed civilians.

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