player_team death_date death_place coach_years birth_place overall_record championships player_years coach_team awards sport birth_date article_title name
penn -lrb- football -rrb- penn -lrb- basketball -rrb- august 31 , 1959 -lrb- aged 70 -rrb- mont alto , pennsylvania 1914 -- 1920 1930 -- 1943 frenchtown , pennsylvania 226 -- 143 -lrb- 226 143 -rrb- 1 -lrb- 1920 -rrb- 7 × eibl champions -lrb- 1916 , helms 1918 -- 1920 , 1934 -- 1935 , 1937 -rrb- national -lrb- 1920 -rrb- 1 premo-porretta national 1910 -- 1912 1910 -- 1913 penn penn college football all-american -lrb- 1912 -rrb- basketball 1888/1889 lon jourdet
 lon jourdet
lon jourdet

lon walter jourdet -lrb- 1888/1889 -- august 31 , 1959 -rrb- was the head men 's basketball coach for the university of pennsylvania from 1914 -- 1920 and then again from 1930 -- 1943 .
he is credited with inventing an early version of the zone defense used in modern basketball .
during his coaching career , he amassed an overall record of 226 wins and 143 losses .
his 1919 -- 20 team finished the season with a 21 -- 1 record and was retroactively named the national champion by the helms athletic foundation and the premo-porretta power poll .
jourdet 's win total was the highest in penn men 's basketball history until fran dunphy surpassed him in 2001 -- 02 , and his seven conference titles are second to dunphy 's 10 .
as a student athlete at the university of pennsylvania , jourdet played on the football and basketball teams .
he lettered in basketball from 1910 -- 11 to 1912 -- 13 , while in football he lettered from 1910 to 1912 .
as a senior during the 1912 season , jourdet was named a football all-american .
the reason for his extended absence as penn basketball 's head coach between 1920 and 1930 was summed up by `` the pennsylvania gazette '' in its december 3 , 1920 issue , which said jourdet `` on account of a business transfer to another part of the country , has been obliged to give up coaching . ''
he transferred to kentucky and became engrained in both high school and college basketball there .
jourdet even officiated some of the university of kentucky men 's basketball games .
upon returning to the philadelphia area , jourdet coached the quakers for 13 more seasons and won three more eastern intercollegiate basketball league championships -lrb- the conference precursor to the modern ivy league -rrb- .
from 1949 to 1959 , jourdet worked in a state liquor store in lancaster , pennsylvania .
in mid-august 1959 , he was admitted to the samuel g. dixon tuberculosis hospital .
on august 31 , he jumped out of the third story window of the hospital , ending his life .
the coroner declared it a suicide .
jourdet was 70 years old at the time of his death .
