Doug Collins

Doug Collins was born in 1951 in the community of Christopher, Illinois. After a promising start as a basketball player at Benton High School in Benton, Illinois, Collins went on to play for Illinois State University as a freshman in 1969. In 1972 Collins was selected to represent the United States at Olympic Games in Munich. At the games, well known because of the terrorist attack that killed 11 Israeli athletes, issues with a faulty timeclock and a questionable timeout call allowed the Soviet team to win the game. Collins--who had hit two free throws before the confusion--and with the rest of his teammates were furious at the decision and refused to accept the silver medal for the game. The next year, Collins was the first overall draft pick of the professional season and was selected by the Philadelphia 76ers, for which he played for 8 seasons. Injuries forced Collins into retirement in 1981, after which he began coaching at University of Pennsylvania. His first head coaching job came in 1986, when he coached the Chicago Bulls and a team that included Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. Collins was fired as a coach in the summer of 1989 after the team lost to the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals. Collins ironically went on to coach the Pistons in 1995 until 1998. After his stint with the Pistons Collins was a sports broadcaster, and then took a position coaching the Washington Wizards, but was fired after the 2002 season. Collins continued to work in broadcasting until 2010, when he was hired as the head coach of the 76ers. Collins resigned in 2013 but remained with the team in an advisory capacity.