Mike Krzyzewski Profile

"When I was growing up, there weren't any Little Leagues in the city. Parents worked all the time. They didn't have time to take their kids out to play baseball and football. We understood that as kids, so when we congregated at a school yard, if you had six people, or ten or 20, somebody had to organize it, and it was always me."

Growing up in a working class neighborhood in Chicago, Mike Krzyzewski learned to rely on himself to organize the games he wanted to play. When he failed to make his high school football team, he turned to basketball and became a local star. At that time, he hoped for nothing more than to teach high school and coach basketball. A recruiter from the U.S. Military Academy changed all that. At West Point and in the United States Army, Krzyzewski began playing and coaching at a higher level than he had thought possible.

Today, he is the winningest coach in the NCAA. As head coach of Duke University's Blue Devils, he has placed his team in five consecutive Final Fours and won three national championships.

While his teams have boasted such star players as Grant Hill, Christian Laettner and Shane Battier, the sustained success of the Duke program must be credited to Coach Krzyzewski's long-term strategy. While other schools may be willing to sacrifice their academic criteria for the sake of a winning team, "Coach K." holds his players to the highest standards on and off the court. In so doing, he has won the accolades of his peers and the affection of the entire Duke community.