John B. Daly

Daly coached 28 years from 1971-99 and amassed 431 wins

John Daly, beloved husband, father, grandfather, and longtime Ohio State men’s tennis coach, passed away on Wednesday, October 16, 2024. He was 78 years old.

Daly was born on July 31, 1946, in East Moline, Illinois, to George Henry and Florence Courtney Daly. He learned to play tennis by hitting against the wall at the neighboring St. Anne Catholic Church. After graduating from United Township High School, he attended Northern Illinois University where he played on the men’s tennis team and met Sandra Alexandria Daly, his loving wife of 56 years. Daly earned both an undergraduate and graduate degree while attending Northern Illinois.

Daly began his coaching career at Northern Illinois where he led the Huskies to an 18-3 record from 1969-1970; the best record over 60 years. At NIU, he recruited and coached two of the all-time greats in the history of NIU men’s tennis; Tim and Tom Gullikson. They both went on to successful professional careers, which included reaching the 1983 Wimbledon Gentlemen’s Doubles Final.

Daly was hired for his first, full-time coaching job at Notre Dame as an assistant coach in 1970. He also ran the NCAA University Division Tennis Championships that season. He then came to Ohio State the following year and started as the Buckeye’s head coach in August of 1971. Daly coached at Ohio State for 28 years from 1971 to 1999. He won 431 matches as Buckeye head coach and 449 in his career, including a season at Northern Illinois prior to his time at Ohio State.

One of the longest-tenured coaches in Ohio State Athletics history, Daly coached the first three All-Americans in Ohio State men’s tennis history – Francisco Gonzalez (1975 and 1976), Ernie Fernandez (1981) and Ty Tucker (1990 and 1991.) Daly was also chairman of the Big Ten Coaches Association.

His teams finished among the top four in the Big Ten 13 times, including the 1991 Big Ten Championship season. Daly’s tenure also produced 31 All-Big Ten selections and six Big Ten singles and doubles champions. Three All-Americans and one NCAA singles semifinalist, along with 30 academic All-Big Ten honorees played for Daly at Ohio State. Five of Daly’s players also participated in The Davis Cup.

Daly held several other non-coaching assignments during his tenure and was also involved in other areas of higher education with the university during his time. Following his retirement, he worked for 10 years at The McConnell Heart Health Center where he was instrumental in launching the Executive Wellness program.

Daly also spent 23 years as a Head Tennis Pro during the Summers, primarily at Brookside Country Club, where stellar tennis performances were rewarded with a handshake, lemonade, or milkshake.

Daly was fiercely committed to volunteerism and giving back to the community. Some of his accomplishments include, donating refinished wine boxes for local charities, raising thousands of dollars, hosting wheelchair tennis tournaments, teaching wheelchair tennis players and traveling as the wheelchair tennis coach to the Junior Olympics in Paris, France, starting the Ohio State University’s Varsity Arts Exhibition, chairing multiple fundraising events like The Tennis Auction Ball, benefiting the Buckeye Ranch.

Daly was married to the love of his life, Sandra, for 56 years. The couple had two daughters and a son and seven grandchildren. All three of his children and son-in-law are Ohio State University alumni. He has two grandchildren who are currently attending Ohio State as well.

Daly was a devout Catholic, and was an active member of St. Timothy Parish, serving as a choir member and cantor with Sandra for many years before moving to Dublin and joining St. Brigid of Kildare Parish.

Daly loved to travel and was proud to have visited 16 countries and 49 of 50 States. He also enjoyed spending time in Fort Myers, Florida, where he loved bocce ball and water walking.

John and Sandra have “three good kids”: Ellen Schiefferle (Matt), Erin Daly, and Adam Daly (Taylor) and are blessed with seven beautiful grandchildren: Jeremiah (Kanisha), Isabel, Ryan, Ava, Sloan, Blake and Cole. He is also survived by his brother Joel (Karen), nephew Scott (Dawn), niece Julie (Tony) and many nieces and nephews.

Please join us in remembering Coach Daly, October 24th from 4-7 p.m. for visitation at Schoedinger Dublin, 5980 Perimeter Dr. Dublin, OH 43017 and October 25th at 10:30 a.m. for a funeral Mass at St. Brigid of Kildare, 7179 Avery Rd. Dublin, OH 43017 with a luncheon to follow in Hendrick’s Hall on site.

Donations of support can be made to Coach Daly’s granddaughter’s mission to provide help to the patients on the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Neurosurgery floor at this link: https://gofund.me/8e871b9e

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