Frank "Bucky" O'Connor (December 21, 1913 – April 22, 1958) was a college men's basketball coach. He was the head coach of the

Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball The Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball team is part of the University of Iowa athletics department. The Hawkeyes have played in 28 NCAA Tournaments, eight NIT Tournaments, won eight Big Ten regular-season conference championships and won the Big Ten ...

team from 1949 to 1958. Born in

Monroe, Iowa Monroe is a city in Jasper and Marion counties in Iowa, United States. The population was 1,967 at the time of the 2020 census. History Monroe was laid out in 1851 by Adam Tool and was originally called Tool's Point. The name was soon changed to ...

, O'Connor spent much of his early life playing

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

, as his parents managed a country club. O'Connor attended and played basketball at Newton High School and

Drake University Drake University is a private university in Des Moines, Iowa. It offers undergraduate and graduate programs, including professional programs in business, law, and pharmacy. Drake's law school is among the 25 oldest in the United States. Hi ...

; he became team captain in his senior year of college despite his slight frame and bad eyesight. After graduating, he coached at

Boone High School Boone High School is a public high school located in Boone, Iowa, United States. The school's mascot is the Toreadors, and their colors are red and green. It is part of the Boone Community School District. Athletics The Toreadors compete in ...

and Harrisburg High School. When the United States entered World War II, O'Connor joined the

United States Army Air Corps The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical r ...

, serving in Japan and climbing to the rank of captain.Finn & Leistikow, p. 106 After the war, he held jobs in the athletic departments at Boone High and Boone Junior College, and ultimately joined the Iowa Hawkeyes athletic staff as the freshman basketball coach and head golf coach in 1948. In 1950, O'Connor took charge of the Hawkeyes' basketball team after the first two coaches of the 1949–50 season stepped down. He became the official coach in the 1951–52 season, in which the team achieved a 19–3 record and a second-place finish in the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

. O'Connor is best known in Iowa basketball history for recruiting and coaching the players who comprised the "Fabulous Five":

Sharm Scheuerman Milton "Sharm" Scheuerman (May 16, 1934 – August 30, 2010) was an American college basketball player and coach for the University of Iowa. Scheuerman was born in Moline, Illinois and grew up in Rock Island, one of the Quad Cities. He was born ...

, Bill Seaberg,

Carl Cain Carl Cecil Cain (born August 2, 1934) is an American retired basketball player who competed in the 1956 Summer Olympics. Born in Freeport, Illinois, Cain played college basketball for the Iowa Hawkeyes. His number is retired by the University ...

, Bill Schoof and Bill Logan. This team first came together during the 1953–54 season, finishing second in the Big Ten with an 11–3 conference record (17–5 overall). The team won the Big Ten in the next two seasons, advancing to the Final Four both times. In the 1955–56 season, which was the Fabulous Five's final season together, the Hawkeyes won 17 consecutive games and advanced to their only National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)

championship game In sport, a championship is a Competition#Sports, competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match sy ...

in school history, where they lost to the

University of San Francisco The University of San Francisco (USF) is a private Jesuit university in San Francisco, California. The university's main campus is located on a setting between the Golden Gate Bridge and Golden Gate Park. The main campus is nicknamed "The Hil ...

, marking the end of Iowa's most successful era of basketball. O'Connor coached the Hawkeyes for the next two seasons, compiling a combined record of 21–23 before dying in a highway accident on April 22, 1958, at the age of 44. He had one daughter, Kathy, born to his wife Jane. In recent years several relatives of O'Connor were involved with the men's basketball program at Iowa. His grand-nephew, Jim O'Connor, played as a walk on from 1988–92 and three more of his great-nephews served as student managers with the team: Tom O'Connor (2009-2014), Pat O'Connor (2013-2017), and Brendan O'Connor (2015–2019). O'Connor died in a car accident in 1958.

Head coaching record

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Oconnor, Bucky 1913 births 1958 deaths American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from Iowa Basketball players from Iowa Drake Bulldogs men's basketball players Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball coaches People from Jasper County, Iowa

Head coaching record

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