Ronald L. "Fang" Mitchell (born February 8, 1948) is an American
college basketball
In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
and raised in
Camden, New Jersey
Camden is a city in and the county seat of Camden County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Camden is part of the Delaware Valley metropolitan area and is located directly across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the 2020 ...
, Mitchell graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in Camden. Because he could not afford college, Mitchell worked factory and service jobs before attending
Gloucester County College
Rowan College of South Jersey (RCSJ) is a public community college with two campuses in New Jersey, including one in Sewell (Gloucester Main Campus) and one in Vineland and Millville (Cumberland Branch Campus). The college was established in ...
. Mitchell played on the Gloucester basketball team while also working the night shift as a computer operator at a bank.
Mitchell then attended Rutgers University–Camden for a year, before embarking on a business career. He worked as a shoe company manager and printing sales representative. In
Glassboro, New Jersey
Glassboro is a borough in Gloucester County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 U.S. census, the borough's population was 18,579,
Coaching career
Gloucester County College
With no coaching experience, Mitchell became head coach at
Gloucester County College
Rowan College of South Jersey (RCSJ) is a public community college with two campuses in New Jersey, including one in Sewell (Gloucester Main Campus) and one in Vineland and Millville (Cumberland Branch Campus). The college was established in ...
in 1978. In his first season, he led the previously struggling Gloucester County Roadrunners to a stunning 19–11 record, then to consecutive seasons with 26 or more wins per year until the 1985–86 season. Gloucester County also made the NJCAA tournament in 1980, 1981, 1985, and 1986.
While Gloucester County head coach, Mitchell also assisted at
Temple University
Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then called Ba ...
Coppin State Eagles men's basketball
The Coppin State Eagles men's basketball team represents Coppin State University in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. The school's team currently competes in the NCAA Division I in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. Before joining NCAA Divisi ...
team; Mitchell would hold this position for 28 seasons. Mitchell earned his master's degree in adult and continuing education at Coppin State in 1994 while head coach. In his 28 seasons as head coach, Mitchell was named MEAC Coach of the Year six times. He also led Coppin State to first place in the MEAC regular season standings ten times and four NCAA tournament appearances.
The Coppin State Eagles improved annually from 8–19 in Mitchell's first season to 26–7 in the 1989–90 season and a berth in the 1990 NCAA tournament. The season also included an upset over
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
. After being projected to finish seventh in the conference in coaches' and sports information directors' preseason polls, Coppin State finished the season 22–8 and first in the MEAC and also made the 1993 NCAA tournament. In 1995, Mitchell turned down an offer to be head coach at
FIU
Florida International University (FIU) is a public research university with its main campus in Miami-Dade County. Founded in 1965, the school opened its doors to students in 1972. FIU has grown to become the third-largest university in Florida ...
with a salary of $150,000, 90 percent higher than his current pay at Coppin State.
Coppin State next made the NCAA Tournament in
1997
File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...
as a #15 seed and upset #2
South Carolina
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, anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = ...
in the first round before losing to
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
in the second round 82–81. Coppin State's last NCAA Tournament berth under Mitchell was in
2008
File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
.
On March 28, 2014, Coppin State opted not to renew Mitchell's contract, following three consecutive losing seasons and nine losing seasons in the last ten.
Personal life
Mitchell married the former Yvonne Forston in 1990; they remained married until her death in 2002.