Eugene Louis Pingatore (October 25, 1936 – June 26, 2019) was an American

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

coach who served as the head boys' basketball coach at

St. Joseph High School St. Joseph's School, St. Joseph's Catholic School, St Joseph's School, St Joseph's Catholic School, and variants are frequently used school names, and may refer to: Africa * St Joseph's School, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Asia * St Joseph Higher Secon ...

Westchester, Illinois Westchester is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is a western suburb of Chicago. The population was 16,892 at the 2020 census. The current Village President is Nick Steker, serving in the special role of acting president after ...

, a suburb of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. In 50 seasons as head coach at St. Joseph, he compiled a record of 1,035–383—the most wins of any Illinois high school basketball coach—and led his teams to two

Illinois High School Boys Basketball Championship The Illinois High School Boys Basketball Championship is a single elimination tournament held each spring in the United States. It is organized by the Illinois High School Association (IHSA). From 1908 to 1971, it was a single tournament contested ...

s, in 1999 and 2015. In the late 1970s, Pingatore mentored

Isiah Thomas Isiah Lord Thomas III (born April 30, 1961) is an American former professional basketball player and coach who is an analyst for ''NBA TV''. The 12-time NBA All-Star was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History as well as the 75 Grea ...

, who went on to star in

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 ...

for the

Indiana Hoosiers The Indiana Hoosiers are the intercollegiate sports teams and players of Indiana University Bloomington, named after the colloquial term for people from the state of Indiana. The Hoosiers participate in NCAA Division I, Division I of the Nationa ...

and in the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

(NBA) for the

Detroit Pistons The Detroit Pistons are an American professional basketball team based in Detroit. The Pistons compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division and play their home games at Li ...

. Pingatore was also featured in the 1994 documentary film ''

Hoop Dreams ''Hoop Dreams'' is a 1994 American documentary film directed by Steve James, and produced by Frederick Marx, James, and Peter Gilbert, with Kartemquin Films. It follows the story of two African-American high school students, William Gates and ...

'', which followed the lives of William Gates and

Arthur Agee Arthur "Man" Agee Jr. (; born October 22, 1972) is a former high school basketball player from Chicago. Agee was one of two Chicago-area basketball players whose lives were chronicled in the 1994 documentary ''Hoop Dreams''. Early life Agee is ...

, who played for Pingatore at St. Joseph. Pingatore was born on October 25, 1936, in

Cicero, Illinois Cicero (originally known as Hawthorne) is a suburb of Chicago and an Incorporated town#Illinois, incorporated town in Cook County, Illinois, Cook County, Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was ...

. He attended

Providence St. Mel School Providence St. Mel School (PSM) is a private, coeducational Preschool-12th Grade school in East Garfield Park, Chicago, Illinois. History The school was created in 1969 with the merger of two schools, Providence High School and St. Mel High S ...

in the East Garfield Park area of Chicago, where he played on the school's basketball team, which won Chicago Catholic League and city championships in 1954. After high school, Pingatore went to Loyola University of Los Angeles—now known as

Loyola Marymount University Loyola Marymount University (LMU) is a private Jesuit and Marymount research university in Los Angeles, California. It is located on the west side of the city near Playa Vista. LMU is the parent school to Loyola Law School, which is located ...

—where he played

, lettering for the Loyola Lions from 1954 to 1958. Following his graduation from Loyola, Pingatore returned to the Chicago-area and was hired as freshman basketball coach at St. Joseph when the school opened in 1960. He succeeded Pat Callahan as head coach in 1969. Pingatore died at his home, in Westchester, on June 26, 2019.

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pingatore, Gene 1936 births 2019 deaths American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from Illinois Basketball players from Chicago High school basketball coaches in Illinois Loyola Marymount Lions men's basketball players People from Cicero, Illinois People from Westchester, Illinois American people of Italian descent