Ronald Eugene Hunter (born April 7, 1964) 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 ...

coach and the current men's basketball head coach of the

Tulane University Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private university, private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into ...

Green Wave A green wave occurs when a series of traffic lights (usually three or more) are coordinated to allow continuous traffic flow over several intersections in one main direction. Any vehicle traveling along with the green wave (at an approximate spee ...

. His son, R. J. Hunter, was a first-round draft pick for the Boston Celtics.

High school

Hunter attended and played for

Chaminade-Julienne High School Chaminade Julienne Catholic High School is a private, co-educational, center-city, Catholic high school. It is located in downtown Dayton, in the U.S. state of Ohio, and is owned and operated by the Society of Mary and the Sisters of Notre Dame de ...

Dayton Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Da ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

from 1978 to 1982.

Coaching career

IUPUI

From 1994 to 2011, Hunter served as the head coach at IUPUI.Ron Hunter leaves IUPUI to be coach at Georgia State - ESPN
/ref> Under his direction, the team advanced from an NAIA program to

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of College athletics, intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major ...

. In its third season as a Division I program, Hunter led IUPUI to its first, and thus far only, NCAA tournament appearance in 2003. On January 24, 2008, Hunter coached a game against

Oakland University Oakland University is a public research university in Auburn Hills and Rochester Hills, Michigan. Founded in 1957 through a donation of Matilda Dodge Wilson, it was initially known as Michigan State University-Oakland, operating under the Mi ...

while barefoot. He did this to benefit Samaritan's Feet, a foundation that works to provide hope and love to impoverished children around the world by washing their feet and giving them a new pair of shoes. His goal was to collect 40,000 shoes, however, before tip-off, over 110,000 pairs of shoes had been donated.

Georgia State

On March 21, 2011, it was announced Hunter would replace

Rod Barnes Rodrick Kenneth Barnes (born January 8, 1966) is an American college basketball coach. He is the head men's basketball coach a California State University, Bakersfield, a position he has held since 2011. Barnes held the same position at the Un ...

as the

Georgia State Panthers The Georgia State Panthers are the intercollegiate athletics teams that represent Georgia State University, located in Atlanta, Georgia. Almost all GSU teams compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as me ...

' men's basketball head coach. During his first season at GSU, Georgia State won 22 games, the fourth most in school history. Hunter captured national attention for a moment that occurred in the 2015 NCAA tournament. After tearing his

Achilles In Greek mythology, Achilles ( ) or Achilleus ( grc-gre, Ἀχιλλεύς) was a hero of the Trojan War, the greatest of all the Greek warriors, and the central character of Homer's ''Iliad''. He was the son of the Nereid Thetis and Peleus, k ...

celebrating the Panthers' Sun Belt Conference tournament championship, he was forced to coach their subsequent NCAA appearance while sitting on a rolling stool due to his injury. In their second-round game against the three-seed, Baylor, Hunter's son R.J. hit a deep, game-winning three with seconds left on the clock. When the shot went in, Hunter's stool slipped out from underneath him while exuberantly celebrating, sending him tumbling to the floor while continuing to display his jubilation. The moment spurred a torrent of media attention and resulted in multiple features, interviews, and a spot in 'One Shining Moment' at the conclusion of the tournament. On November 20, 2017, in a win over Eastern Washington, Hunter earned his 400th career win. Ron Hunter has played a key role in the ongoing transformation of the athletics culture at Georgia State, particularly with the basketball program and their continuing ascension from being one of the most unsuccessful programs in NCAA Division I history to being one of the premier Mid-Major programs in the nation. Some of Ron Hunter's most notable wins as head of coach of Georgia State are: VCU (2011), #16 Baylor (2015), Georgia (2018) and Alabama (2018). Hunter also notched a win against crosstown foe, Georgia Tech, in a 2017 charity exhibition known as the 'A-Town Showdown for Hurricane Relief'.

Tulane

On March 24, 2019, Hunter was named the head coach at

Tulane Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into a comprehensive pub ...

, replacing Mike Dunleavy.

Head coaching record

*18 wins (including 8 conference wins) vacated by NCAA.2014-15 IUPUI Record Book, p. 6.
/ref>

Personal life

Hunter and his wife, Amy, have two children: Jasmine and R. J. Hunter

References

External links

Georgia State bioIUPUI bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunter, Ron 1964 births Living people 20th-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American people African-American basketball coaches American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from Ohio Basketball players from Dayton, Ohio College men's basketball head coaches in the United States Georgia State Panthers men's basketball coaches IUPUI Jaguars men's basketball coaches Miami RedHawks men's basketball coaches Miami RedHawks men's basketball players Milwaukee Panthers men's basketball coaches Sportspeople from Dayton, Ohio Tulane Green Wave men's basketball coaches