Felton Jeffrey Capel II (January 6, 1953 – November 13, 2017) was an American

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 St ...

assistant coach, and, prior to that, a

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 ...

head coach. He was head coach of the

Old Dominion Monarchs The Old Dominion Monarchs are composed of 18 intercollegiate athletic teams representing Old Dominion University, located in Norfolk, Virginia. Men's sports include baseball, basketball, football, golf, sailing, soccer, swimming, and tennis. Wo ...

team from 1994 to 2001, of the North Carolina A&T Aggies from 1993 to 1994 and of the Fayetteville State Broncos from 1989 to 1993. He was the father of

Pittsburgh Panthers The Pittsburgh Panthers, commonly also referred to as the Pitt Panthers, are the athletic teams representing the University of Pittsburgh, although the term is colloquially used to refer to other aspects of the university such as alumni, facu ...

head coach

Jeff Capel III Felton Jeffrey Capel III (born February 12, 1975) is an American college basketball coach and former player. He is currently the head coach of the University of Pittsburgh's Panthers men's basketball team. He played for Duke University and was ...

and former

Appalachian State Mountaineers The Appalachian State Mountaineers are the athletic teams that represent Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, United States. The Mountaineers compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and wer ...

head coach

Jason Capel Jason Maurice Capel (born January 15, 1980) is an American college basketball coach, currently an assistant at Pittsburgh. He was previously the 15th head coach of the Appalachian State Mountaineers men's basketball team. He is a former basketbal ...

. He was also an assistant coach with the NBA's

Charlotte Bobcats Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populou ...

. On November 15, 2011, it was announced that Capel was hired as an assistant coach for the Philadelphia 76ers.

Early life

Born in

Southern Pines, North Carolina Southern Pines is a town in Moore County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 12,334 as of the 2010 United States Census. History Southern Pines was founded as a winter health resort for Northerners. As of 1898, it was a sundo ...

, Capel graduated from

Pinecrest High School Pinecrest High School is ranked 105th within North Carolina. Students have the opportunity to take Advanced Placement® coursework and exams. The AP® participation rate at Pinecrest High School is 40%. The total minority enrollment is 38%, and 24% ...

in 1970. He went to

Fayetteville State University Fayetteville State University (FSU) is a public historically black university in Fayetteville, North Carolina. It is part of the University of North Carolina System and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. History The second oldest state suppo ...

and played on the basketball team as a freshman, then served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

from 1971 to 1975. Capel says that serving in the Army provided discipline and structure in his life. Capel returned to Fayetteville State and played another season on the basketball team as a senior before graduating in 1977 with a degree in health and physical education.

Coaching career

In 1978, Capel returned to his alma mater Pinecrest High School to be a volunteer basketball coach. He also coached wrestling, baseball, and junior varsity football at Pinecrest. He then was the head varsity basketball coach from 1980 to 1986. Capel also was an assistant principal at Pinecrest. From 1986 to 1989, Capel was an assistant coach at

Wake Forest University Wake Forest University is a private research university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Founded in 1834, the university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina. The Reynolda Campus, the un ...

under

Bob Staak Robert John Staak (born December 22, 1947 in Darien, Connecticut) is a former American college basketball and professional basketball coach. Early life Staak attended Darien High School in Darien, Connecticut, where he played basketball and becam ...

. Fayetteville State hired Capel as head coach in 1989. In four seasons (1989–1993), Capel had a 63–51 record at Fayetteville State, with berths in the 1991 CIAA basketball tournament semi-finals and 1992 NCAA tournament. Future NBA player

Darrell Armstrong Darrell Eugene Armstrong (born June 22, 1968) is a former American professional basketball player, who played 14 seasons in the National Basketball Association. He is currently an assistant coach for the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, who won the cha ...

was among players Capel coached. In the 1993–94 season, Capel was head coach at

North Carolina A&T North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (also known as North Carolina A&T State University, North Carolina A&T, N.C. A&T, or simply A&T) is a public, historically black land-grant research university in Greensboro, North Caro ...

, who finished 16–14 with the MEAC tournament championship and automatic berth in the NCAA tournament. Capel then was head coach at

Old Dominion Old Dominion most commonly refers to: *The Old Dominion, a nickname for the U.S. Commonwealth of Virginia ** Colony of Virginia *Old Dominion University, a public university in Norfolk, Virginia **Old Dominion Monarchs, the athletic teams represe ...

from 1994 to 2001. Under Capel, Old Dominion won two CAA tournament championships (

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

and

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 ...

). Old Dominion made the second round of the 1995 NCAA tournament and first round of the 1997 NCAA tournament, as well as the second round of the

1999 National Invitation Tournament The 1999 National Invitation Tournament was the 1999 edition of the annual NCAA college basketball competition. Selected teams Below is a list of the 32 teams selected for the tournament.

. At Old Dominion, Capel had a 122–98 record. In 2001, the

Fayetteville Patriots The Fayetteville Patriots were an NBA Development League team based in Fayetteville, North Carolina, United States. Its logo design features a bald eagle's head and a basketball in the middle of a capital letter "P" with stars and stripes filling ...

of the NBA's startup minor league

National Basketball Development League The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) official minor league basketball organization. The league was known as the National Basketball Development League (NBDL) from 2001 to 2005, and the NBA Dev ...

(NBDL) hired Capel as head coach. Capel was head coach from 2001 to 2004; the Patriots finished first in the NBDL for the 2002–03 season and were runners-up in the 2003 NBDL Finals. From 2004 to 2011, Capel was an assistant coach for the NBA expansion team

. He was then an assistant coach for the Philadelphia 76ers from 2011 to 2013. On January 25, 2017, writing in ''

The Players' Tribune ''The Players' Tribune'' is a new media platform that produces daily sports conversation and publishes first-person stories from professional athletes. The platform was founded by former professional Major League Baseball player Derek Jeter in ...

'', his son

disclosed that Capel had been diagnosed in 2014 with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. He died on November 13, 2017, from the disease.

Head coaching record

College

Professional

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References

External links

NBA profile

(2003)

(2000) {{DEFAULTSORT:Capel, Jeff, Ii 1953 births 2017 deaths African-American basketball coaches African-American basketball players Basketball coaches from North Carolina Basketball players from North Carolina Charlotte Bobcats assistant coaches College men's basketball head coaches in the United States Fayetteville Patriots coaches Fayetteville State Broncos basketball coaches Fayetteville State Broncos basketball players High school basketball coaches in North Carolina North Carolina A&T Aggies men's basketball coaches Old Dominion Monarchs men's basketball coaches Neurological disease deaths in North Carolina Deaths from motor neuron disease Philadelphia 76ers assistant coaches United States Army soldiers Wake Forest Demon Deacons men's basketball coaches People from Southern Pines, North Carolina American men's basketball players 20th-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American people