A Basketball Life: Johnny Bach

While best known as an assistant coach for the Chicago Bulls’ dynasty of the early 1990s, Johnny Bach was a fine player too. Over the course of his basketball career at St. John’s Prep, the Brooklyn native earned two New York Catholic High School titles. He was a regular contributor on Fordham University’s 1942-43 team. However, World War II pressed Bach into the Navy. The training framework in upstate New York, though, enabled the 6’2” forward/guard to play a season at Rochester University before deploying to Japan, where he was eventually decorated for his military service.  

Returning to Fordham for the 1947-48 campaign, Bach was the high scorer (15 ppg) and MVP of a team that finished 17-6. Drafted in that summer’s Basketball Association of America draft, he played 34 games for the Boston Celtics before moving on to the Harford Hurricanes of the American Basketball League. During this period, the Brooklynite also tried his hand at minor league baseball.

In 1950, Bach assumed the coaching reins of the Rams at the tender age of 25. Compiling a 263-191 record over 18 seasons at Fordham, he remains the program’s all-time winningest head coach. What’s more, he led the program to five NIT and two NCAA appearances (at the time, the competing tourneys were on the same par). Bach then accepted the job at Penn State, where he would remain until 1978.  Under the illustrious Hank Iba, the New York product was also the assistant coach of the ill-fated 1972 US Olympic basketball team.

After a seven-year stint as both an assistant and head coach for the Golden State Warriors, Bach was brought to Chicago by Doug Collins (his ex-player on Team USA). By that time, he had long earned a reputation as one of the finest defensive minds in basketball and an unconventional motivator. Bach would remain with the Bulls when fellow assistant Phil Jackson replaced Collins at the helm before the 1989-90 campaign. Most notably, the veteran coach would play an instrumental role in Chicago’s first three titles between 1991 and 1993.

On the heels of the Bulls’ trifecta, Bach worked a total of seven seasons as an assistant for the Hornets, Pistons, and Wizards. In 2003, he returned to Chicago for one last three-year run under Scott Skiles, among others.

Upon his passing at the age of 91, Michael Jordan told the Chicago Tribune that “Coach Bach was truly one of the greatest basketball minds of all-time. He taught me so much, encouraged me, worked with me and really helped to mold my professional game. Without him, I don’t know that we would’ve won our first three championships. He was more than a coach to me. He was a great friend.”