Sport(s) Men's basketball Name Ron Jirsa Title Assistant coach Role Basketball Coach | 1977–1981 Gettysburg Education Gettysburg College 1983–1984 Delaware (asst.) Conference Big South Conference | |
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Born December 21, 1959 (age 64)
New London, Connecticut ( 1959-12-21 ) Alma mater Gettysburg College (B.A., 1981)
University of Tulsa (M.A., 1987) 1981–1983 Connecticut College (asst.) Team Radford Highlanders men's basketball | ||
Talking Bigs: Gopher Basketball Summer Camp 2012
Ronald Howard "Ron" Jirsa (born December 21, 1959) is an American college basketball coach who is currently an assistant coach at Radford. He has previously been the head coach at the University of Georgia and Marshall University.
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Early life and education
Ronald Howard Jirsa was born in New London, Connecticut and grew up in nearby Ledyard. After graduating from Ledyard High School in 1977, Jirsa attended Gettysburg College. A member of the basketball team, Jirsa graduated from Gettysburg in 1981 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in biology.
Coaching career
He bounced around as an assistant coach, but had two significant stints at the University of Tulsa, first under J. D. Barnett from 1985 to 1988 and second under Tubby Smith from 1991 to 1993. Jirsa completing his Master of Arts degree in athletic administration at Tulsa in 1987 while assistant coach. Smith promoted Jirsa to associate head coach in 1994, and Jirsa followed Smith to the University of Georgia.
When Smith departed for the University of Kentucky in 1997, Jirsa remained at Georgia and became head coach. Although Jirsa led Georgia to third place in the 1998 National Invitation Tournament title in his first season, he was fired in 1999 after going 35-30.
Jirsa moved to Dayton and was an assistant for four seasons there before getting another head coaching job at Marshall. Jirsa was fired after four seasons at Marshall, going 43-74. Most recently, he served under Tubby Smith as an assistant at the University of Minnesota. On March 25, 2013, it was announced that Smith, along with his entire staff had been relieved as coaches at Minnesota.
In the 2013–14 season, Jirsa was recruiting coordinator at Division III Bethel University in Minnesota. The following season, Jirsa joined Steve Payne's coaching staff as an assistant at Tennessee Tech. In 2015, Jirsa made yet another move, this time as an assistant at Radford under Mike Jones.