Longtime Illinois basketball assistant coach Dick Nagy passed away Wednesday (Oct. 6) surrounded by family and friends after a prolonged illness. Nagy, 78, joined Lou Henson's coaching staff in time for the 1979-80 season and served the Illini until Henson's retirement following the 1996 season.

Nagy helped the Illini post winning Big Ten records in 14 of 17 seasons, while winning one Big Ten title, placing second three times and finishing third four times. He was an assistant on the famed Flyin' Illini squad of 1989 that advanced to the NCAA Final Four.

Nagy is the third member of that Flyin' Illini staff to pass away in the last 15 months. Henson died in July 2020 and assistant coach Jimmy Collins in December 2020. Nagy followed Collins to Illinois-Chicago for five seasons after his time in Champaign-Urbana and helped the Flames to their first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance.

A native of Syracuse, N.Y., Nagy had played for Henson at Hardin-Simmons in Abilene, Texas, and was captain during Henson's final season there in 1966. Nagy had been out of high school for three years, playing independent basketball in Syracuse, when Henson convinced him to play at Hardin-Simmons. He led the Cowboys to 20-6 records in two of the three seasons Nagy and Henson were together there.

After Henson departed Hardin-Simmons for New Mexico State, Nagy captained his second Cowboys team, and then went on to serve as an assistant coach at the school for two more years while earning a master's degree in education in 1969.

Nagy later moved to start the basketball program at Barton County Community College in Great Bend, Kansas, in 1969. He also served Barton County as Athletics Director from 1973-76. After the 1976 season, Nagy moved into private business before accepting the head coaching job at East Central Community College in Union, Missouri.

In addition to his coaching and recruiting duties, Nagy was the coordinator of Illinois's highly successful summer basketball camp where thousands of young players were introduced to Illini basketball each year.