Dick Versace, who led Bradley to two NCAA Tournament appearances and later coached the Indiana Pacers, died Friday at age 81.
Bradley announced his passing on Saturday but didn’t reveal his cause of death.
Versace took over the Bradley program in 1978, and in his eight seasons there, the team won three Missouri Valley Conference championships and played in the NCAA Tournament in 1980 and 1986. The Braves won the NIT championship in 1982.
Versace was a three-time MVC Coach of the Year and compiled a 156-88 record, including 32-3 in his final season in 1985-86. That season, the Bears ended up ranked No. 14 in the Associated Press Top 25 — one of only two times the school has appeared in the season-ending rankings since 1962 — after losing to eventual champion Louisville in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Upon leaving Bradley in 1986, he joined the coaching staff of Chuck Daly with the Detroit Pistons and spent three seasons there before becoming head coach of the Pacers in January of 1989.
Indiana was 73-87 in his parts of three seasons there. The Pacers also went 0-3 against the Pistons in the 1990 NBA playoffs.
Versace later was an assistant coach for the Milwaukee Bucks (1996-98), a broadcaster for TNT and the president of basketball operations, and later general manager, of the then-Vancouver Grizzlies.
–Field Level Media