Charles Grice "Lefty" Driesell (December 25, 1931 – February 17, 2024) was an American college basketball coach.

Driesell earned the city's most outstanding player trophy and All-State recognition while leading Granby to the Virginia State Basketball Championship.

After graduating high school in 1950, Driesell received a full scholarship to attend Duke University,[3] where he played center on the basketball team under head coach Harold Bradley.

Driesell also found time to renew his playing career by joining the Virginia semi-pro ranks, where he once scored 59 points in a single game and earned a tryout with the then Minneapolis Lakers (later Los Angeles Lakers) of the National Basketball Association (NBA).

He was also given a chance to enter the coaching profession when his prep alma mater offered him its junior varsity position for both football and basketball.

After convincing his wife he could offset a significant pay cut by also selling World Book Encyclopedias part-time, he accepted the job and produced back-to-back unbeaten football teams and a city basketball champion in his first two years.

[7] That unbeaten team won the Virginia Group I State Championship, besting his old Granby squad with four of his former starters.

[10] An excellent recruiter at each of his collegiate coaching stops,[11] Driesell landed Dick Snyder, a second-round selection by the St. Louis Hawks.

[12] He cinched his wooing of college prospect Don Davidson by telling him "I'll put your name on the front [of your jersey]".

During his introductory press conference on March 19, 1969, he boldly stated that Maryland "has the potential to be the UCLA of the East Coast or I wouldn't be here," referring to the nation's dominant college basketball program in the middle of an unrivaled dynasty.

Among other top names during Driesell's Maryland tenure were NBA stars Tom McMillen, Len Elmore, John Lucas, Albert King, Buck Williams Adrian Branch, and Brad Davis.

At 12:03 a.m. on October 15, 1971, Driesell held a one-mile run at the track around Byrd Stadium, where a crowd of 1,000 fans had gathered after learning of the unorthodox practice session.

[17] Midnight Madness has been adopted by many national programs such as UNC, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan State, and Duke.

He and two other men were surf fishing around midnight in Bethany Beach, Delaware when he saw flames coming from a seashore resort.

An eyewitness, Prince George's County circuit court Judge Samuel Meloy, said, "Let's face it, Driesell was a hero.

Clemson head coach Tates Locke famously said about facing Driesell's Terrapins, "Keep me even until the last two minutes and I'll win."

Paul Attner of The Washington Post wrote, "...Put him in a situation where players from both teams have equal ability and are prepared just as well, and he falls short much of the time.

On June 19, 1986, Terrapin star Len Bias died in a campus dorm of a cocaine overdose after being drafted by the Boston Celtics.

A subsequent investigation revealed that Bias was 21 credits short of the graduation requirement despite having attended the university for four full years, exhausting his athletic eligibility; in his final semester, he had done almost no academic work.

On April 2, 2007, Driesell was inducted as a member of the second class of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.

[49] On April 2, 2010, the first annual Lefty Driesell Award for the best defensive player in NCAA Division I basketball was bestowed upon its first recipient, Jarvis Varnado of Mississippi State.

[51] Driesell was nominated numerous times for the Basketball Hall of Fame, receiving wide support from contemporaries.