Ranking the top 10 coaches in Louisville Athletics history

By The Louisville Cardinal Staff

Floyd St. is, and always has been, bustling with star power.

From the dynamic action of Lamar Jackson to the ridiculousness of Russ Smith, Louisville athletics has always been the show in town. But it’s the coaches that are the one constant in their respective sports, acting as ambassadors and architects for their programs.

While the Cardinals coaches have more of a symbiotic relationship, we are not beholden to the same standards of decorum.

So, without further ado, we present our ranking of the best coaches to ever call themselves Cardinals for life.

10. Jeff Brohm

Brohm is Louisville football through and through.

Earning Mr. Football honors out of Trinity High School, Brohm would go on to play quarterback for the Cards in the lates ’80s and early ’90s.

After his playing career ended he got his first coaching opportunity as the head man for the Louisville Fire, Louisville’s Arena Football League team.

Since Josh Heard brought Brohm back home in 2023, the new regime has hit the ground running. A record of 19-8 in just two seasons with the program’s first ever appearance in a conference championship game has the football team set up for future success like few times before.

9. Bernard “Peck” Hickman

Hickman laid the foundation for what would be a top 10 program in the sport.

Taking over as both the Men’s coach and athletic director near the tail end of World War II, the Kentucky-native took over what was mostly a losing program and immediately turned them into a winner.

In his 23 seasons at the helm, Hickman coached Louisville to a winning record every season with an overall record of 443-183, the best winning percentage of a Louisville coach with four or more full years on the job.

The program also reached their first of 10 Final Fours under Hickman’s direction to go with the 1956 NIT championship led by Charlie Tyra.

8. Pat Kelsey

After only one season coaching the Cardiac Cards, Kelsey is arguably a bigger name in the Derby City than Mayor Craig Greenberg, and with a likely higher approval rating.

Kelsey, 50, had long career as a respected mid-major coach at Winthrop and Charleston, overseeing the latter’s transition into the NIL era without missing a step.

He didn’t miss any steps with the Cards, either, reminding the greater college basketball landscape that Louisville didn’t fall off they just fell down.

Now heading into year two, the Cards are full of hype with a core of returning players, a high-profile transfer portal class and a highly touted recruiting class highlighted by one of the highest rated recruits in program history.

7. Bobby Petrino

After a short stint as John L. Smith’s offensive coordinator, Petrino took over the football program in 2003 for his first job as the head honcho.

The wunderkind took no time to help Louisville reach new heights, putting them in the conversation for the national championship for the first time in program history. His first tenure ended with a resounding victory in the Orange Bowl and the first 12-win season Louisville could call their own.

In his second stint (affectionately nicknamed “Bobby 2.0”), Petrino guided the Cards through their transition from the Group of 5 to the Power 5.

And in 2016 he helped develop Jackson into the star quarterback he is today, culminating in the Heisman trophy.

In spite of both of his tenures ending unceremoniously, Petrino amassed an overall record of 77-35 which makes him the second winningest coach in Louisville football history.

6. Howard Schnellenberger

Another local legend, Schnellenberger took over a struggling Cardinals program at a time when dropping down to Division I-AA, now FCS, was a real conversation inside the athletic department.

The averted decision was not so crazy at the time, as the Cards only had two winning seasons in the 12 years prior to hiring the Louisville-native.

The hire is especially amazing when you consider that at the time he was just a few years removed from bringing Miami their first national championship, getting the ball rolling on “The U’s” ascension into the upper echelon of college football.

His time in his hometown got off to a bit of a slow start, only winning eight games through his first three years. But he would right the ship, and in 1990 he would author what was then the best season ever for Louisville football, going 10-1-1 with a Fiesta Bowl win over Alabama.

Schnellenberger may not have brought a national championship to his hometown team, but he put Louisville football on the map. Many Louisville fans were born into the oasis of Louisville football, blissfully unaware that it was a desert not too long before.

That is a job well done.

5. Dan McDonnell

Louisville baseball may as well not have even existed before McDonnell donned the red and black.

From 1909 to 2006, Louisville just barely had a winning record all-time of 1,326-1,263-9 and only one tournament appearance.

In his first year at Louisville, his first head coaching job of any kind, McDonnell took the Cards to the College World Series. Since then Louisville has 14 tournament appearances with 10 Super Regionals and six World Series.

The program has also produced a Golden Spikes winner in Brendan McKay and 19 total big leaguers.

It’s impossible to talk about baseball without mentioning the lull the program has been in more often than not post-Covid. But the postseason run earlier this year has quelled many of the anxieties surrounding McDonnell’s ability, as he has clearly shown the skill to adapt with the times.

From the adjustments to the BBCOR standards, now to NIL and the transfer portal, McDonnell has shown he can coach in any era.

4. Dani Busboom Kelly

Louisville volleyball was a sleeping giant.

Busboom Kelly woke that giant up.

A solid program in the fertile volleyball recruiting grounds of the Derby City, Louisville was a tournament team more often than not with four trips to the Sweet Sixteen.

Since DBK took over in 2017 the Cards have become a national powerhouse. She’s led the Cards to six Sweet Sixteens, five Elite Eights, three Final Fours and two appearances in the National Championship, making her one of only a handful of female head coaches to make it to the final in women’s volleyball.

She also coached Louisville to an undefeated regular season in 2021, earning coach of the year honors, as well.

Her recent departure may leave a sour taste in the mouths of Cardinals fans, but the impact that she has had on Louisville volleyball has forever changed the trajectory of the program.

3. Jeff Walz

Despite only being the head man in Louisville, Walz has been a success everywhere he’s been.

After winning a national championship as the top assistant at Maryland, the Kentucky kid took the Cardinals to the Sweet Sixteen in year one and the national championship game in year two.

From that point on Louisville has been one of the top programs in the sport, a notoriously hard girl’s club to break into.

Under Walz the Cards have an overall record of 486-146 with two championship appearances, four Final Fours, eight Elite Eights and 12 Sweet Sixteens.

Walz also orchestrated what is still the biggest upset in the history of the women’s NCAA tournament when Shoni Schimmel toppled a Brittney Griner led Baylor team on their way to the second national championship appearance.

In his 18th year, Walz is returning to his roots of high school recruitment and development, setting the Cards up to continue their winning ways.

2. Rick Pitino

Love him or hate him, he’s in the Hall of Fame for a reason.

Pitino was hired at a crucial time in the history of Louisville basketball, with the Crum-era coming to a less than ideal end after 30 years.

Had the “guy after the guy” been a swing and a miss Louisville would not be the top tier program we all know and love today. They would probably be closer to Syracuse, trying and failing to recapture the glory of their one great coach.

Fortunately, then-athletic director Tom Jurich hit the nail on the head and the reformed Wildcat was instantly recognizable as the next big thing.

The result was six Elite Eights, three Final Fours and the third national championship in program history in just 17 years of the Pitino tenure.

The plethora of controversies may have sullied the image of the program for many, but the good times will never be forgotten.

1. Denny Crum

Louisville is a basketball school located in perhaps the biggest basketball city per capita in the country.

And it’s all thanks to one Denzel Crum.

A disciple of perhaps the greatest basketball coach the college game has ever seen, John Wooden, Crum was hired by none other than Hickman to leave the winningest program in the sport and the only state he has ever known to helm the Cards.

The results were abrupt as Louisville made their second Final Four in Crum’s first season, losing to Wooden’s UCLA Goliath.

In Crum’s second Final Four appearance, he narrowly lost to UCLA again in what would turn out to be Wooden’s penultimate game as a coach.

Naturally, Crum was assumed to be the heir apparent to the Bruins fortune, but he turned it down to build something special in the Derby City.

What followed was monumental, with the first national championship coming in 1980, Final Fours in ’82 and ’83 and another championship in ’86.

Even after Crum retired from Louisville, he never took another head coaching job. He even became a regular at Cards games, supporting whoever patrolled the sidelines.

Photo by Vinny Porco / The Louisville Cardinal