Jim Larrañaga Honored With 2024 Joe Lapchick Character Award
University of Miami head coach Jim Larrañaga was honored as a 2024 Joe Lapchick Character Award recipient Friday afternoon at an award luncheon in New York, hosted by the Joe Lapchick Character Award Foundation.
Larrañaga is one of four honorees, alongside Fran Dunphy, Lon Kruger, and Dianne Nolan.
The Joe Lapchick Character Award is presented annually to basketball figures, from all levels of men’s and women’s basketball, who have demonstrated honorable character throughout their careers, much like the legendary Coach Joe Lapchick.
More About the Joe Lapchick Character Award Foundation
The Joe Lapchick Character Award Foundation is committed to encouraging and promoting good character in the sport of basketball. Each September, the foundation recognizes a group of iconic basketball figures, from all levels of men’s and women’s basketball, who have demonstrated honorable character throughout their careers, much like the legendary Coach Joe Lapchick.
Past recipients of the Joe Lapchick Character Award include Leonard Hamilton, Nancy Lieberman, Jay Wright, Mike Krzyzewski, and Larrañaga’s high school basketball coach Jack Curran.
Larrañaga only adds to his historic catalog with the honor of the Joe Lapchick Character Award. He has been named the Associated Press, Naismith, USBWA, and Henry Iba National Coach of the Year, twice as both the ACC and USBWA District Coach of the Year, and was the 2013 NABC District Coach of the Year.
In 2023, Larrañaga was also inducted into the UM Sports Hall of Fame & Museum and named a Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame first-time nominee.
Larrañaga completed his 40th season as a head coach and 13th at Miami in 2023-24 and holds a 740-500 all-time head coaching record. He currently ranks first among active Division I head coaches in career games coached (1,240) and seventh among the same group in career victories (740). He will be entering his 41st season for the Hurricanes with the hopes of returning to the Final Four once again and grabbing the one thing that is missing from his illustrious career a national championship.
