List of East Tennessee State Buccaneers men's basketball head coaches

Last updated June 12, 2025

The following is a list of East Tennessee State Buccaneers men's basketball head coaches. There have been 19 head coaches of the Buccaneers in their 104-season history.^[1]

East Tennessee State's current head coach is Brooks Savage. He was hired as the Buccaneers' head coach in March 2023,^[2] replacing Desmond Oliver, who was fired after the 2022–23 season.^[3]

No.	Tenure	Coach	Years	Record	Pct.
1	1918–1922	Charlie Reece	4	19–12	.613
2	1922–1923	Vernon McFee	1	5–5	.500
3	1923–1925	James Karl Luck	2	10–15	.400
4	1925–1931	John Robinson	6	25–40	.385
–	1931–1933^[a]	Unknown	2	12–6	.667
5	1933–1947^[b]	Gene McMurray	13	90–84	.517
6	1947–1948	Loyd Roberts	1	9–8	.529
7	1948–1973	Madison Brooks	25	370–263	.585
8	1973–1976	Leroy Fisher	3	23–52	.307
9	1976–1978	Sonny Smith	2	30–23	.566
10	1978–1982	Jim Halihan	4	57–53	.518
11	1982–1985	Barry Dowd	4	40–46	.465
12	1985–1990	Les Robinson	5	81–70	.536
13	1990–1996	Alan LeForce	6	108–70	.607
14	1996–2003	Ed DeChellis	7	105–93	.530
15	2003–2015	Murry Bartow	12	224–165	.576
16	2015–2020	Steve Forbes	5	130–43	.751
17	2020–2021	Jason Shay	1	13–12	.520
18	2021–2023	Desmond Oliver	2	27–37	.422
19	2023–present	Brooks Savage	0	0–0	–
Totals		19 coaches	104 seasons	1,378–1,097	.557
Records updated through end of 2022–23 season * - Denotes interim head coach. Source^[1]

↑ Records for the 1931–32 season are incomplete; only the team's final record is known. All records for the 1932–33 season are lost.
↑ East Tennessee State did not field a team for the 1943–44 season.

References

1 2 "Buccaneer Basketball Record Book" (PDF). East Tennessee State Athletics. Retrieved March 8, 2023.
↑ Borzello, Jeff (March 17, 2023). "Sources: ETSU nearing deal with Brooks Savage as next coach". ESPN.com . Retrieved March 19, 2023.
↑ Avento, Joe (March 10, 2023). "Oliver out as ETSU basketball coach". Johnson City Press. Retrieved March 19, 2023.

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[RecordsLost-4] Records for the 1931–32 season are incomplete; only the team's final record is known. All records for the 1932–33 season are lost.

[NoTeam-5] East Tennessee State did not field a team for the 1943–44 season.

[RecordBook-1] 1 2 "Buccaneer Basketball Record Book" (PDF). East Tennessee State Athletics. Retrieved March 8, 2023.

[2] Borzello, Jeff (March 17, 2023). "Sources: ETSU nearing deal with Brooks Savage as next coach". ESPN.com . Retrieved March 19, 2023.

[3] Avento, Joe (March 10, 2023). "Oliver out as ETSU basketball coach". Johnson City Press. Retrieved March 19, 2023.

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v t e East Tennessee State Buccaneers men's basketball
Venues	ETSU/Mountain States Health Alliance Athletic Center (1977–2014) Freedom Hall Civic Center (2014–present)
People	Head coaches Statistical leaders
Seasons	List of seasons 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25