By Elliot Kwitek & Jared Valleskey
July 15th, 2024, one of the Founding fathers of the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay (UWGB) has passed away; Dave Buss, who was 86 when he passed, was the first-ever men’s basketball coach for UWGB. He was a pioneer for the school not only for his work on the court but off it as well. This article serves as a look into Buss’ life before UWGB, his career at UWGB, and his career after UWGB, and to remember one of the founders of this university who helped shape the university and the men’s basketball program to where it is today.
Dave Buss was born on April 20th, 1939, in Marshfield, Wisconsin. Not much is known and available about Buss’ childhood and early life, but he did play baseball at Coalinga (Calif.) Junior College and Florida State before he graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire with a bachelor’s degree. In the 1950s, Buss was the head coach of the Boys’ basketball team at Palmyra High School for 4 years. In 1966, he was hired by Winona State University as an assistant coach for their men’s basketball team. After a single year at Winona, Dave left and became an assistant coach for the men’s basketball program at West Virginia Tech in 1967. He stayed there through 1968 where then he was contacted by Edward Weidner, the soon-to-be Chancellor of a new UW school, the University of Wisconsin Green Bay. UWGB officially came into being in the fall of 1968 and Edward Weidner was selected as the first-ever chancellor of the university. He contacted Dave about becoming the first-ever men’s basketball coach for the university. Dave accepted the position and made history as the first-ever men’s basketball head coach in program history, his first season as the head coach was in 1969.
Photo of the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay Men’s Basketball 1970-’71 team – Buss upper right. Photo provided by Michael Juley.
The Phoenix started strong with Buss as their coach in their first season as a team, they finished the season with a 16-8 record, they were a part of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). The NAIA is a collegiate athletic association that was for smaller schools that did not get enough funding to participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Buss was quickly seen as a hard-working and demanding coach as his coaching style garnered national attention on the defensive side of the ball as well as his unique playstyle for the offense. A former Fourth Estate writer who covered the 1970-71 Men’s basketball team, Michael Juley said this about Buss style of basketball, “ You know, he would just run the same play over and over again until someone got open and got a layup and which you could do back then because there was no shot clock”. Buss also gained attention due to his recruiting style as he preferred to recruit locally and tended to stay in Wisconsin to find players for his team. Michael Juley, said this about Buss unique recruiting style, “I think it was a pretty interesting way for Dave Bust to try to gain interest in the team is to, you know, to recruit players from Wisconsin and then also from Green Bay itself”. According to the UWGB Athletic records page, from 1969 – 1972 Buss had Green Bay at an 88-24 win/loss record which helped propel the school into the NCAA as it joined the Division II program within the NCAA. Buss gained even more attention and so did the university as Buss had a 165-65 win/loss record from 1973-1980. According to the UWGB men’s Basketball records, his best seasons as a coach came during his time in Division II from 1977-80, he had a win/loss record of 92-31. During this time Buss led his team to three NCAA DII Final Fours including back-to-back National Runner-Up finishes in 1977-78 and 1978-79. In 1979 Dave Buss was named the NCAA Division II Coach of the Year after finishing the year as the National Runner-Up in Division II.
Buss, in ten years, took the Green Bays men’s basketball program from scratch to a contender in Division II basketball. With this quick success and the fact that the program had already changed collegiate divisions once prior (NAIA-NCAA DII), there was discussion of elevating Green Bays athletic programs to Division I level. Between the 1979 and 1980 basketball season, two newspaper articles from the Green Bay Press-Gazette from November 8th, 1979, brought up the discussion that Edward Weidner and the rest of the university were having about joining the Division I scene. One article in this paper was called “The Buss Factor”, written by Tony Walter, this article was about the insight and discussion around Buss and Green Bay and if they were to join Division I basketball. Walter mentioned if Buss could be able to recruit good enough talent to compete at the highest level of college basketball. The second article in this newspaper was called “UWGB The Division Question,” a smaller article highlighting upcoming dates and events around UWGB’s decision to join Division I. After much discussion, after the 1981 season, the Green Bay Phoenix officially joined Division I. Green Bay started as an independent conference school in its first DI season and finished the season with a 14-13 win/loss record. This would be the last season that Buss coached for Green Bay, later he had small coaching stints with UNLV and Long Beach State before retiring from coaching as a whole.
From the beginning, Buss had a goal to achieve something that nobody believed was achievable. Buss was able to take a school and not only put their basketball program on the map, but deliver results, exceed everyone’s expectations, and build up a program from nothing to what it is today. The hard work, dedication, and determination from Buss were the driving points in his and his team’s success throughout his time at UWGB, and there is a reason that his teams tended to be successful under his coaching. When many remember Buss, they will think of his drive and work ethic that allowed him to prosper as the head coach of UWGB. As current chancellor Michael Alexander said, “Although I never had the opportunity to speak to Coach Buss, I can feel his amazing legacy in countless ways. You can measure greatness through wins and losses, but Coach Buss’ legacy can be felt in far more important ways. He created a belief in our university from its earliest stages, showed what is possible for the future, and made a profound difference in the lives of everyone I have spoken to who knew him. I join with our community in celebrating his life and mourning his passing.” Many words will be used to describe the characteristics and morals of Buss: leader and pioneer, but the word that defines Buss is resilient. Buss accumulated a 271-102 (.726) record in 13 seasons, and he was the first coach ever to be inducted into the Phoenix Hall of Fame in 1995 further cementing his legacy as a Phoenix.
