Ohio Northern mourns the loss of legendary head Men's Basketball coach Joe Campoli

By Tim Glon

ADA — The Ohio Northern and Ada communities are mourning the loss of legendary head coach Joe Campoli, who passed away Friday morning.

A Celebration of Life service will be announced at a later date.

He was 80 years old.

Campoli was head coach of the Ohio Northern men's basketball program from 1992-93 to 2004-05, amassing a 254-101 record in his 13 seasons at the helm.

He was inducted into the ONU Athletics Hall of Fame in 1997.

Campoli became only the second coach in NCAA Division III history to win the national title in his first season in 1992-93 and took his team to the Division III Final Four in 2000-01.

Campoli has been voted the Division III National Coach of the Year twice (1993, 2001), the Ohio College Coach of the Year twice (1993, 2001) and won the Ohio Athletic Conference Coach of the Year honor four times (1993, 1995, 1999, 2001).

Seven of his players have received the Gregory Award as the league's Most Valuable Player.

He also won the prestigious Vince Lombardi Award, given annually by UNICO, in 2001.

Campoli ranks third all-time in men's basketball coaching victories at ONU and is the fastest coach to reach 100 wins in school history.

In his 17 seasons as associate basketball coach at Ohio Northern University, Campoli helped ONU win 266 games. He served as junior varsity coach from 1975-92 and contributed greatly to the varsity team's success.

Coach Campoli also served as an associate professor in the ONU department of health, physical education and sport studies.

He also directed the highly successful Polar Bear Basketball Camp, which has attracted over 32,000 campers in the past 32 summers.

He also served as head coach of the highly successful women's soccer team at ONU. Campoli founded the program in 1988 and compiled a 40-29-3 record in five seasons before stepping down in 1992. In 1991, he guided the Polar Bears to the Ohio Athletic Conference championship in just the program's fourth season of existence. He was named the 1991 OAC Women's Soccer Coach of the Year.

Campoli began his coaching career as an assistant under Gale Daugherty at Valley Central High School in Montgomery, N.Y. After two seasons, he was appointed head coach at Valley Central and remained there for nine years. In 1974, Campoli became assistant coach at St. Mary's College in Newburg, N.Y., before rejoining Daugherty at ONU in 1975.

He and his late wife, Margaret (an ONU graduate), have a son, Joe Jr., and a daughter Andrea.

Campoli earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Rhode Island and obtained his master's degree from Ithaca College.