About John Calipari
John Vincent Calipari (; born February 10, 1959) is an American basketball coach who is the head coach at the University of Arkansas. He has been named Naismith College Coach of the Year three times (1996, 2008, and 2015), and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015. Previously, he was the head coach at the University of Massachusetts from 1988 to 1996, the NBA's New Jersey Nets from 1996 to 1999, the University of Memphis from 2000 to 2009, and the University of Kentucky from 2009 to 2024. During the 2011–2012 season, he led Kentucky to a national championship. Additionally, he was the head coach of the Dominican Republic national team in the summers of 2011 and 2012 as well as the United States men's national under-19 basketball team in July 2017. Calipari coached Kentucky to four Final Fours in 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2015. He also led UMass and Memphis to the Final Four in 1996 and 2008 respectively; those appearances were later vacated, though Calipari was cleared of wrongdoing in both cases. As a college coach, Calipari has twenty-nine 20-win seasons, eleven 30-win seasons, and five 35-win seasons. As of March 2026, with 900 official wins, Calipari ranks 5th on the NCAA Division I all-time winningest coaches list. Calipari is famous for popularizing the dribble drive motion offense, developed by Vance Walberg, which is sometimes known as the "Memphis Attack". In his 31 official seasons (32 seasons overall) as a collegiate head coach, Calipari's record is 855–263 (.765). Known for an early entrepreneurial spirit, he frequently organized summer league games and directed youth basketball camps throughout the region before graduating in 1978.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.