Portrait of Bill Foster (basketball, born 1929)

Birthday profile

Bill Foster (basketball, born 1929)

Bill Foster, American basketball player and coach (died 2016)

Born
August 19, 1929
Died
January 7, 2016
Zodiac sign
Leo
Birth year
1929

About Bill Foster (basketball, born 1929)

William Edwin Foster (August 19, 1929 – January 7, 2016) was the head men's basketball coach at Rutgers University, University of Utah, Duke University, University of South Carolina, and Northwestern University. He is best known for guiding Duke to the NCAA championship game in 1978, and that year he was named national Coach of the Year by the National Association of Basketball Coaches. Foster was inducted into the Rutgers Basketball Hall of Fame and was the first NCAA coach to guide four teams to 20-win seasons (Rutgers, Utah, Duke, and South Carolina). Foster was a graduate of Elizabethtown College. == Early life == Foster was born in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania, in 1929 and grew up in Norwood, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. After serving in the U.S. Air Force, he attended Elizabethtown College in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, played on the men's basketball team starting in 1948, and graduated in 1954 with a bachelor of science degree in business education. In the 1952-1953 season, he served as student coach of the men's junior varsity basketball team. == Coaching career == Foster began his coaching career at Philadelphia-area high schools in the 1950s. One of his students in a typing class at Abington Senior High School was the daughter of Harry Litwack, the longtime basketball coach at Temple University. Foster and Litwack became friends and business partners, and for about 25 years they operated a popular summer basketball camp in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Career and life highlights

Bill Foster (basketball, born 1929) timeline

  1. In 1960, Foster was hired as the head coach at Bloomsburg State College (now Bloomsburg University), an NCAA Division II school in eastern Pennsylvania, where he compiled a 45–11 record over three years.
  2. Foster's Division I career began in 1963 at Rutgers where he led the Scarlet Knights to an overall record of 120–75 (.615) in eight seasons.

The world when Bill Foster (basketball, born 1929) was born

Bill Foster (basketball, born 1929) was born in 1929. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1929

  • #1 song"Singin' in the Rain"
  • Top movieThe Broadway Melody (first Best Picture winner)
  • Best-selling bookA Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentFirst baseball All-Star Game proposed
  • Top headlineStock market crashes on Black Tuesday
  • Technology milestoneFirst Academy Awards ceremony held
  • Defining fadYo-yos
  • Notable inventionCar radio
  • World population2.10 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderHerbert Hoover
  • Sports championPhiladelphia Athletics (World Series)
  • U.S. population121.8M

1929 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Bill Foster (basketball, born 1929)'s birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19292026
Gas$0.21$3.45/gal
Average home$6,300$435,000
Average income$3,850$67,500
Movie ticket$0.25$11.95
Postage stamp$0.02$0.73
Population121.8M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, NCAA Statistics, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.