Upcoming Event: Men's Basketball versus Michigan State on November 10, 2026 at TBA
/
TBA
Men's Basketball
vs Michigan State
Former Duke All-America Ed Koffenberger Passes Away
9/24/2014 11:38:00 AM | Men's Basketball
DURHAM, N.C. – Former Duke basketball and lacrosse standout Ed Koffenberger passed away Sunday morning in Delaware at the age of 88. Koffenberger had been battling leukemia and was undergoing a second round of chemotherapy when his health rapidly declined.
On the basketball court, Koffenberger led the Blue Devils to a 21-6 record and the Southern Conference Championship in 1946. He averaged a team-best 11.7 points per game en route to earning All-America and all-conference honors. He had 17 points and forced overtime with a layup and foul shot with 10 seconds remaining as Duke handed North Carolina its only league loss of the season.
The following year, Koffenberger was tabbed a consensus second team All-American after leading the Southern Conference in scoring (15.4 ppg.) and rebounding. The Wilmington, Delaware native became the first player in Duke history to score 30 points in a game in a win over Washington and Lee and closed out the season with a then school-record 416 points scored.
Koffenberger began his collegiate career at North Carolina in 1944. After high school, he joined the Navy V-12 program and was dispatched to Chapel Hill for officer training. He played football for the Tar Heels during the fall before transferring to Duke to study engineering and finished the fall football season with the Blue Devils. He would play football again the following year before turning his attention to basketball and lacrosse. Koffenberger picked up the sport of lacrosse during his short time at North Carolina and played on the Duke club team in 1945. Duke did not field a varsity team that year due to World War II. The Blue Devils returned to varsity lacrosse in 1946 and Koffenberger helped guide the team to one of the major upsets of the day with a 12-4 whipping of perennial power Maryland in the season opener.
Despite not playing the sport until he entered college, Koffenberger was an All-America selection as a defensive standout on the lacrosse team in 1947. Duke's first two-sport All-America, Koffeberger won the Teague Memorial Award in 1947 as the top male athlete in the Carolinas.
Not only did Koffenberger excel on the court and field, but he also did quite well in the classroom, graduating with a long string of academic honors, including Dean's List. He was also vice president of the Student Government for two years, a member of Omicron Delta Kappa (a national honorary fraternity) and numerous engineering societies.
Koffenberger, a member of the Duke Sports Hall of Fame and the Duke Basketball Hall of Honor (2001), was selected in the 1947 BAA (Basketball Association of America) Draft by the Philadelphia Warriors but chose to bypass a professional basketball career. He put his engineering degree to use and went to work for DuPont, remaining with the company for 42 years before retiring in 1989.
He is survived by his wife, Winnie, and their five children; Ed Jr. and his wife Mary Ann, Barbara Chilcoat and her husband Ed, Laura Croom and her husband David, Charles and his wife Susan, and Carol Koffenberger-Jones and her husband Brian and ten grandchildren. He is also survived by his brother Dick of Holly Springs N.C.
To send condolences visit www.rtfoard.com.
#GoDuke
Tuesday, March 31
Tuesday, March 31
Tuesday, March 31
Tuesday, March 31
