WEST CHESTER, Pa. – Former West Chester University men's basketball head coach, and professor of Kinesiology at the university, Earl Voss, passed away at Chester County Hospital Thursday, April 7.
Visitation will be at the McCrery and Harra Funeral Home from 6-8 p.m. on April 13. There will be a service at 11 a.m. followed by burial at Riverview Cemetary on April 14. The funeral home is located at 3924 Concord Pike (Rte 202 South of Silverside Road) in Wilmington, Del.
Voss, 86, coached West Chester's men's basketball team for 14 seasons (1973-87) while the Golden Rams competed at the NCAA Division I level in both the Mid-Atlantic Conference (MAC) and the East Coast Conference (ECC), before the university moved to Division II in 1982 when the NCAA split into three divisions. Along the way, he compiled an overall record of 138-229 (.376) on the Golden Rams' sideline with an ECC West Division crown to his credit in 1981-82. That was at a time when every other school in the ECC, both East and West divisions, declared Division I when the NCAA split up the following year.
Voss led the Golden Rams to the NCAA Division II Tournament in 1982-83. He left West Chester after the 1986-87 season as the school's all-time winningest basketball coach with 138 wins. He still stands third all-time behind the man who succeeded him, Dick DeLaney, and West Chester's current head coach, Damien Blair.
Voss, a 1952 graduate of West Chester State Teacher's College, played both basketball and baseball at the university, before moving on to become an all-star in the semi-pro baseball leagues. Voss was a member of the Emil Messikomer Men's Basketball Hall of Fame, a hall of fame he helped start. He also served his country in the Korean War. He began his collegiate coaching career at Bloomsburg University in 1966, mentoring the Huskies' men's squad for five seasons (1966-71). He racked up a record of 63-42 at Bloomsburg to leave him at 201-428 (.320) overall in 19 years of coaching basketball at the collegiate level.
