Skip Prosser, 56; Wake Forest University basketball coach

Skip Prosser, 56, Wake Forest basketball coach, died Thursday in Winston-Salem, N.C., the university said, without releasing details. The Winston-Salem Journal reported on its website that Prosser collapsed at his office on campus and died later at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.

Prosser spent six seasons with the Demon Deacons, winning an Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season title in 2003 and reaching the NCAA tournament in his first four seasons. He also led Wake Forest to the program’s first No. 1 national ranking during the 2004-05 season.

Before arriving in Winston-Salem, Prosser was head coach at Xavier in Cincinnati for seven seasons and at Loyola of Maryland for one year.

Prosser had an all-time record of 291-146 as a head coach, including 126-68 with Wake Forest. While there, he coached future NBA stars Chris Paul and Josh Howard, and was the ACC coach of the year in 2003.

George Edward “Skip” Prosser was born Nov. 3, 1950, in Pittsburgh. A 1972 graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, Prosser earned his master’s degree in secondary education from West Virginia in 1980 while he was a high school coach. He joined the Xavier staff as an assistant before the 1985-86 season, spending eight years on the bench there.