After an illustrious career that spanned over four decades and included over 500 victories as a head coach, Bellarmine University women’s basketball’s Chancellor Dugan has decided to hang up her whistle.
Following three head-coaching stops where she guided each program to national prominence, the last of which came at Bellarmine, Dugan on Wednesday announced her retirement effective April 15.
Dugan steps away from the game after 34 seasons as a head coach and 43 total. The last 13 of those came at Bellarmine, where she returned the program to national notoriety in Division II before guiding the Knights through the transition to Division I and into official D1 status.
Dugan’s swan song was a landmark 2024-25 campaign that represents the program’s standard bearer in the NCAA’s premier level. In her final season, Bellarmine set new D1-era program records for total wins (18), ASUN wins (eight), road wins (nine) and winning streak (six) while also winning its first-ever ASUN Tournament game.
“Chancellor Dugan is another local coach who wanted to come home and make an impact in the community she grew up in, and she did just that with great energy and passion,” Bellarmine director of athletics Scott Wiegandt said of the Sacred Heart Academy graduate. “Coach Dugan built a championship-caliber team in a short amount of time and returned it to the national stage in Division II. She was then steadfast in her commitment to seeing the D1 transition through and developing the program in the NCAA’s highest level. She unquestionably achieved that goal and is leaving the program on a high note. Bellarmine thanks her for her unwavering dedication to the university and wishes her all the best in a well-deserved retirement and in her future endeavors.”
Dugan finishes her career with 509 wins, 189 of which came at Bellarmine, ranking third in program history. Her milestone 500th career victory may have been the most improbable of the bunch, coming on Dec. 12 in Knights Hall this past season when junior guard Erin Toller miraculously sank consecutive 3-pointers inside the final 8.3 seconds to erase a five-point deficit in a 67-66 triumph over Chattanooga.
“These past 13 years at Bellarmine have been some of the greatest in my career,” Dugan said. “To win a GLVC championship in Division II and then be charged to transition to Division I and navigate those waters, they were some of the most challenging years of my career but also some of the most rewarding. And to culminate with the historic season that we had this past year was like icing on top of the cake — and all my players know I love icing!”
When Dugan arrived at Bellarmine in 2012, initially it appeared as if she might bookend her head-coaching career in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. She burst onto the head-coaching scene at Southern Indiana in the 1990s, where she orchestrated a rise that saw the Screaming Eagles capture three GLVC championships and earn four NCAA II Tournament berths, including a national runner-up finish in 1997. That success came over eight seasons, two of which landed her GLVC Coach of the Year laurels.
The D1 ranks took notice and Dugan accepted the head-coaching position at Florida Atlantic in 1999, leading the Owls to the ASUN championship and an NCAA Tournament bid in 2006.
Dugan returned to D2 and the GLVC when she became the sixth head coach in Bellarmine women’s basketball history. She inherited a program that went 13-14 in 2011-12 and posted a 19-11 record in her first year at the helm.
By Year 4 under Dugan’s stewardship, the Knights were hoisting their first GLVC Tournament championship trophy while matching the best winning percentage in program history (.857) after going 24-4. That season marked the first of two straight NCAA II Tournament campaigns for the Knights, who went 143-85 overall and 87-59 in the GLVC in eight years in D2 under Dugan.
Dugan ultimately returned to the D1 ranks — and the ASUN no less — without switching schools. Bellarmine ascended in 2020-21 and became an official D1 member this past season after completing the five-year trial period.
Along with the unprecedented team success, Bellarmine set a new D1-era program record with three All-ASUN selections this past season. In total during Dugan’s tenure, the Knights had 18 all-conference selections, one All-American (Sarah Galvin, D2) and two conference Freshman of the Years (Raven Merriweather, GLVC; Gracie Merkle, ASUN) along with 111 academic honor roll acknowledgements and perennial 3.0-plus team GPAs.
“I’ve been so blessed in the past 43 years to be an assistant or head basketball coach at some wonderful universities,” Dugan said. “I’d like to thank all the presidents, A.D.’s, SWA’s, trainers, support staff, all my assistants and, of course, all my wonderful players for making this journey so rewarding!”
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