BANGOR (AP) – A longtime basketball coach from northern Maine who led Caribou High School to the 1969 state high school title on an improbable shot has died following a long fight with pancreatic cancer.

Gerald Duffy died Friday in Portland at the age of 77.

Duffy was probably best-known as the coach of the Caribou team that won the state championship when Mike Thurston swished a last-second, half-court heave to beat Westbrook High School, 65-63. Duffy compiled a 373-151 record, for a winning percentage of .712, during his 31-year coaching career at Danforth, Sherman, Limestone and Caribou.

Duffy also coached soccer at Caribou and coached baseball at Sherman, Limestone, Caribou and the University of Maine-Presque Isle.

He was inducted into the Maine Sports Hall of Fame in 1988 and was part of the inaugural class inducted into the Maine Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2001.

Duffy is survived by his wife of 52 years, Jean, and their four children.