Winston-Salem, N.C. ? Skip Prosser, who led Wake Forest to its first basketball No. 1 ranking three seasons ago, died Thursday of an apparent heart attack, the university said. He was 56.

Prosser was found slumped on his office couch and unresponsive by director of basketball operations Mike Muse shortly after returning from his noon jog, athletics director Ron Wellman said. Medical personnel performed CPR and used a defibrillator on Prosser, who was taken to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and pronounced dead at 1:41 p.m.

Wellman said he was unaware of any previous health issues for Prosser, calling his death “a devastating loss” during a news conference Thursday night.

“Because of his strength, we’ll be able to go on and we’ll be just fine eventually,” Wellman said. “We’re not right now. We’re all suffering right now.”

Dr. William Applegate, the dean of the university medical school, said the events were “typical of a sudden massive heart attack.”

“This kind of attack, when it’s not witnessed by someone next to the person and CPR is not started within seconds, then the outcome is often not good,” Applegate said.

Prosser had been in Orlando, Fla., earlier this week for an AAU national tournament and had lunch Wednesday with South Carolina coach Dave Odom, his predecessor at Wake Forest.

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. Wake Forest went to No. 1 for the first time during the 2004-05 season.

Prosser had a career 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. He is the only coach to take three schools to the NCAA Tournament in his first season at each.

Ohio State coach Thad Matta, who replaced Prosser at Xavier in 2001, called him “one of the all-time great people in coaching.”

North Carolina State coach Sidney Lowe said it was “a tremendous loss for our conference and for college basketball,” while North Carolina coach Roy Williams said he was “absolutely shocked and deeply saddened” by Prosser’s death.