- Clair Bee
-
Clair Francis Bee (March 2, 1896 – May 20, 1983) was an American basketball coach, who led the team at Long Island University in Brooklyn, New York to undefeated seasons in 1936 and 1939, as well as two National Invitation Tournament titles (1939, 1941). He was born in Grafton, West Virginia.
Bee's teams won 95 percent of their games from 1931 to 1951, including 43 in a row from 1935 to 1937.[1] Bee holds the Division I NCAA record for highest winning percentage, winning 82.6% of the games he was head coach. [2] Bee resigned in 1951 after several of his players were implicated in the CCNY Point Shaving Scandal. LIU shut down its athletic program shortly afterward.
Bee also coached the football team at LIU until it was disbanded in 1940.[3]
He coached the National Basketball Association's Baltimore Bullets from 1952 to 1954, amassing a 34-116 record under his tenure.
Bee was known as the "Innovator". His contributions to the game of basketball include the 1-3-1 zone defense and the three-second rule. Bee also served as co-host of the early NBC sports-oriented television program "Campus Hoopla" on WNBT from 1946 - 1947.
His influence on the game also extended to strategies sports camps (Camp All-America), (Kutsher's Sports Academy), writing technical coaching books, and conducting coaching clinics around the world. By the time he left coaching in the 1950s, Bee had already begun writing the Chip Hilton Sports Series for younger readers.
Bee was inducted into the Basketball Hall Of Fame in 1968. The Clair Bee Coach of the Year Award is awarded every year to a coach who makes an outstanding contribution to the game of college basketball, and the Chip Hilton Player of the Year Award is awarded to a men's basketball player.
In 1968, he cofounded the Kutsher's Sports Academy.[4]
One of Bee's grandfathers was Ephraim Bee, a member of the First West Virginia Legislature.References
- ^ LIU streaks
- ^ [1]
- ^ Long Island University Blackbirds All-Time Football Records
- ^ Basketball Hall of Fame bio
External links
Rider Broncs men's basketball head coaches Clair Bee (1928–1931) • Paul Frank (1931–1932) • Frank Donlon (1932–1940) • Rex Ellis (1940–1942) • Thomas Leyden (1942–1943) • Frank Donlon (1943–1946) • Thomas Leyden (1946–1962) • Robert Greenwood (1962–1965) • Dick Harter (1965–1966) • John Carpenter (1966–1989) • Kevin Bannon (1989–1997) • Don Harnum (1997–2005) • Tommy Dempsey (2005– )
Long Island Blackbirds men's basketball head coaches Herbert Raubenheimer (1928–1930) • Arthur T. Carroll (1930–1931) • Clair Bee (1931–1943) • George Wolfe (1943–1945) • Clair Bee (1945–1951) • NCAA sanctions—no team (1951–1957) • Buck Lai (1957–1961) • Roy Rubin (1961–1972) • Ron Smalls (1972–1975) • Paul Lizzo (1975–1995) • Ray Haskins (1995–1998) • Ray Martin (1998–2001) • Ron Brown (2001–2002) • Jim Ferry (2002– )
Long Island Blackbirds head baseball coaches Herbert Raubenheimer (1929) • Arthur T. Carroll (1930) • Lew Malone (1931) • No team (1932–1933) • Clair Bee (1934–1939) • Al Caruso (1940) • No team (1941–1948) • Buck Lai (1949–1960) • Saverio Picariello (1961) • Tony Russo (1962–1965) • Dick Vining (1966–1974) • Paul Lizzo (1975–1976) • Frank Giannone (1977–2004) • Don Maines (2005– )
Long Island Blackbirds head football coaches Herbert Raubenheimer (1928–1931) • No team (1932–1938) • Unknown (1939) • Clair Bee (1940)
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 1968 Coaches Contributors Clair BeeCategories:- Long Island Blackbirds football coaches
- 1896 births
- 1983 deaths
- American basketball coaches
- American basketball players
- Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees
- Long Island Blackbirds baseball coaches
- Long Island Blackbirds men's basketball coaches
- National Basketball Association head coaches
- Ohio State University alumni
- People from Taylor County, West Virginia
- Rider Broncs men's basketball coaches
- Writers from West Virginia
- National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame inductees
- Baltimore Bullets (1944–1954) head coaches
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
