James Harrison "Babe" McCarthy, sometimes called "Ol' Magnolia Mouth" or just "Magnolia Mouth" was a professional and collegiate basketball coach. Basketball is a team Sport in which two teams of five active players each try to score points against one another by propelling a ball through a 10 feet (3 m McCarthy was originally from Baldwyn, Mississippi. Mississippi ( is a state located in the Deep South of the United States McCarthy may best be remembered for Mississippi State's appearance in the 1963 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament when his all-white team sneaked out of town in order to face Loyola University Chicago, which had four black starters. Mississippi State University is a Land-grant university located in north east-central Mississippi, United States, in the town of Starkville and The 1963 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament involved 25 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Loyola University Chicago is a private co-educational Jesuit university established in Chicago in 1870 as Saint Ignatius College
In March 1975, McCarthy died as a result of colon cancer.
College career
McCarthy had coached at Mississippi State University, where his teams won 169 games, lost 85, and won or shared four Southeastern Conference titles. Mississippi State University is a Land-grant university located in north east-central Mississippi, United States, in the town of Starkville and The Southeastern Conference (SEC is a College Athletic conference headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, which operates in the southeastern While coaching at MSU he was named SEC Coach of the year 3 times. When he left Mississippi State he was the school's all-time leader in wins but has since been passed by Richard Williams and Rick Stansbury. Richard Williams was the college basketball coach at Mississippi State from 1986 to 1998 Rick Stansbury (born December 23, 1959 in Louisville Kentucky) is the current head men's Basketball coach at Mississippi State University [1]
McCarthy may best be remembered for his team crossing the color line in the segregated south of the 1960s. Even before it was certain that Mississippi State would face Loyola and their four black starters, racist elements in the Mississippi media got into the act. On Thursday, March 7, 1963 the Jackson Daily News printed a picture of Loyola's starters to show that four of them were African Americans. As a caption to the picture, Daily News editor Jimmy Ward wrote that "readers may desire to clip the photo of the Loyola team and mail it today to the board of trustees of the institution of higher learning" to prevent the game from taking place.
The editorials were in response to the decision by Mississippi State President Dean W. Colvard's March 2, 1963 to accept the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament as SEC Champions-a bid that they had refused three times before when faced with the prospect of playing integrated teams. Dean Wallace Colvard ( July 10, 1913 - June 28, 2007) is a former president of Mississippi State University, notable for his role in The College Board of Mississippi met on March 9, 1963 and upheld Colvard's decision. But on March 13, just a day before the team was scheduled to travel to East Lansing, state senator Billy Mitts and former state senator B. W. Lawson sought and obtained a temporary injunction against the team leaving the state.
While sheriffs were on their way to Starkville, Mississippi to serve the injunction, the team was participating in a pep rally the night before their departure, where effigies of racist state senators Mitts and Lawson were hung. Starkville is a city in Oktibbeha County, Mississippi, United States. The team's original plan was to leave Starkville at 8:30 a. m. on Thursday morning. But learning that the Hinds County sheriffs would be expected to arrive in town at 11:30 p. m. Wednesday night, MSU put their sophisticated contingency plan into effect.
Coach Babe McCarthy, the athletic director, and the assistant athletic director drove to Memphis, and then flew to Nashville. The team itself sent the freshman squad to the airport as scheduled-posing as the varsity team. The real varsity team hid in a dorm on campus. The next morning, they boarded a private plane at the airport and flew to Nashville to meet up with the coach and team officials. From Nashville, the whole group took a commercial flight to the game at East Lansing, Michigan. These events were chronicled in the DVD One Night in March produced by Starkville-based Broadcast Media Group
He later coached the George Washington University's men's basketball team, going 9-18 with the Colonials in 1966-1967. DVD (also known as " Digital Versatile Disc " or " Digital Video Disc " - see Etymology)is The George Washington University ( GW or GWU) is a private coeducational university located in Washington D
ABA career
In the American Basketball Association, McCarthy coached the New Orleans Bucaneers from 1967 to 1970, the Memphis Pros from 1970 to 1972, the Dallas Chaparrals for the 1972-73 season, and the Kentucky Colonels in the 1973-1974 season. The American Basketball Association ( ABA) was a professional Basketball league founded in 1967, and eventually merged in part with the National New Orleans Buccaneers was a charter member of the American Basketball Association. Memphis Pros were an American Basketball Association team during the 1970-1971 and 1971-1972 seasons The Kentucky Colonels were a member of the American Basketball Association for all of the league's 9 years He was named ABA coach of the year for the 73-74 season. In the 1967-68 season he led the team two victories over the Denver Rockets and Dallas Chapparals before losing the finals in seven games to the Pittsburgh Condors. Denver Rockets were a charter member of the American Basketball Association. The Pittsburgh Condors were a professional Basketball team in the original American Basketball Association, playing under that name from 1970 through 1972 He was named ABA coach of the year in 1969 and 1974. He was the first ABA coach to win 200 games.
External links
- Basketball-reference.com
- Remember the ABA
- Mississippi State University Athletics
- George Washington University
- One Night in March
| Preceded by Joe Mullaney |
Kentucky Colonels Head Basketball Coaches 1973–1974 |
Succeeded by Hubie Brown |
| Preceded by Paul Gregory |
Mississippi State University Head Basketball Coaches 1956–1965 |
Succeeded by Joe Dan Gold |
| Preceded by Bill Reinhart |
George Washington University Head Basketball Coach 1966-1967 |
Succeeded by Wayne Dobbs |
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