Babe McCarthy
| Sport(s) | Basketball |
|---|---|
| Biographical details | |
| Born | October 1, 1923 |
| Died | March 17, 1975 (aged 51) Baldwyn, Mississippi |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| 1955–1965 | Mississippi State |
| 1966–1967 | George Washington |
| 1967–1970 | New Orleans Buccaneers |
| 1970–1972 | Memphis Pros |
| 1972–1973 | Dallas Chaparrals |
| 1973–1974 | Kentucky Colonels |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 169–85 |
| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Championships | |
| SEC Championships (1959, 1961, 1962, 1963) | |
| Awards | |
|
SEC Coach of the Year (1961, 1962, 1963) ABA Coach of the Year (1969, 1974) |
|
James Harrison "Babe" McCarthy (October 1, 1923 – March 17, 1975), was an American professional and collegiate basketball coach. McCarthy was originally from Baldwyn, Mississippi. 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.
In March 1975, McCarthy died as a result of colon cancer.
McCarthy was from Baldwyn, MS and played high school basketball at Tupelo Junior High School. After high school he attended Mississippi State University where he was a member of Sigma Pi fraternity. He did not play college basketball. He served in the Air Force and then began coaching high school basketball at his alma mater in 1947. He was recalled to the Air Force for the Korean War and coached an Air Force team in Memphis to third place in an Air Force tournament. After the Air Force he officiated SEC games before becoming the Mississippi State coach in 1955.
McCarthy first came to fame for his 10-year stint at Mississippi State, where his teams won 169 games, lost 85, and won four Southeastern Conference (SEC) titles (three outright, one shared). 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.
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. At the time, a longstanding state policy barred college teams at state schools from playing games against racially integrated teams. The Bulldogs had been forced to turn down three previous NCAA Tournament bids for this reason, including when they won their first two outright SEC titles in school history.
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