Frank McGuire

Frank McGuire

McGuire at St. John's
Sport(s)	Basketball
Biographical details
Born	November 8, 1913 New York City, New York
Died	October 11, 1994 (aged 80) Columbia, South Carolina
Playing career
1933–1936	St. John's
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1947–1952	St. John's
1952–1961	North Carolina
1961–1962	Philadelphia Warriors
1964–1980	South Carolina
Head coaching record
Overall	549-237 (.698)
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
NCAA Men's Division I championship (1957) 2× Regional Championships - Final Four (1952, 1957) 2× ACC Tournament championships (1957, 1971) 6× ACC regular season championships (1956, 1957, 1959–1961, 1970)
Awards
UPI Coach of the Year (1957) 2× ACC Coach of the Year (1957, 1969)
Basketball Hall of Fame Inducted in 1977
College Basketball Hall of Fame Inducted in 2006

Frank Joseph McGuire (November 8, 1913 – October 11, 1994) was an American college basketball head coach for three major programs: St. John's, North Carolina, and South Carolina, winning over a hundred games at each.^[1][2]

Early years

Born in New York City as the youngest of thirteen children in an Irish-American family, to New York police officer,^[3] Robert McGuire and his wife, the former Anne Lynch (his father dying when Frank was only two years old). He attended Xavier High School graduating in 1933,^[4] McGuire graduated from St. John's University in 1936, playing under legendary head coach James "Buck" Freeman. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, interrupting his work as a teacher and coach at his high school. Prior to 1947 he also played pro basketball briefly in the American Basketball League.

St. John's

After Joe Lapchick left St. John's to coach the New York Knicks in 1947, McGuire became head basketball and baseball coach at his alma mater. He led the baseball team to the College World Series in 1949 and the basketball team to the Final Four in 1952 – becoming one of only three coaches to achieve both accomplishments.

North Carolina

In 1952, McGuire left St. John's to become basketball coach at the University of North Carolina. On paper, this was a significant step down from St. John's, as UNC was not reckoned as a national power at the time. However, school officials wanted a big-name coach to counter the rise of rival North Carolina State under Everett Case.

With a roster largely made of players from in and around New York City, McGuire guided North Carolina to an undefeated 32-0 season in 1956-57, capped off by winning the NCAA championship game 54-53 in triple overtime against the Wilt Chamberlain-led Kansas Jayhawks.

In 1961, UNC was found guilty of major NCAA violations. Combined with rumors of point shaving by some UNC players, this led Chancellor William Aycock to force McGuire's resignation after the season. At McGuire's suggestion, Aycock named McGuire's top assistant, Dean Smith, as the new coach.^[5]

Philadelphia Warriors

Shortly after he left North Carolina in 1961, McGuire became the head coach of the NBA's Philadelphia Warriors and coached Chamberlain during the Warriors' last season in the city. During this season, Chamberlain set his all time record for scoring average in a season, of 50.4 points per game; additionally, this was the season in which Chamberlain scored 100 points in a single game. The team moved to San Francisco in 1962 and McGuire resigned rather than go west with the team.

South Carolina

Following his sole season in the NBA, McGuire worked for two years in public relations in New York, then returned to college basketball as head coach at the University of South Carolina in 1964. The Gamecocks achieved national prominence under McGuire in his sixth year. They went undefeated in the ACC in 1970, but were denied an NCAA berth when they lost the ACC championship game in double overtime to North Carolina State; in those days only one team per conference was guaranteed a bid. Their 25 wins that year are still a school record. They won the ACC tournament in 1971 – to this day, the only ACC tourney title won by a school from the state of South Carolina. The Gamecocks went independent after that season, and McGuire would then go on to take the Gamecocks to three more NCAA Tournaments and two National Invitation Tournaments as an independent. He retired from coaching after the 1979-80 season. To this day, McGuire is far and away the winningest coach in Gamecocks history. The playing surface at the Gamecocks' former arena, Carolina Coliseum, is named Frank McGuire Arena in his honor. He is also an honorary brother of the Alpha Eta chapter of Phi Kappa Sigma at the University of South Carolina.

Legacy

McGuire holds the record for most victories in a season without a loss, together with Bobby Knight of the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers, at 32-0.

He achieved the number one ranking with both the University of North Carolina and South Carolina, and is one of five coaches--John Calipari, Larry Brown, Roy Williams and Rick Pitino are the others—to take two different schools to the NCAA Finals. He is one of 14 coaches, as of 2015, to take multiple schools to the Final Four. The others are: Roy Williams, Lute Olson, Jack Gardner, Forddy Anderson, Larry Brown, Eddie Sutton, John Calipari, Rick Pitino, Gene Bartow, Hugh Durham, Lou Henson, Bob Huggins, and Lee Rose.

McGuire was famous for using his New York City ties to enlist players to come south to play at UNC and USC, and was known as one of the top recruiters in the sport, frequently joking about how successful his New York City players, many of them Jewish and Catholic, were in Baptist-prevalent North Carolina and South Carolina.

Players that he coached or successfully recruited at the two schools include Lennie Rosenbluth, Larry Brown, Donnie Walsh, Doug Moe, Billy Cunningham, Bobby Cremins, John Roche, Tom Owens, Tom Riker, Kevin Joyce, Brian Winters, Mike Dunleavy, Sr. and Alex English.

After having been the first coach to take two different schools to the finals of the NCAA basketball tournament, in 1971 he became the second coach – joining Eddie Hickey – to take three different schools to the NCAA tournament. McGuire was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1977, and retired in 1980.

He is the winningest coach in South Carolina history, and is still the third-winningest coach in North Carolina history. He died in Columbia, South Carolina.

He is not related to Marquette coach Al McGuire, who was a coaching contemporary of his. However, he did coach both Al and his brother Dick McGuire at St. John's.

Head coaching record

College basketball

Season	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Postseason
St. John's Redmen (Metro NY Conference) (1947–1952)
1947–48	St. John's	12–11	3–3	T–4th
1948–49	St. John's	15–9	5–1	T–1st	NIT First Round
1949–50	St. John's	24–5	3–3	T–3rd	NIT Third Place
1950–51	St. John's	26–5	6–0	1st	NCAA Regionals / NIT Third Place
1951–52	St. John's	25–6	6–0	1st	NCAA Runners-up / NIT Quarterfinals
St. John's:		102–36	23–7
North Carolina Tar Heels (Southern Conference) (1952–1953)
1952–53	North Carolina	17–10	15–6	8th
North Carolina (SoCon):		17–10	15–6
North Carolina Tar Heels (Atlantic Coast Conference) (1953–1961)
1953–54	North Carolina	11–10	5–6	5th
1954–55	North Carolina	10–11	8–6	T–4th
1955–56	North Carolina	18–5	11–3	T–1st
1956–57	North Carolina	32–0	14–0	1st	NCAA Champion
1957–58	North Carolina	19–7	10–4	T–2nd
1958–59	North Carolina	20–5	12–2	T–1st	NCAA First Round
1959–60	North Carolina	18–6	12–2	T–1st
1960–61	North Carolina	19–4	12–2	1st
North Carolina (ACC):		164–56	84–27
South Carolina Gamecocks (Atlantic Coast Conference) (1964–1971)
1964–65	South Carolina	6–17	2–12	8th
1965–66	South Carolina	11–13	4–10	T–6th
1966–67	South Carolina	16–7	8–4	3rd
1967–68	South Carolina	15–7	9–5	T–3rd
1968–69	South Carolina	21–7	11–3	2nd	NIT Quarterfinals
1969–70	South Carolina	25–3	14–0	1st
1970–71	South Carolina	23–6	10–4	2nd	NCAA Sweet 16
South Carolina (ACC):		117–60	58–38
South Carolina Gamecocks (Independent) (1971–1980)
1971–72	South Carolina	24–5			NCAA Sweet 16
1972–73	South Carolina	22–7			NCAA Sweet 16
1973–74	South Carolina	22–5			NCAA First Round
1974–75	South Carolina	19–9			NIT Quarterfinals
1975–76	South Carolina	18–9
1976–77	South Carolina	14–12
1977–78	South Carolina	16–12			NIT First Round
1978–79	South Carolina	15–12
1979–80	South Carolina	16–11
South Carolina (Ind.):		166–82
South Carolina:		283–142	58–38
Total:		549–237
National champion         Postseason invitational champion         Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion       Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion       Conference tournament champion

See also

• List of NCAA Men's Division I Final Four appearances by coach

References

1. "McGuire chosen for hall of fame". Spartanburg Herald-Tribune (South Carolina). Associated Press. May 6, 1973. p. B1.
2. "Frank McGuire succumbs at 80". Eugene Register-Guard (Oregon). Associated Press. October 12, 1994. p. 6C.
3. Anderson, Dave (October 12, 1994). "McGuire was a basketball missionary". Spartanburg Herald-Journal (South Carolina). (New York Times). p. D3.
4. Goldaper, Sam (October 12, 1994). "Frank McGuire, 80, basketball coach, dies". New York Times.
5. Goldstein, Richard Dean Smith, Champion of College Basketball and of Racial Equality, Dies at 83 The New York Times. February 25, 2015

External links

• Frank McGuire at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame