The NAIA changed basketball, and Kansas City

Alcorn State was minutes away from tipping off a game at the 1974 NAIA Tournament when Braves coach Davey Whitney received a tap on the shoulder from a Municipal Auditorium official.

“Phone call,” he was told. Now? Whitney shooed away the messenger. A few minutes later came another tap. “I was told it was important and I had to take the call,” Whitney said. “So I left the bench and got on the phone.”

On the line was the school president. A bill had just been signed into Mississippi law to grant Alcorn university status. No longer was it Alcorn Agricultural & Mechanical College but Alcorn State University. The president wanted everybody at the NAIA to know.

“We had ’em change the scoreboard,” Whitney said. “It meant a lot to us to be called Alcorn State University at the NAIA. It was where we were welcomed. To us, it was a special place.”

Basketball's African American Pioneers

A forgotten ballplayer walked into a small reception room last week at the Reagan Building, had the privilege of meeting the famous Earl Monroe -- and promptly told the Pearl a story.

While Monroe was becoming NBA royalty in New York, Perry Wallace played for a pittance in the Eastern League, a basketball minor league, and moonlighted as a math teacher at the Pearl's alma mater, Philadelphia's John Bartram High School.

"And at the same time, Joe Bryant -- Kobe's father -- attended that school," Wallace said. "Isn't that something?"

From the Pearl to Perry, to Jellybean Bryant and on to his son, the entire evening became a game of human H-O-R-S-E. They bonded over coincidences and zero degrees of separation, of events of 30, 40 and 50 years ago, all told by living historians before the screening of "Black Magic."



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Former Alcorn State coach Whitney selected for NABC Hall of Fame

For 31 years, Coach Davey Whitney paced the hardwood at Alcorn State and Texas Southern winning with a career record of 550-337. The legendary coach led ASU to the first win by an HBCU in the NCAA Tournament. Whitney also defeated Mississippi State in the 1979 NIT Tournament and won 12 SWAC Championships.

Former Alcorn State coach Whitney selected for NABC Hall of Fame

Davey Whitney transformed Alcorn State University basketball into a consistent winner and charmed contemporaries, sportswriters and just about everyone else along the way. Then again, it might have taken awhile with his players. Whitney, 80, was a demanding coach. He suffered no fools. He had a sense of humor, sure, but only after the work had been done. On Tuesday, Whitney learned he had been elected to the National Association of Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame.

Whitney has lived in Biloxi for several years and tends to his ailing wife, Bernice. He also lends a hand as a marshal at Sunkist Country Club, although he insists his handicap is nothing to write home about. On the basketball court, however, the diminutive Whitney always stood tall. "You never really expect anything like that, a call from someone's Hall of Fame," Whitney said. "I never got into the game for that. I got into the game because I wanted to help kids, and I wanted to win." And win he did.
Whitney inducted into college hoops hall of fame

Longtime Alcorn State basketball coach Davey Whitney will be enshrined into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. Whitney, 80, posted a 550-337 record in 31 years as head coach, including two stops at Alcorn State. He guided the Braves to the 1979 National Invitation Tournament, where his team defeated Mississippi State, and in 1980 he led Alcorn to the NCAA Tournament and a victory over South Alabama to become the first historically black university to win a tournament game. His Alcorn teams won 495 games and 12 Southwestern Athletic Conference championships. The ceremony is scheduled for Nov. 21 in Kansas City, Mo.

Fitting tribute: Alcorn's 'Wiz' worthy of shrine
Excerpt: Modest Rewards

So it was that Whitney's highest-ever salary was $67,000, and that right at the end of his career. For most of his career, he made less than half that and lived in campus housing. He recruited smalltown Mississippi kids who could run and jump - and he taught them to play basketball. He taught them to win. He just won and won and won. His teams won 550 games, while losing only 337. His Alcorn teams won 495 games and 12 SWAC titles. He could, as Jake Gaither, the late Florida A&M football coach famously said, "Take his'n and beat your'n, or take your'n and beat his'n."

His 1978-79 Alcorn State team defeated Mississippi State at Starkville in the NIT and then almost beat Bobby Knight's Indiana Hoosiers in their next game. Knight was so impressed he later appointed Whitney to his U.S. Olympic team staff. Whitney's 1979-80 team became the first historically black college to win an NCAA Tournament game.

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Reprint: From the United States Congressional Record: TRIBUTE TO COACH DAVEY WHITNEY, ALCORN STATE UNIVERSITY -- (U.S. Senate - July 19, 1999)
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Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, today I honor a Mississippian who made numerous contributions to Alcorn State University, to countless young student athletes and to the community. Coach Davey L. Whitney, Head Coach of the Men's Basketball team at Alcorn State University, has served as a leader at this educational institution, a professor of championship athletics and a mentor for many of his players.

Nearly 30 years ago, Coach Whitney first arrived on the Lorman, Mississippi, campus. From the beginning, Davey's tenure at Alcorn was destined for greatness. Within ten years, the Alcorn State Men's Basketball team went from little notoriety to groundbreaking achievement. His list of accomplishments is exemplary. His determination is heroic.

He was the first coach to lead an historically black college team to wins in both NCAA and NIT tournaments. His teams also won nine Southwestern Athletic Conference titles. In 1979, Alcorn accomplished something that no previous historically black college had done--winning a National Invitational Tournament game--when they defeated Mississippi State University.

Coach Whitney has been a mentor to many young men. Many of his players have become successful businessmen. Several of his players even had successful professional athletic careers in the National Basketball Association. Larry Smith, who was drafted by the Golden State Warriors, is now an assistant coach with the Houston Rockets. He is reproducing Coach Whitney's approach of discipline coupled with a warm personal devotion for the players.

Coach Whitney's career has not been one without trials. In 1989 he was fired after losing three successive seasons. Still Coach Whitney stayed involved in basketball by coaching in the Continental Basketball Association and the United States Basketball League.

Coach Whitney also remained close to Alcorn State for the next eight years, while the Braves struggled and in 1997 Alcorn asked him to return. After much thought, Coach Whitney returned to the Alcorn State University Family as head coach. Within two years, he took the struggling Braves to the 1999 Southwestern Athletic Conference Regular Season Championship where they not only won, they triumphed. This tournament championship earned the Braves a berth in the NCAA Tournament. This marked the first time since the 1986 season that the Braves have won the Southwestern Athletic Conference regular season title. This was also the first time since 1984 that the Braves have won the tournament title and appeared in the NCAA tournament.

Coach Whitney's 442 wins in 28 years--with 10 regular season titles, four consecutive titles between 1978-82, twelve post season tourneys and five NAIA district titles--earned him nine Southwestern Athletic Conference Coach of the Year honors. It is a fitting tribute to Coach Whitney's accomplishments that he coaches in the complex named after him. Various groups have recognized Coach Whitney for his renowned success. USA Today's Reporter Jack Carey wrote, ``At Alcorn State Coach Davey Whitney is proving not only that you can go home again, but you also can be darned successful once you get there.'' Whitney is surely a man worthy of recognition.

Coach Whitney is not only a successful coach but an accomplished family man. He and his wife of more than 40 years have reared a fine family of four daughters and one son, all of whom attended Alcorn State University. He is a member of the National Association of Coaches, the Mississippi Association of Coaches, the National Black Association of Coaches, and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., just to name a few.

Mr. President, it is a great honor to pay tribute to Coach Davey L. Whitney for his athletic accomplishments and his dedication to the students of Alcorn State University. His efforts are both uplifting and encouraging. I ask my colleagues to join me in wishing Davey Whitney many more years of success.