Remembering LIU’s Greatest Coach: Hall of Famer Clair Bee

By: JOSEPH SIMILE / EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

For the first time in a number of years, the Long Island University Sharks men’s basketball team is making headlines. Between the now-famed supporter section “The Reef”, the Sharks’ current number-two standing in the NEC, or Malachi Davis’ stellar play which has him in NEC Player of the Year talks, it’s been pandemonium for the Sharks.

As wonderful as it has been for LIU students and Sharks fans to have excitement around the basketball team, it’s important to recognize the history of the program, a history that often goes overlooked and ignored. 

LIU’s men’s basketball team - then called the Blackbirds - were once a basketball powerhouse, led by one of the greatest coaches to ever grace the hardwood. 

Clair Bee was born in Grafton, West Virginia in 1896. Bee attended Waynesburg College (now Waynesburg University), where he lettered in football, baseball and tennis before graduating in 1925. Bee started his coaching career at Rider University, joining the school in 1929. Bee created the first collegiate schedules at the institution, and is considered the “founder” of varsity athletics at Rider.

During his tenure at Rider, Bee coached football, men’s and women’s basketball, and baseball. His 1930 Rider Broncs men’s basketball team was credited as the first college basketball team to amass 1,000 points in a single season, en route to a 17-3 finish. Bee coached basketball for three years at Rider, leading the Broncs to a 53-8 record.

Bee made the jump to LIU for the 1931-32 academic year. In his first season, the Blackbirds went 16-4. His second year was the worst he’d have at LIU, with the team going just 6-11. From then on out, the Blackbirds would not finish under .600 during Bee’s tenure.

Bee led the 1936 Blackbirds to an undefeated 25-0 record, winning the Metropolitan New York Conference. Bee would repeat the feat again in 1939, with his second undefeated season. That 1939 team would go on to win the NIT, which at the time was the premiere college basketball tournament, and seen as the true “national championship”.

Bee’s undefeated Blackbirds team, via LIU Athletics archive.

Bee would take home a second NIT championship with the Blackbirds in 1941. That year’s Blackbirds squad went 25-2. 

The Blackbirds were must-watch entertainment in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Under Bee, college basketball in New York City went from a sport played in front of a handful of people in a gymnasium, to an event. The Blackbirds would frequently host crowds of upwards of 18,000 at Madison Square Garden.

Bee is largely credited with the invention of the 1-3-1 zone defense, a tactic still deployed today by many teams (and one the Sharks’ opponents played against them frequently). Bee was also a major proponent in the addition of the three-second-violation and the NBA adding the 24-second shot clock. 

During his time at LIU, Bee also coached the LIU Brooklyn football team, which played for just three seasons at Ebbets Field before being disbanded. The Blackbirds’ record on the gridiron under Bee is believed to be 17-5. Bee was also entrusted with the Blackbirds baseball team from 1934-1939, leading the Blackbirds to a 75-22-4 record overall. 

Bee’s final season with the Blackbirds came in 1951. It wasn’t just Bee’s last season with the Blackbirds, it was the final season of the Blackbirds for a number of years. A handful of Blackbird players were named in the 1951 New York City point shaving scandal. Spearheaded on the Blackbirds by Eddie Gard, seven Blackbirds, including Sherman White, who was the nation's leading scorer and just 77 points away from the NCAA single season scoring record at the time of his arrest. White still remains as LIU’s single-game scoring record holder with a 63 point onslaught against John Marshall College.

Bee was not found to be involved in the scandal, and was widely considered to be distraught about the entire situation. Bee addressed fellow coaches at a banquet in Newport News, Virginia.

''We, you and I, have flunked. We have not done the job that was expected of us in training the young people. I am not bitter. I am hurt, hurt desperately. When I was told that three of my boys had sold themselves, it was a deep bereavement. I am not ashamed to say that I wept. It was then that something died within me.''

Bee coaching the Baltimore Bullets, via From Way Downtown

Bee’s legacy and coaching career didn’t end with the Blackbirds. Bee coached the Baltimore Bullets for two years and ran a number of basketball camps for youth. Bee also became a prolific author, penning over 50 books, including a 23 book series, the critically acclaimed “Chip Hilton Sports Stories for Young People”, which was a series of teen and young adult novels centered around Chip Hilton, a young blond boy with an upstanding personality and a love of sports. Chip Hilton books centered around football, baseball or basketball, and Hilton often faced various challenges in his athletic pursuits. The most notable Chip Hilton book is Hoop Crazy (1950), which examined the difficulties that faced a black player wanting to join the basketball team. 

The idea for Hilton came from the great Bob Davies, who was an All American at Seton Hall in 1942.

''I used Bobby as a hero,'' Bee once said, ''because I think that's the best way to write - to take a living person. I admired Bobby very much, even though I didn't coach him.''

The NCAA went as far as to create a Chip Hilton Player of the Year Award, which was presented to a college basketball player who was a senior and “demonstrated outstanding character, leadership, integrity, humility, sportsmanship and talent, similar to the fictional Chip Hilton character depicted by Hall of Fame coach Clair Bee in the classic Chip Hilton series of sports stories.” Tim Duncan won the first iteration of the award, while Hofstra’s Charles Jenkins won the final one after the award was discontinued following the 2010-11 season.

It wasn’t the only NCAA award named after Bee. the NCAA honored the Clair Bee Coach of the Year Award for the coach who “made the most significant positive contribution to his sport during the preceding year” and “reflected the character and professional qualities of Clair Bee, a Hall of Fame coach who many consider to be the best technical basketball coach in history, and a man who cared deeply about his players' well-being.”

Notable winners of the award include Syracuse’s Jim Boehim, Texas Tech’s Bobby Knight, Marquette’s Tom Crean, Duke’s Mike Kryzewski, Michigan State’s Tom Izzo, and Butler’s Brad Stevens. The award was also discontinued in 2011.

Bee famously prioritized the wellbeing of the players he coached. During his stint with the Bullets, Bee signed a number of his former players in an attempt to give them an opportunity at the next level, including Ray Felix, who won Rookie of the Year and was named an All Star as a rookie. 

Bee once said “In no other profession does the character and personality of a director play a more vital role in the development of young people than in the coaching of athletics.”

Bee was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1968 and was a member of the Inaugural Class of the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame in 1990. The class included Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Billy Cunningham, Red Auerbach, Bob Cousy, Pop Gates, Connie Hawkins, Dick McGuire, Holcombe Rucker, Dolph Schayes and Zelda Spoelstra. 

Current Sharks head coach Rod Strickland was inducted in 2008.

Bee retired with an NCAA record of 413-86; he retired as the known winningest coach in Division I history, with an 82.4% win percentage. Bee is one of the greatest innovators and winners the game of basketball has ever seen, and LIU should be honored that he was one of their own. His legacy should be celebrated and remembered among future generations of Sharks.