Name Clair Bee 1940 LIU Brooklyn Role Basketball Coach | 1925–1926 High school Education Ohio State University | |
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Born March 2, 1896Grafton, West Virginia ( 1896-03-02 ) 1922–1925 Waynesburg (football, baseball, tennis) Awards Naismith Outstanding Contributor to Men's Basketball Books Hoop crazy, Touchdown pass, Championship ball, Pay‑off pitch, Dugout jinx | ||
Clair bee 1935 36 blackbirds inducted into liu hall of fame mike farley accepts
Clair Francis Bee (March 2, 1896 – May 20, 1983) was an American basketball coach, who led the team at Long Island University in Brooklyn, New York to undefeated seasons in 1936 and 1939, as well as two National Invitation Tournament titles in 1939 and 1941. He was born in Grafton, West Virginia, and was a graduate of Waynesburg University (then Waynesburg College) where he played football, baseball, and tennis. He was born to James Edward Bee (1871-1933) and Margaret Ann Skinner.
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- Clair bee 1935 36 blackbirds inducted into liu hall of fame mike farley accepts
- Clair bee s liu blackbirds honored by madison square garden
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Bee's teams won 95 percent of their games from 1931 to 1951, including 43 in a row from 1935 to 1937. Bee holds the Division I NCAA record for highest winning percentage, winning 82.6% of the games he was head coach. Bee resigned in 1951 after several of his players were implicated in the CCNY Point Shaving Scandal. LIU shut down its athletic program shortly afterward.
Bee also coached the football team at LIU until it was disbanded in 1940.
He coached the National Basketball Association's Baltimore Bullets from 1952 to 1954, amassing a 34-116 record under his tenure.
Bee was known as the "Innovator". His contributions to the game of basketball include the 1-3-1 zone defense and the three-second rule. Bee also served as co-host of the early NBC sports-oriented television program "Campus Hoopla" on WNBT from 1946 to 1947.
His influence on the game also extended to strategies sports camps (Camp All-America), (Kutsher's Sports Academy), writing technical coaching books, and conducting coaching clinics around the world. By the time he left coaching in the 1950s, Bee had already begun writing the Chip Hilton Sports Series for younger readers.
Bee was inducted into the Basketball Hall Of Fame in 1968. The Clair Bee Coach of the Year Award is awarded every year to a coach who makes an outstanding contribution to the game of college basketball, and the Chip Hilton Player of the Year Award is awarded to a men's basketball player.
In 1968, he cofounded the Kutsher's Sports Academy.
One of Bee's grandfathers was Ephraim Bee, a member of the first West Virginia Legislature.