Clair Francis Bee (March 2, 1896 – May 20, 1983) was an American

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

coach who led the team at Long Island University in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

to undefeated seasons in 1936 and 1939, as well as two National Invitation Tournament titles in 1939 and 1941.

Biography

Bee was born in

Grafton, West Virginia Grafton is a city in and the county seat of Taylor County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 4,729 at the 2020 census. It originally developed as a junction point for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, serving numerous branches of ...

to James Edward Bee (1871–1933) and Margaret Ann Skinner. Later, Bee was a graduate of

Waynesburg University Waynesburg University is a private university in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania. It was established in 1850 and offers undergraduate and graduate programs in more than 70 academic concentrations. The university enrolls over 2,500 students, including ...

(then Waynesburg College) where he played football, baseball, and tennis. 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 83% 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 The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

'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 Zone defense is a type of defense, used in team sports, which is the alternative to man-to-man defense; instead of each player guarding a corresponding player on the other team, each defensive player is given an area (a zone) to cover. A zone def ...

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 The Clair Bee Coach of the Year Award honored the active men's NCAA Division I basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, comp ...

is awarded every year to a coach who makes an outstanding contribution to the game of

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offerin ...

basketball, and the

Chip Hilton Player of the Year Award The Chip Hilton Player of the Year Award was presented to a men's college basketball player who was a senior and who had demonstrated strong personal character both on and off the court, similar to the fictional Chip Hilton character depicted by Hal ...

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 Ephraim Bee (December 26, 1802 – October 23, 1888) was an American pioneer, blacksmith, and inn-keeper of Doddridge County, West Virginia, which he represented in the West Virginia House of Delegates in 1863 and 1866–1867. Biography Bee was ...

, a member of the first

West Virginia Legislature The West Virginia Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of West Virginia. A bicameral legislative body, the legislature is split between the upper Senate and the lower House of Delegates. It was established under Article VI o ...

Head coaching record

College

Football

Basketball

Baseball

Professional

NBA

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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bee, Clair 1896 births 1983 deaths American men's basketball players Baltimore Bullets (1944–1954) head coaches Basketball coaches from West Virginia Basketball players from West Virginia LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds baseball coaches LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds men's basketball coaches Long Island Blackbirds football coaches Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame inductees People from Grafton, West Virginia Rider Broncs athletic directors Rider Broncs baseball coaches Rider Broncs men's basketball coaches Rider Roughriders football coaches Rider University faculty Waynesburg Yellow Jackets baseball players Waynesburg Yellow Jackets football players Waynesburg Yellow Jackets men's tennis players Writers from West Virginia