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 Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

coach who led the team at

Long Island University Long Island University (LIU) is a private university in Brooklyn and Brookville, New York, United States. The university enrolls over 16,000 students and offers over 500 academic programs at its main campuses, LIU Brooklyn and LIU Post on Long I ...

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

to undefeated seasons in 1936 and 1939, as well as two

National Invitation Tournament The National Invitation Tournament (NIT) is an annual men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Since 2023, all rounds of the tournament are played at various sites across the country whi ...

titles in 1939 and 1941.

Biography

Bee was born in

Grafton, West Virginia Grafton is a city in Taylor County, West Virginia, United States, and its county seat. The population was 4,729 at the 2020 census. Located along the Tygart Valley River, it originally developed as a junction point for the Baltimore and Ohio ...

to James Edward Bee (1871–1933) and Margaret Ann Skinner. Later, Bee was a graduate of Waynesburg University (then Waynesburg College) where he played football, baseball, and tennis. Bee's teams posted a winning record in 21 of his 23 seasons, and compiled a 43-game winning streak 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 The CCNY point-shaving scandal of 1951 was a college basketball Point shaving, point-shaving match fixing, gambling scandal which revealed widespread bribery and match fixing involving major colleges and universities both in and around New York ...

. LIU shut down its athletic program shortly afterward. Bee also coached the

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

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 composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

'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 defensive system, 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. ...

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 The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and pres ...

in 1968 and was a member of the Inaugural Class inducted into the NYC Basketball Hall of Fame in 1990. 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 coach who has made the most significant positive contributions to his sport during the preceding year. The winner reflected the character and professional qu ...

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

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further education institution, or a secondary sc ...

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 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 ...

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