Clair Francis Bee (March 2, 1896 – May 20, 1983) was an American basketball coach who led the team at

Long Island University Long Island University (LIU) is a private university with two main campuses, LIU Post and LIU Brooklyn, in the U.S. state of New York. It offers more than 500 academic programs at its main campuses, online, and at multiple non-residential. LIU ...

in Brooklyn, New York to undefeated seasons in 1936 and 1939, as well as two

National Invitation Tournament The National Invitational Tournament (NIT) is a men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Played at regional sites and traditionally at Madison Square Garden (Final Four) in New York City ...

titles in 1939 and 1941.

Biography

Bee was born in Grafton, West Virginia 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 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 The CCNY point-shaving scandal of 1950–51 was a college basketball point-shaving gambling scandal that involved seven American schools in all, with four in the New York metropolitan area, two in the Midwest, and one in the South. However, most o ...

. 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, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

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 The three seconds rule (also referred to as the three-second rule or three in the key, often termed as lane violation) requires that in basketball, a player shall not remain in their team's foul lane for more than three consecutive seconds whil ...

. 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 William "Chip" Hilton is the central character in a series of 24 sports novels for adolescent boys written by the successful college basketball coach and 1968 Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Clair Bee (1896–1983). In addition to Bee's authorsh ...

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 pre ...

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 Kutsher's Sports Academy (KSA) is a summer sleepaway camp in Monterey, Massachusetts, for children ages 7–17. It was originally "conceived and developed by Milton and Joseph Kutsher and legendary basketball coach Clair F. Bee in 1968." The land ...

. One of Bee's grandfathers was Ephraim Bee, a member of the first West Virginia Legislature.

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