Davey Lee Whitney Sr. (January 8, 1930 – May 10, 2015), also known as "The Wiz", was an American

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

coach and the head basketball coach at

Texas Southern University Texas Southern University (Texas Southern or TSU) is a public historically black university in Houston, Texas. The university is one of the largest and most comprehensive historically black college or universities in the USA with nearly 10,00 ...

from 1964 to 1969 and

Alcorn State University Alcorn State University (Alcorn State, ASU or Alcorn) is a public historically black land-grant university adjacent to Lorman, Mississippi. It was founded in 1871 and was the first black land grant college established in the United States. ...

from 1969 to 1989 and 1996 to 2003. He amassed a total record of 566 wins and 356 losses in 33 years of coaching at these institutions.

Early life

Davey Lee Whitney Sr. was born in

Midway, Kentucky Midway is a home rule-class city in Woodford County, Kentucky, in the United States. Its population was 1,641 at the time of the year 2010 U.S. census. It is part of the Lexington-Fayette Metropolitan Statistical Area. The town sits just off ...

, and attended Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in Lexington while living with friends. At Dunbar, Whitney played at guard on the basketball team and led his school to the 1947 and 1948 tournaments of the Kentucky High School Athletic League, the state's black high school league, and the 1948 league title. He attended

Kentucky State University Kentucky State University (KSU and KYSU) is a public historically black land-grant university in Frankfort, Kentucky. Founded in 1886 as the State Normal School for Colored Persons, and becoming a land-grant college in 1890, KSU is the second-o ...

and graduated in 1952. At Kentucky State, Whitney lettered in basketball, baseball, football, and track. After college, Whitney started out playing

Negro American League The Negro American League was one of the several Negro leagues created during the time organized American baseball was segregated. The league was established in 1937, and disbanded after its 1962 season. Negro American League franchises :''Annu ...

baseball for the

Kansas City Monarchs The Kansas City Monarchs were the longest-running franchise in the history of baseball's Negro leagues. Operating in Kansas City, Missouri, and owned by J. L. Wilkinson, they were charter members of the Negro National League from 1920 to 1 ...

shortstop Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball or softball fielding position between second and third base, which is considered to be among the most demanding defensive positions. Historically the position was assigned to defensive specialists wh ...

and

third baseman A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the scoring system u ...

, from 1952 to 1954.

Coaching career

Whitney began his coaching career in 1954 as varsity basketball head coach at Burt High School in

Clarksville, Tennessee Clarksville is the county seat of Montgomery County, Tennessee, United States. It is the fifth-largest city in the state behind Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville, and Chattanooga. The city had a population of 166,722 as of the 2020 United States ...

. In ten seasons, Whitney led Burt to over 200 victories and the 1961 National Negro High School Basketball Championship. He had his first collegiate job as head coach of

in 1964, but had only one winning season in five years. In 1969, he moved on to Alcorn A&M (which became Alcorn State in 1974), which had the reputation as a football school in the

Southwestern Athletic Conference The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) is a collegiate athletic conference headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, which is made up of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southern United States. It participates ...

(SWAC). Mainly recruiting local talent, Whitney was instrumental in making the Alcorn State men's basketball program a force in the SWAC during the 1970s and 1980s, with nine SWAC regular season titles. He led the Braves to the

1974 NAIA Division I men's basketball tournament The 1974 NAIA men's basketball tournament was held in March at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri. The 37th annual NAIA basketball tournament featured 32 teams playing in a single-elimination format. It would be the last tournament ...

championship game, the Braves' deepest postseason run to date. Two years after the Braves followed the SWAC to Division I, his Braves advanced to the second round of the

1979 National Invitation Tournament The 1979 National Invitation Tournament was the 1979 edition of the annual NCAA college basketball competition. Indiana University defeated their rival Purdue University 53–52 in the championship game. Purdue appeared in the 1980 NCAA Men's ...

following an upset of

Mississippi State Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university adjacent to Starkville, Mississippi. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univer ...

in the first round. In

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Syst ...

, Alcorn State became the first

HBCU Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. Mo ...

to win a game in the

NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as NCAA March Madness and commonly called March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 college basketball teams from ...

, after beating

South Alabama South Alabama is the various parts of southern Alabama. Although it is not a strictly defined geographic region, it generally includes all Alabama counties south of the Black Belt. In that view, ''South Alabama'' consists of just the two counties ...

in the first round. During his time at Alcorn, Whitney earned the nickname "The Wiz". In 1989, Alcorn State fired Whitney after three straight losing seasons in which they only won 18 games total. Whitney later became an assistant coach for the

Wichita Falls Texans The Wichita Falls Texans were a minor league basketball team in the Continental Basketball Association from 1988 to 1994. The team was located in Wichita Falls, Texas, and played their games at D.L. Ligon Coliseum, located on the campus of Midwest ...

of the

Continental Basketball Association The Continental Basketball Association (CBA) (originally known as the Eastern Pennsylvania Basketball League, and later as the Eastern Professional Basketball League and the Eastern Basketball Association) was a men's professional basketball m ...

and was part of the Texans' 1991 championship team. He later was an assistant for the Mississippi Coast Gamblers of the

United States Basketball League The United States Basketball League (USBL) was a professional men's spring basketball league. The league was formed in 1985 and ceased operations in 2008. The USBL started in 1985 as one of the first basketball leagues to play a late-spring to ...

. He returned to Alcorn State in 1996, taking over a program that had tallied only one winning season since his departure. Within three years, he had the Braves back in the NCAA Tournament. He retired for good in 2003. Whitney was known as a stern taskmaster, and his teams were a reflection of his hard-nosed personality. They were known for strong rebounding and tenacious defense. His 1998-99 team, for instance, was eighth in the nation in rebounding and gave up only 66.7 points per game. Whitney set many records during his career at Alcorn, establishing himself as the second winningest coach in HBCU college basketball history behind the late

Clarence "Big House" Gaines Clarence Edward "Big House" Gaines Sr. (May 21, 1923 – April 18, 2005) was an American college men's basketball coach with a 47-year coaching career at Winston-Salem State University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Among his numerous honors ...

, who coached at

Winston-Salem State University Winston-Salem State University (WSSU) is a historically black public university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It is part of the University of North Carolina. History Winston-Salem State University was founded as Slater Industrial Academy on ...

. He also owns the only postseason wins (NCAA and NIT) in Alcorn's history. Whitney returned to Alcorn State two years after the Braves' home arena had been renamed the Davey Whitney Complex in his honor. He is thus one of the few Division I coaches to coach in an arena named after him. He was inducted into the

National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame The National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, located in Kansas City, Missouri, is a hall of fame and museum dedicated to men's college basketball. The museum is an integral portion of the College Basketball Experience created by the Nation ...

in 2010.

Head coaching record

Death

Whitney died at his home in

Biloxi, Mississippi Biloxi ( ; ) is a city in and one of two county seats of Harrison County, Mississippi, United States (the other being the adjacent city of Gulfport). The 2010 United States Census recorded the population as 44,054 and in 2019 the estimated pop ...

, on May 10, 2015, at the age of 85.

References

External links

Tribute to Coach Davey Whitney
by Senator

Trent Lott Chester Trent Lott Sr. (born October 9, 1941) is an American lawyer, author, and politician. A former United States Senator from Mississippi, Lott served in numerous leadership positions in both the United States House of Representatives and the ...

, ''

Congressional Record The ''Congressional Record'' is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress, published by the United States Government Publishing Office and issued when Congress is in session. The Congressional Record In ...

'', vol. 145, no. 102 (July 19, 1999) *Davey Whitney a
Negro Leagues Baseball Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitney, Davey 1930 births 2015 deaths African-American baseball players African-American basketball coaches African-American basketball players Alcorn State Braves baseball coaches Alcorn State Braves basketball coaches American men's basketball players Baseball players from Kentucky Baseball shortstops Baseball third basemen Basketball coaches from Kentucky Basketball players from Lexington, Kentucky Continental Basketball Association coaches Guards (basketball) High school basketball coaches in the United States Kansas City Monarchs players Kentucky State Thorobreds basketball players National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame inductees Sportspeople from Clarksville, Tennessee People from Midway, Kentucky Sportspeople from Lexington, Kentucky Texas Southern Tigers men's basketball coaches 20th-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American people