James Joseph "Big Jim" McCafferty (March 14, 1916 – September 18, 2006) 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 (appr ...

coach for the

Loyola Wolf Pack The Loyola Wolf Pack are the athletic teams representing Loyola University New Orleans in intercollegiate athletics. The Wolf Pack are a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), primarily competing in the Southern ...

and

Xavier Musketeers The Xavier Musketeers are the 16 teams representing Xavier University in intercollegiate athletics, including men's and women's basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, swimming, tennis, indoor track and field, and outdoor track and field. The Musk ...

Early life

Showing early signs of his eventual 6'8", 280-pound frame which would earn him the nickname "Big Jim", James Joseph McCafferty was born in Scammon, Kansas, weighing 19 pounds. Shortly thereafter, his family moved to Henryetta, Oklahoma, where McCafferty grew up and played high school football. He was recruited by Loyola of the South to play football, but when the school dropped its football program after his freshman year, he switched to playing basketball for three seasons (1940–43). As a senior, he helped lead Loyola to a Dixie Conference Championship, and was named MVP of the tournament.

Coaching career

After graduating with a degree in physical education in 1942, McCafferty remained at Loyola as the assistant coach in both basketball and track. He was the assistant under Coach Jack Orsley when the Wolfpack won the NAIA championship in 1945. Then in 1948, McCafferty was invited to coach Team USA at the Central American Olympic Games in Panama, and he led the U.S. to a gold medal. McCafferty became Loyola's head basketball coach in 1953, and led the Wolfpack for four seasons, including Loyola's first two NCAA Tournament appearances in

1954 Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...

and

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th y ...

. Unfortunately, the Wolfpack lost in the first round in both tournaments. After the 1957 season, he was named head coach at

Xavier University Xavier University ( ) is a private Jesuit university in Cincinnati and Evanston (Cincinnati), Ohio. It is the sixth-oldest Catholic and fourth-oldest Jesuit university in the United States. Xavier has an undergraduate enrollment of 4,860 studen ...

. In his first season at Xavier, McCafferty led the Musketeers to the NIT, which it won against longtime rival

Dayton Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Da ...

, then coached by legendary Tom Blackburn. Then, in 1961, the Musketeers made it to their first NCAA tournament. McCafferty was head coach at Xavier for six seasons until 1963. He also served as the school's athletic director from 1962 to 1979. After trying for over two decades to get Xavier into a Division I Conference, McCafferty's work paid off in 1979 when Xavier became a founding member of the new Midwestern City Conference (MCC), which became the

Horizon League The Horizon League is an 11-school collegiate athletic conference in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I, whose members are located in and near the Great Lakes region. The Horizon League founded in 1979 as the Midw ...

in 1985. McCafferty served as the first Commissioner of the MCC during the 1979-80 school year.

Awards and recognition

McCafferty was selected in 1958 as Catholic College Coach of the Year, and Ohio College Coach of the Year. He has been inducted into the Halls of Fame at both Loyola and Xavier, as well as the Cincinnati Basketball Hall of Fame, and twice was designated to receive Loyola's Distinguished Alumnus Award. In 2011, he was awarded a spot in the Sugar Bowl Hall of Fame. In his honor, the

McCafferty Trophy "McCafferty" is an Irish ballad which originated as a street-ballad about British Army Private Patrick McCaffrey, executed in 1862 for the "fragging" of two officers. It is particularly popular in Ireland, where Pvt. McCaffrey came from, and w ...

is annually awarded to a school which is recognized as the all-sport champion of the

. Also, since 1981 the

Blackburn/McCafferty Trophy The Blackburn/McCafferty Trophy is the award given to the winner of regular season basketball games between the University of Dayton and Xavier University. Origin of Competition The first meeting between the two Catholic universities was a 24-1 ...

has been awarded to the winner of regular season meetings between rivals Xavier and

. It is named for the two former coaches of the respective schools, who are remembered as the two men who put their respective colleges' basketball teams on the national map.

Head coaching record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mccafferty, Jim 1916 births 2006 deaths American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from Kansas Basketball players from Kansas College men's basketball head coaches in the United States Horizon League commissioners Loyola Wolf Pack football players Loyola Wolf Pack men's basketball coaches Loyola Wolf Pack men's basketball players People from Cherokee County, Kansas People from Henryetta, Oklahoma Xavier Musketeers athletic directors Xavier Musketeers men's basketball coaches