Thursday, February 29, 1968
Durham, North Carolina, Thursday, February 29, 1968
Page Seven
N. C. College Eagles See 'Golden Decade’ Return
By Lester Perry, Jr.
N. C. College’s high flying Ea
gles who has not won a CIAA
tournament championship since
1950, a visitation title since
1957, makes preparations for
its first trip to CIAA Tourna
ment since 1963 when it was
eliminated in the first round by
the Spartans of Norfolk State.
The three-day event, February
29-March 2, will be held in the
10,000 seat Greensboro War Me
morial Coliseum and will fea
ture the top eight teams in the
CIAA.
During the days when John
“Mr. Basketball-USA” McLen
don, one of the last students of
James M. Naismith the inventor
of basketball, was at the helm
of the Eagles, NCC won the first
4^
m
Paris Lenon (44), Eagle forward, goes up for two of his*22
points which enabled NCC to defeat Virginia State College, 68-66
in overtime. Virginia State’s Carlton Phelps (3) and NCC’s Lewis
Ellis (30) watch the action.
February’s Player of the Month, Ronald McCrinunon (22)
scores! 2 of the 15 points which enabled the Eagles to defeat the de
fending Small-College Champions, Winston-Salem State, 63-51.
Onlookers include the Eagles’ Lee Davis (34) who scored 29 points;
Winston-Salem’s William English (left), Vaughn Kimbrough and
Donald WUliamsi (11).
CIAA tourney ever held (1946)
by defeating the Panthers of
Virginia Union in three over
time periods. Again in 1947 and
’49 the Eagles returned to the
tourney to lose in the finals to
Virginia State (’47) and West
Virginia State (’49). In 1950,
led by the hot shooting of Harold
Hunter (now head coach at
Tennessee A&I), the Eagles
stormed past West Virginia
State to capture the Eagle’s sec
ond and last tournament cham
pionship.
McLendon, who was appoint
ed head basketball coach in 1940
at the age of 24, gave the Ea
gle’s their first CIAA champion
ship in 1941 (no tournament
played at this time). His philos
ophy of attention to the smallest
details of coaching, insistence
upon perfection, conditioning,
wholesome respect for all op
ponents but fear of none, dedi
cation and devotion to the game
and team loyalty has resulted in
the second greatest lifetime per
centage of wins among coach
es in the past 26 years, of 539
games played over a period of
nineteen years as head coach of
college teams; he won 445 for
an amazing lifetime record of
.826. This record can be matched
only by Adolph Rupp of Ken
tucky. Leaving NCC in 1954,
McLendon coached Tennessee
State A.&I. to three straight
NAIA championships in 1957,
1958 and 1959. The 1960-61 sea
son saw him become the first Ne
gro to coach a National Indus
trial Basketball League team. His
Cleveland Pipers won the visi
tation championship with a rec
ord of 24-10, won the NIBL
championship play offs and the
AAU National Championship.
He coached the National AAU
selected personnel team on an
eight-game tour of Russia and
one game in Sweden, winning
all nine contests. At the present
he is head mentor at Cleveland
State, Cleveland, Ohio. It was
under the leadership of this
great and respected coach that
NCC enjoyed an era known as
the “Golden Decade”, which saw
the Eagles win eight champion
ships in ten years.
The Eagles, which last season
finished — in the 18-member
CIAA conference, this season
exploded into one of the most
surprising and most certainly
one of the best quints Coach
Brown has produced during this
decade.
Just what were the elements
which were instrumental in the
attainment of the Eagle’s win
ning season? A study of game
statistics and conferences with
players revealed that a tight
stubborn defense, a balanced
scoring attack, and a cohesive
playing unit were the major
factors contributing to the pros
perous season just completed.
The Eagles led the CIAA in
team defense. According to the
latest statistics released by the
commissioners office at the time
of this writing, the Eagles had
held its opponents to 255 points
in 19 games, for a 65.0 point per
game average. In thirteen of
these games the opposing teams
scored less than 70 points. The
Eagles’ best defefensive effort
of the campaign was against
Morgan State. The Bears were
only able to score 40 points.
This season for the first time
this decade, the Eagles boasted
four starters averaging in dou
ble figures. All-CIAA center,
Lee Davis led in this department
with an average of 21.4 points
per game (9th best in CIAA)
See Golden Decade, page 8
All-CIAA center Lee Davis (middle) contends with Winston-
Salem State’s William English (43) and Bernard Collier (35) for a
rebound. The Eagle’s Ronald McCrimmon (22) and Paris Lenon
(44) are shown in the background. NCC won the game, 63-51.
Above the Virginia State Trojans, the Eagle’s Joseph Pridgen
proves that the big manhandle the ball. The Eagle’s were victor
ious in the overtime contest, 68-66.
The Eagle’s top scorers and rebounders, Joseph Pridgen (left)
and Lee Davis (right) battle with two Virginia Union University
players for a rebound in the second meeting of the two teams. Num
ber 32 for Union is the nation’s number three scorer, Michael Davis.
The Eagles won the game in overtime, 55-54.