The announcement was made in Houston, the site of the 2016 NCAA Men’s Final Four, and televised live on ESPN SportsCenter yesterday.
McLendon, who started his college coaching career at North Carolina Central University (then known as North Carolina College) in 1937 and served as the Eagles head basketball coach from 1940-52, was first enshrined into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1979 as a contributor. In September, he will enter the hall posthumously as a coach.
With his second enshrinement, McLendon joins a distinguished few who have been elected twice, including John Wooden, Lenny Wilkens, Bill Sharman and Tommy Heinsohn.
Born April 5, 1915 in Hiawatha, Kansas, McLendon’s contributions to the sport of basketball are virtually innumerable. His advisor at the University of Kansas was the inventor of basketball, Dr. James Naismith.
During his time at NCCU, McLendon pioneered basketball’s full court game, using such strategies as the full court press, the full court zone (now known as the zone press), the open center offense whose variants include the “four corners,” the rotating pivot, and the double-pivot.
In 38 years as a head coach, he achieved a collegiate coaching record of 523 wins to 165 losses for a .760 winning percentage, including a 239-68 record at NCCU. He was the first coach to win three consecutive national championships, leading Tennessee State to NAIA National Championships in 1957, 1958 and 1959. He was also the first black coach in a professional basketball league (with the Cleveland Pipers in the American Basketball League in 1961) and the first black coach at a predominantly white university (Cleveland State employed him in June 1966).
McLendon died on Oct. 8, 1999 at the age of 84.
This year’s class also includes 27-year NBA referee Darell Garretson, eleven-time NBA All-Star Allen Iverson, two-time NABC Coach of the Year Tom Izzo, three-time NBA Finals MVP Shaquille O’Neal and four-time WNBA Champion Sheryl Swoopes. Distinguished committees focused on preserving all areas from the game also selected four directly elected members. They include Zelmo Beaty from the Veterans Committee, Yao Ming from the International Committee, Cumberland Posey from the Early African American Pioneers Committee and Jerry Reinsdorf from the Contributor Committee.
