Sam Barry

Sam Barry (1892-195)

Teams coached: Knox Prairie Fire, Iowa Hawkeyes, USC Trojans
Knox record^: 38-15 (.717)
Iowa record: 62-54 (.534)
USC record: 260-138 (.653)
Overall record^: 360-207 (.635)

Career Accomplishments:

Awards:

  • Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (inducted 1979)
  • National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame (inducted 2006)

Coaching Career (head coach, unless noted):

1945-1950 USC
1929-1941 USC
1922-1929 Iowa
1918-1922 Knox (IL)

Sam Barry Facts

  • Justin McCarthy Barry
  • Born December 17, 1892
  • Died September 23, 1950
  • Hometown: Aberdeen, South Dakota
  • Alma Mater: University of Wisconsin (BA, 1916)
  • Played basketball, baseball and football Madison High School (WI) before moving on to Lawrence College in Appleton, WI
  • After finishing his degree at UW, he returned to his alma mater Madison HS to start his coaching career
  • Hired in 1918 as the athletic director at Knox College in Galesburg, IL, where he was also basketball and football head coach
  • Left for Iowa in 1922, where he was the head basketball coach for seven seasons
    • Also served as an assistant football coach under Howard Jones, as well as the head baseball coach for two seasons
  • Finished his coaching career at USC, spending seventeen years (with a break from 1942-45 as Barry served in the US Navy during WW2) as the head basketball coach, head baseball coach and an assistant football coach (plus one year as head coach, going 2-6-1 in 1941)
    • Won six PCC titles at USC and reached the 1940 NCAA Final Four with a team that was later crowned the Helms Foundation National Champion
    • Had a 40-game win streak against UCLA, from 1932-1942, 1946, the longest win-streak for any head coach against a single opponent
    • As the head baseball coach, Barry led the Trojans to the College World Series twice, defeating Yale (featuring future US President George H. W. Bush) for the title in 1948
    • With the football team, Barry was a part of five Rose Bowl victories and three national championships (1931, 1932, 1939)
  • Barry is one of just three coaches to have lead a team to the NCAA Final Four in basketball and the College World Series in baseball

Sam Barry Coaching Tree

  • Jack Gardner (Utah, Kansas State)
  • Alex Hannum (Denver/SD Rockets, Oakland Oaks, Philadelphia 76ers, SF Warriors, Syracuse Nationals, St. Louis Hawks)
  • Bill Sharman (LA Lakers, LA/Utah Stars, SF Warriors)
  • Forrest Twogood (USC)
  • Tex Winter (Long Beach State, Northwestern, Houston Rockets, Washington, Kansas State, Marquette)

 

^ overall record includes head coaching positions at both the NCAA Division I and Division III levels