George King / Ex-NBA player coached at WVU and Purdue Died Oct. 5, 2006

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06280/728117-144.stm

Saturday, October 07, 2006
The Associated Press


Associated Press
Former West Virginia basketball coach George King is shown in this 1961 photo.

George King, the former National Basketball Association player who coached West Virginia and Purdue and had a long run as the Boilermakers' athletic director, died Thursday. He was 78.

Mr. King died in Naples, Fla., Purdue said on its athletic Web site. No cause of death was released.

He was born in Charleston, W.Va., attended Stonewall Jackson High and starred at Morris Harvey College before playing six seasons in the NBA with Syracuse and Cincinnati.

In Game 7 of the 1955 NBA Finals between Syracuse and Fort Wayne, Mr. King, a 6-foot guard, made the go-ahead free throw with 12 seconds left, then stole the ball to preserve the title, the first of the shot-clock era.

Mr. King was head coach at his alma mater, Morris Harvey, for one season in 1956-57, became an assistant coach at West Virginia the following year and took the head coaching job when Fred Schaus followed Jerry West to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Mr. King, credited with integrating WVU's basketball team, had a 102-43 record in five seasons and led the Mountaineers to two Southern Conference titles and three National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament appearances.

He was basketball coach at Purdue from 1965-72 and athletic director from 1971 to 1992. He led the basketball team to a 109-64 record, including its only NCAA championship game in 1969 when it lost to UCLA.

As athletic director, he hired Mr. Schaus as his successor as basketball coach in 1972.

"George touched the lives of thousands of Boilermaker student-athletes, and his many accomplishments reside prominently in the Purdue record books," said Purdue athletic director Morgan J. Burke, who succeeded Mr. King.

The two-time state amateur athlete of the year was inducted into athletic halls of fame at Purdue and the University of Charleston, the successor to Morris Harvey College.

George King honed his game at YMCA gym

http://www.wvgazette.com/section/Sports/2006100643

October 07, 2006
Mike Whiteford

GEORGE KING couldn't wait for his good friend and teammate Sonny Moran to arrive at the YMCA gymnasium on Capitol Street.

King, a freshman on the Morris Harvey College basketball team, had just invented a new move to the basket and, after trying it out against several less talented YMCA regulars, wanted to test its effectiveness against a more accomplished player like Moran.

It was a Saturday morning in the late 1940s and, by mutual understanding, many of the city's best players would make their way to the YMCA for weekly pickup games. Your team played until it lost.

When Moran, who lived on Beech Avenue on the West Side, made his appearance, King greeted him with a demonstration of the new move. "Sonny! Sonny!" he shouted. "Watch this!"

After the demonstration, King challenged Moran to either block the shot or at least pose some sort of defensive challenge. Moran, who was also a freshman on the Morris Harvey team, failed to do so.

"I vividly recall that," former MH player Tom Bumgardner related Friday. "It was one of those Saturday mornings in the YMCA, and he just couldn't wait for Sonny Moran to get there."

In the succeeding years, countless other players would fail in their defensive efforts against King, and his career eventually produced a national collegiate scoring record of 31.2 points a game in 1949-50 at Morris Harvey, a six-year NBA career and coaching success at Morris Harvey, West Virginia and Purdue. But on that Saturday morning on Capitol Street, he was still learning his way.

King, a Charleston native who died Thursday, had not distinguished himself as a player at Stonewall Jackson High School and had been given a basketball scholarship to Morris Harvey by a reluctant coach, Eddie King (no relation). The Golden Eagles coach had preferred one of King's high school teammates, Bill "Red" Jarrett, and Jarrett accepted the coach