Southern Miss M-Club Hall of Fame
Kay James
- Induction:
- 1994
Go back with me if you will to March of 1977, Kay James the coach of Berry College in Rome, Georgia, is preparing her team for a run at its second straight national championship. She gets a call from former Southern Miss athletic director Roland Dale to tell her he would like to discuss the opening as head women’s basketball coach at the school.
James isn’t interested because she is happy where she is and has four All-Americans coming back. But Dale is persistent and James agrees to fly to Gulfport on her off day and visit her parents and the University. The visit goes well but Kay is interested and flees home. Dale calls again and says she must come back because she hasn’t met the school’s new president Aubrey Lucas, who was at Delta State when they won three national championships.
Somehow Dale convinces James to return and meet with Lucas. Lucas does his best to convince her but after the meeting James is still not interested. She returns to Gulfport to visit parents. Dr. Lucas calls several times still trying to convince her and James finally relents and agrees to come to Southern Miss, primarily to be close to her family, and not necessarily to come to a bigger school.
Berry College’s loss was certainly USM’s gain and the young women who once was not all that interested in USM has now become one of it’s most solid fixtures.
It wasn’t that easy when James started at USM. She arrived to recruit with the high school and junior college season already over. She called friends and acquaintances and asked them who were the top players around. With a list in her hand she went recruiting and having never seen any of them play sign players that four years later would have the Lady Eagles in the AIAW Regionals. That first class included some of the school’s best players like USM Hall of Famer Shirley Jones-Hill, Nancy Faulk and Diana Lyons. Players that if they played today would be highly sought after.
In 22 years at USM she has won 403 games and lost only 224, her overall record as a head coach at USM and Berry College is an impressive 488 and 244. Six times her teams have advanced to the NCAA tournament, including one trip to the Sweet 16. Three times the Lady Eagles won the Metro Conference’s regular season championship and twice they won the conference tournament.
Her Lady Eagle teams posted 20 or more victories eight times and consistently ranked in the nation’s top 25.
What made Kay James so special is not the Xs and Os, although she was as good as anyone in the nation, but it is the way she handled her players, the way she cared for them, teaching them to be winners not only in basketball but also in their academic performance and other areas of their lives.
James retired after the 1998-99 season.
James isn’t interested because she is happy where she is and has four All-Americans coming back. But Dale is persistent and James agrees to fly to Gulfport on her off day and visit her parents and the University. The visit goes well but Kay is interested and flees home. Dale calls again and says she must come back because she hasn’t met the school’s new president Aubrey Lucas, who was at Delta State when they won three national championships.
Somehow Dale convinces James to return and meet with Lucas. Lucas does his best to convince her but after the meeting James is still not interested. She returns to Gulfport to visit parents. Dr. Lucas calls several times still trying to convince her and James finally relents and agrees to come to Southern Miss, primarily to be close to her family, and not necessarily to come to a bigger school.
Berry College’s loss was certainly USM’s gain and the young women who once was not all that interested in USM has now become one of it’s most solid fixtures.
It wasn’t that easy when James started at USM. She arrived to recruit with the high school and junior college season already over. She called friends and acquaintances and asked them who were the top players around. With a list in her hand she went recruiting and having never seen any of them play sign players that four years later would have the Lady Eagles in the AIAW Regionals. That first class included some of the school’s best players like USM Hall of Famer Shirley Jones-Hill, Nancy Faulk and Diana Lyons. Players that if they played today would be highly sought after.
In 22 years at USM she has won 403 games and lost only 224, her overall record as a head coach at USM and Berry College is an impressive 488 and 244. Six times her teams have advanced to the NCAA tournament, including one trip to the Sweet 16. Three times the Lady Eagles won the Metro Conference’s regular season championship and twice they won the conference tournament.
Her Lady Eagle teams posted 20 or more victories eight times and consistently ranked in the nation’s top 25.
What made Kay James so special is not the Xs and Os, although she was as good as anyone in the nation, but it is the way she handled her players, the way she cared for them, teaching them to be winners not only in basketball but also in their academic performance and other areas of their lives.
James retired after the 1998-99 season.
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