Morgan State University Athletics

Coach Gaines was admitted to the Forsyth Medical Center in Winston-Salem, NC on Friday of last week suffering from heart problems, according to WSSU Athletic Department officials. He was released on Saturday afternoon but was re-admitted later that evening.

Lisa Gaines McDonald, the daughter of the legendary coach, told the Associated Press last evening that her father passed away at 9:10 PM on Monday, possibly from the complications of a stroke.

“Big House” Gaines was a national coaching legend at Winston-Salem State University where he led the Rams to 18 20-win seasons and guided WSSU to eight Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) titles. In 1967 he led WSSU to a 31-1 record and coached the Rams, and future NBA star, Earl “The Pearl” Monroe, to an NCAA Championship, making the Rams the first basketball program from a historically black college or university to capture an NCAA national championship.

Gaines was named the CIAA’s coach of the year a record five times during his 47-year coaching career at WSSU. Over the span of those 47 seasons, Gaines compiled an overall record of 828-447, good enough to place fifth in wins in NCAA history behind Dean Smith (North Carolina), Adolph Rupp (Kentucky), Bob Knight (Texas Tech and Indiana) and Jim Phelan (Mt. St. Mary’s). He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1982.

A native of Paducah, KY, Gaines was born on May 21st, 1924. He graduated from Lincoln High School and would then attend Morgan State University on a football scholarship. Though he was a standout football player who garnered All-America honors twice, Gaines was, by his own accounts, “a very average basketball player.” Despite his self-proclaimed mediocrity on the court as a player, Gaines would go on to become one of the greatest collegiate basketball coaches in history, as he is still, to this day, the winningest African-American coach in NCAA history.

Following his graduation from Morgan State University, Gaines would take a job as the head football coach at WSSU (then Winston-Salem State College), a position he would hold for three years (1946-49). Gaines would then become the Rams’ head basketball coach in 1949. He would complete his MA in Education from Columbia University in 1950 and would, that same year, marry the former Clara Barry to whom he would be married up until his death on Monday evening. Gaines would serve as the Rams’ head coach for 47 seasons until his eventual retirement following the 1993 season.

Gaines would graduate nearly 80 percent of his players over that 47-year span while winning nearly 65% of his games, sending several to the NBA, most notably, Earl “The Pearl” Monroe. Gaines was named to several basketball halls of fame including the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and his namesake adorns not only WSSU’s C.E. Gaines Center where the Rams play their home basketball contests, but adorns WSSU’s C.E. “Big House” Gaines Athletic Hall of Fame.

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