Knox College Athletics

Justin McCarthy “Sam” Barry coached Football, Basketball, Baseball and Track from 1918 to 1922. He was also the athletic director and a biology professor.

Sam has the best winning percentage as the head baseball coach, going undefeated in his two seasons at the helm. He is second in Knox history with a .638 winning percentage in his four years as head basketball coach. His track teams went 10-2 in dual meets and won conference championships in each of his four years as coach. He also led the football team to an undefeated 8-0 season, outscoring opponents 295-7.

Sam pioneered pre-season trips for the basketball team, arranging games against Dartmouth, Army, Navy, Yale, Columbia, Brown to get his teams in prime shape. He won conference championships in each of the four sports he coached.

After four years at Knox, Sam was hired as the head basketball coach and head baseball coach at the University of Iowa. He led the Hawkeyes to Big Ten championships in basketball in 1923 and 1926. After seven years at Iowa, Sam moved on to the University of Southern California where he was the head basketball coach, head baseball coach, and assistant football coach. He compiled a 260-138 record in basketball and won the national championship in 1940. Sam also guided the Trojans baseball team to a record of 342-126-4 and led them to a victory in the College World Series in 1948. He is one of only three coaches in history to lead teams to both the Final Four and College World Series.

Sam is credited as the inventor of the triangle offense in basketball and is responsible for ending the jump ball after every free throw and basket. He is also credited with installing the half-court line and the 10-second rule. He and Kansas coaching legend Phog Allen are credited with creating the stall offense which later led to the introduction of the shot clock.

Special thanks to Tom Crabtree for his research and knowledge, the statistics and information listed above was largely collected by Tom.

I am honored to welcome Sam Barry into the Knox-Lombard Hall of Fame.