Jim McDaniels, 69, Dies; Led Western Kentucky to Final Four (original) (raw)
Obituaries|Jim McDaniels, 69, Dies; Led Western Kentucky to Final Four
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Jim McDaniels of Western Kentucky vies with Artis Gilmore of Jacksonville during an N.C.A.A. tournament game in 1971. McDaniels scored 23 points in a 74-72 win as he went on to lead the Hilltoppers to the Final Four.Credit...Western Kentucky University Athletics
- Sept. 8, 2017
Jim McDaniels, a star center who led Western Kentucky University to the N.C.A.A. Final Four but whose professional career was marred by contract disputes at the start, died on Wednesday in Bowling Green, Ky. He was 69.
His wife, Carolyn McDaniels, said the cause was complications of diabetes.
A 6-foot-11 center and power forward with an unusually soft touch for a big man, McDaniels led the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers to the most successful years in their program’s history.
In his senior year he averaged 29.3 points per game in helping Western Kentucky reach the Final Four of the 1971 N.C.A.A. tournament. Meeting at the Astrodome in Houston, the Hilltoppers lost to Villanova in a semifinal match and beat the other semifinal loser, the University of Kansas, to take third place, their best finish to date.
McDaniels was named a consensus all-American that year.
But the next season, after McDaniels had started to play professionally with the Carolina Cougars of the American Basketball Association, the N.C.A.A. found that he had violated college rules by signing professional contracts (with an agent, the team and the league) before the start of his senior season.
The N.C.A.A. vacated Western Kentucky’s third-place finish and required the university to repay its share of tournament proceeds, more than 66,000(theequivalentofmorethan66,000 (the equivalent of more than 66,000(theequivalentofmorethan360,000 today).
It was not the last time contracts caused problems for McDaniels. During his rookie professional season, he left the Cougars for the Seattle SuperSonics of the National Basketball Association after a disagreement about the terms of his A.B.A. contract.
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