19 Facts About Clarence Gaines

Clarence Gaines helped his family by working in a garage while in high school.

Clarence Gaines attended local Lincoln High School where he excelled academically, played basketball, was an All-State football player, and played trumpet in the school band.

Clarence Gaines entered in the fall of 1941 on a football scholarship.

Clarence Gaines was an All-CIAA selection as a lineman in football all four seasons and twice elected an All-American.

Clarence Gaines graduated from Morgan State in 1945 with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry.

Clarence Gaines intended to go on into dental school, however his college football coach, Edward P Hurt, suggested that he temporarily go to what was then known as Winston-Salem Teachers College.

At the time, the small southern college had one coach for all sports, Brutus Wilson, who was a Morgan State graduate; Hurt suggested that Clarence Gaines would make a good assistant coach.

Clarence Gaines dropped coaching football to focus on basketball in 1949.

Clarence Gaines earned his Master of Arts in Education from Teachers College, Columbia University in 1950.

Clarence Gaines led the Rams to 18 20-win seasons, eight CIAA titles, and in 1967 led WSSU to a Division II NCAA Championship, making the Rams the first basketball program from a historically black college or university to capture an NCAA national championship.

Toward the end of his coaching career, Clarence Gaines struggled to recruit student players.

When Clarence Gaines retired from Winston-Salem State University in 1993, only Rupp had amassed more wins.

Clarence Gaines was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1982.

Clarence Gaines was a member in numerous organizations, including the Sigma Pi Phi and Omega Psi Phi fraternities, Boy Scouts of America, Forsyth County Heart Association, and United States Olympic Committee.

Clarence Gaines was a basketball consultant for the United States Air Force.

In January 2005, Clarence Gaines was honored during a half-time ceremony at Rupp Arena, home of the University of Kentucky, during a game between the Kentucky and the University of Kansas.

The Big House Clarence Gaines Scholarship was established in 2006 by the Reynolds Rotary Club in recognition of the fact that Clarence Gaines was a charter member of that club.

In 1950, Clarence Gaines married the former Clara Berry, a teacher of Latin in the local county public school system.

Clarence Gaines died on April 18,2005, due to complications from a stroke.