Ernie McCoy

Ernest B. McCoy (July 20, 1904 – September 16, 1980 ) was an All-American basketball player at the University of Michigan from 1927 to 1929. After graduating, he spent his entire professional career in college athletics, serving as the athletic director at Penn State (1952–1970), the athletic director at the University of Miami (1971–1973), and a basketball coach (1949–1952), assistant football coach, and assistant athletic director (1946–1952) at Michigan. He is most remembered as the athletic director who hired Joe Paterno as head football coach at Penn State in 1966.

Athlete at University of Michigan Though born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, McCoy was raised in Detroit, Michigan. He played three years as a varsity basketball player at Michigan from 1927 to 1929. As a sophomore in 1927, McCoy scored 80 points and played on a 14–3 Big Ten Conference championship team along with Bennie Oosterbaan (130 points) and Edward Harrigan (153 points). The 1928 team finished in fifth place but has the distinction of having three of the five starters (McCoy, Oosterbaan, and Bill Orwig) having gone on to be successful coaches and athletic directors at major college programs. However, he also warned against the constant demands of fans and alumni to win at all costs: "The constant demand from the alumnus for a winning team may ruin athletics...If a coaching staff fulfills its duties in the class room and can develop high ideals of character in athletes, then the administrators are wrong in firing the coach." and later on the highly coveted NCAA Executive Committee and Council, its policy-making body, and also served as vice-president and secretary-treasurer of the NCAA. He was also a past president of the Eastern College Athletic Conference. Paterno went on to win over 400 games and two national championships as Penn State's head coach.

When the Nittany Lions traveled to Pasadena in 1966 to play the UCLA Bruins, McCoy met with the local press. While acknowledging that Penn State was rebuilding, he guaranteed that the team would make Pennsylvanians proud: "We may not be big enough, or strong enough, and we may not have enough experience for UCLA. But the folks back in Pennsylvania are going to be proud of our team. They'll be in there trying all the way." McCoy did play a key role in building a program that made the State of Pennsylvania proud. In an interview in 2007, Paterno credited McCoy as "the guy who really turned this whole athletic program around."

In June 1970, McCoy announced his retirement after 18 years at Penn State. The Daily News in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania reported at the time: "Trying to separate Ernie McCoy from athletics is like trying to separate an Englishman from his tea -- it's next to impossible."

University of Miami McCoy came out of retirement in February 1971 when the University of Miami asked him to serve temporarily as athletic director until order was restored following the resignation of Charlie Tate. In November 1971, McCoy hired Pete Elliott to become his successor as Miami's athletic director starting in 1972. The touchdown broke an eight-game Miami losing streak, and Tulane administrators and New Orleans sports writers bitterly attacked McCoy for poor sportsmanship when he declined to forfeit the game as a result of the game-changing error.

Family, awards and honors McCoy was married to a fellow University of Michigan alumnus, and their son also attended Michigan. As a result of his nearly fifty years in collegiate athletics, McCoy has received numerous awards and honors, including the following: In 1973, McCoy received the James J. Corbett Memorial Award from the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics, which is presented annually to the collegiate administrator who "through the years has most typified Corbett’s devotion to intercollegiate athletics and worked unceasingly for its betterment." In 1977, McCoy was inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The McCoy Natatorium at Penn State is named after McCoy.

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