At the close of her career in 1970 at Byng High School in Ada, Oklahoma, basketball coach Bertha Tegue had posted an amazing 1,152 victories. Just like Roger Maris’s sixty-one homers, many thought it was a record which might never be surpassed. Tennessee high school basketball coach Jim Smiddy pulled a Mark McGuire during the 1990-1991 season to remarkably surpass Tegue’s number of victories. He now stands alone as the winningest basketball coach at any level in the history of the sport with a staggering 1,217 wins. It took him forty-three seasons, but his persistence paid off, and he made Tennessee proud. While compiling this enviable record, Coach Smiddy’s Bradley County Bearettes of Cleveland, Tennessee, won the national high school championship in 1975 and 1976. They also won the TSSAA girls state championship in 1962, 1970, 1973, 1975, and 1976. Born in Jellico, Tennessee, Smiddy pursued both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Tennessee. He began his career at Charleston High School in Charleston, Tennessee, and remained there for nine years before moving to Bradley Central High School. Smiddy died at the age of seventy-one, having coached high school basketball for an astounding forty-five seasons. Like McGuire’s seventy homers, Jim Smiddy’s 1,217 wins seems an unbreakable record for the ages.
