Magnolia Mouth: ABA Legend Babe McCarthy

One of the more colorful and beloved characters of the American Basketball Association was Coach Babe McCarthy. Dubbed Magnolia Mouth for his penchant for telling stories over gin until the break of dawn, the thickly-accented southerner manned the sidelines for the New Orleans Buccaneers, Memphis Pros, Dallas Chaparrals, and Kentucky Colonels between 1967 and 1974. A two-time ABA Coach of the Year, McCarthy’s Bucs lost to Pittsburgh in the league’s first championship series.

Babe is most renowned for his tenure at Mississippi State, where he thrice won SEC Coach of the Year honors. In 1963, the Bulldogs team won the conference and earned a trip to the NCAA tournament. The program had been forced to turn down three previous bids to March Madness on account of state policy forbidding its universities from competing against racially-segregated teams. Mississippi State’s first round opponent was Loyola University Chicago, whose starting lineup consisted of four Afro-Americans. Once again local politicians and leading newspapers endeavored to prevent the squad from playing in the tourney. However, McCarthy and the athletic department literally managed to sneak the team to the game in Michigan on a private plane.

Among McCarthy’s charms was his slew of Babe-isms – earthy expressions that he often incorporated into his locker-room speeches and timeout instructions. Steve “Snapper” Jones, a three-time ABA all-star, recalls having to restrain himself from bursting out in laughter when the coach began a pep talk with the words “’Tonight we have to get after them like a biting sow. . .’ Another of his favorite expressions was ‘We’re gonna cloud up and rain all over them.’” Perhaps the wisest Babe-ism of all was “Why panic at five in the mornin’ because it’s still dark out?”

According to Doug Moe, another of McCarthy’s players and a longtime NBA coach, “Babe knew better to take practice too seriously. There were times when he worked us hard, but other times he sensed that what we needed most was to take the day off. A couple of times, he brought us to the gym and then said, ‘Boys, the door is locked and I don’t have a key. Why don’t we take it easy today.’ If a guy was going bad he’d say, ‘We’ve got to get this boy loose.’ He’d leave for a while and then come back with two ladies, one on each arm. Babe then would say to the player who was struggling. ‘Here’s a coupe of ladies who would like to make your acquittance.’”