the
"Unofficial"
JELLICO, Tennessee
home page
The below information was taken from the:
Tennessee Secondary
School Athletic Association
Hall of Fame
Hall
of Fame:
Inductee: Jim Smiddy
Category:
Coaches
Inducted:
1985
Coach Jim
Smiddy stands alone as the winningest basketball coach at any
level in the history of the sport. Going into the 1992-93 season
Coach Smiddy had won an amazing 1,189 games and lost only 200. As
head coach of the Bradley Central Bearettes, Smiddy won five
state champion- ships (1962, 1970, 1973, 1975, and 1976) and two
national titles in 1975 and 1976. He appeared in the state
tournament twenty-one times.
A native of Jellico, Tennessee, Smiddy grew up in
Williamsburg, Kentucky, and graduated from Williamsburg High
School. He attended college in Williamsburg at Cumberland College
and graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1948. He
started his coaching career at Stair Tech in Knoxville under Ed
Osborne, and he began his onsault on the record books in 1949,
when he became head girls' basketball coach at Charleston High
School. He remained at Charleston for nine years and then took
over the Bradley Central program.
Smiddy, who also held a master's degree from UT, was
a member
of both the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame and the National High
School Sports Hall of Fame before his death.