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When onetime Bluefield State College basketball coach returned to the BSC campus last week, his speech at the College's athletics banquet provided a wonderful mix of nostalgia, hope, and challenge. And, although his Big Blues' teams posted a 187-36 mark in an eight season span begining in the late 1960s, Mandeville remembers most fondly his players' success after basketball.
"Last fall during a reunion of my former players, about 20 returned," he said. "It was one of the most touching times in my life. I saw several guys who had left their mark on the business world. Some had become coaches. To a man, they told me how much the experience of being a part of our basketball family meant to them."
"When we recruited a player, I'd tell him, 'If you go to class and do the work, you'll make it,'" he recounted. "Then, whenever I found out that a player had cut a class, I'd run him until he'd drop. I can remember some players who had to take special tutoring, but they were persistent and they graduated. Now, they're doing very well as husbands, fathers, and businessmen."
As Mandeville took over the BSC team in 1967, he saw there was much work to be done. "The president of the College told me to do everything I could do, legally, to win, and I had his backing," Mandeville said. "That's when we put together a major recruiting effort."
Mandeville and assistant coach Dave Pritchett collected the talent to launch BSC into the most successful period in its basketball history. "We kept a file on every player in the East," he explained. "We even tried to recruit Bob MacAdoo (who was to become an All-American at the University of North Carolina and later would lead the National Basketball Association in scoring). "We traveled constantly, and we'd tell them (the potential recruits), 'You'll win if you come with us."
During this time, travel in state vehicles was restricted. "The State of West Virginia would permit us to get gasoline only from within the state," the former coach explained. "We'd get several large containers, fill them with gas, and put them in the car. That way, we could travel to New York or Philadelphia in search of a prospect without having to buy gas out-of-state."
He described the challenge of resurrecting his team's basketball fortunes after the November 21, 1968 bombing of the Ned Shott Gym on the campus. "One of my players asked me right after the bombing, 'Coach, what are we going to do?' I told him I didn't know, and my first thought was to cancel the season." However, Mandeville was encouraged by the College president (Dr. Wendell Hardway) to play the season and the Big Blues somehow found a way to win about half of their games.
That experience taught Mandeville about the need for mental toughness. "There's no room for negative thoughts," he said. "We just kept our heads up and kept going."
His advice to the players and coaches at the banquet--"Don't let people tell you what you can't do, especially if they haven't been there," he said. Be ready to take responsibility, he told his audience. "You can't teach what you don't know, and you can't lead where you can't go," he continued.
Finally, he discussed the importance of consistent effort. Discussing his commitment to recruit the best student-athletes available, he summarized, "From time to time, it's OK not to get the player you were trying to recruit. It's not OK not to try."
May 12, 2003
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