Athletes - Sam Barry

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	Athletes - Sam Barry

Justin McCarthy "Sam" Barry (December 17, 1892 – September 23, 1950) was an American collegiate athletic coach who achieved significant accomplishments in three major sports. He remains one of only three coaches to lead teams to both the Final Four and the College World Series.

Early career

Barry was born in Aberdeen, South Dakota. After starring in basketball, baseball and football while a student at Madison (Wisc.) High School, he continued his success at Lawrence College, later completing his degree at the University of Wisconsin. He returned to Madison High School to begin his coaching career, and then proceeded to become athletic director at Knox College in Illinois from 1918 to 1922, where he also served as coach of football, basketball, baseball and track.

In 1922 he was named basketball coach at the University of Iowa, and also became a football assistant under then Hawkeyes coach Howard Jones – an association which would continue for 15 years at two universities. Barry also coached the Iowa baseball team in 1923-24. Barry led the Hawkeye basketball team to Big 10 co-championships in 1923 and 1926 – the first two conference titles in team history – and helped Jones guide the football squad to an undefeated 7-0 season in 1922, winning a share of the Big 10 title – the last for Hawkeyes football until 1956.

In 1929, the University of Southern California was looking for a new basketball coach, and Jones – at USC since 1925 – recommended his old colleague for the position. Barry followed Jones out west, and took over the USC basketball program as well as the baseball team, while also resuming his duties as an assistant football coach under Jones. Barry's Trojan teams enjoyed unprecedented successes on the USC campus, winning Pacific Coast Conference titles in basketball in 1930, '35 and '40 – along with eight southern division titles between 1930 and 1940 – and conference baseball crowns in 1930, '32, '35, '36, '39, '46, '47, '48 and '49. In 1940, the USC basketball team was widely considered to be the best in the nation, and participated in the nascent NCAA tournament; but they lost a chance at the national title when they were upset in the national semifinal at Kansas City, against Kansas, when the son of opposing coach Phog Allen made a basket with seconds left for a one-point victory. Despite the loss, the Helms Athletic Foundation later retroactively selected USC as the 1940 national champions.

Barry was also a valued part of the USC football teams which claimed national championships in 1931, 1932 and 1939, as well as seven PCC titles and five Rose Bowl victories. He was Jones' top assistant on the sidelines from 1929 to 1940, also serving as the team's chief scout and coach of the "Spartan" scout team; Barry was often credited by the "Headman" with devising the strategies that proved most effective in shutting down opponents. Although such titles were not used at the time, Barry's position would likely have been equivalent to that of the modern defensive coordinator. The team's football successes included a 25-game winning streak from 1931 to 1933, and the undefeated 1938 team's 7-3 victory in the 1939 Rose Bowl against Duke—a team which had previously not allowed any opponent to score.

The 1940s

After Jones' sudden death in 1941, Barry was a natural choice to take over the reins of the football team, thus becoming head coach of all three major team sports simultaneously. He had not been without success as a head coach himself; his Knox College teams posted a record of 15-12-4 from 1918 to 1921, including a perfect 8-0 mark in 1919. Although the 1941 team finished with a losing record, Barry was faced with numerous obstacles. Not only was the team mourning the loss of Jones, but Barry also found himself facing a schedule in which a majority of USC's opponents were coached by future Hall of Famers, including Paul Brown, Frank Leahy and Clark Shaughnessy; injuries and illnesses also took their toll, depleting the roster at one point to a mere 28 players. Despite these roadblocks, Barry put together a team which improved offensively throughout the year, gaining popularity as the season progressed – the crowd of 86,305 at the USC-Stanford game was the largest in the nation in 1941. And the team made some upsets, defeating Rose Bowl-bound Oregon State, and nearly toppling 4th-ranked Notre Dame in South Bend before falling by only two points.

In 1942, other concerns took precedence as Barry entered the Navy for service during World War II. He recommended Jeff Cravath to take over his duties as USC football coach, and Rod Dedeaux as baseball coach for the duration of the war. As a lieutenant commander, Barry was in charge of physical and military training of Navy personnel in the South Pacific, for which he would later receive a Naval Commendation from then Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal.

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