ECSU's Mackey receives NABC award
By Will Harris
DailyAdvance.com Sports Writer
Published: Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Dr. Claudie Mackey, a professor at Elizabeth City State and former men's basketball coach, is someone confident in his purpose. Getting to that point may not have been an easy road, but Mackey is seeing the rewards of his tireless work.
On Sunday in Detroit during activities surrounding the Final Four, Mackey was honored for his 42 years of coaching and teaching with the Guardians of the Game award in education. He is the eighth recipient of the honor, which was first awarded in 2002 to UCLA's John Wooden.
"The significance of this award, it's not just Claudie Mackey, it's
part of what Elizabeth City State University has stood for over the
years," he said. "The story will never tell how long I've been at
this, but the records will now show that a guy from a small school
in northeastern North Carolina. When you speak of that school, you
don't immediately think of UCLA, but forever, Elizabeth City State
University, in an indirect way, will be linked to probably one of
the better schools and most famous people in this country."
The Guardians of the Game awards are part of a national awareness and education program of the National Association of Basketball Coaches given in four categories - advocacy, leadership, service and education.
The program focuses attention on the positive aspects of basketball and the role coaches play in the lives of student-athletes, in addition to the contributions they make to their communities.
Mackey may epitomize this award more than any other. While most of his notoriety came on the basketball court, both as a player and as a coach, he bypasses the subject basketball, instead focusing on the teaching.
"Sometimes we get so caught up in wanting to win a championship, we forget these young people that we bring to our institutions, we owe them something," he said. "Isn't it kind of harsh to have a kid come to you for four years and you run him and you play him and then when it's all over, he goes back to nothing? That's wrong."
That attitude is why Alfred Johnson, a former assistant under Mackey at ECSU and the current head coach at Holy Family University in Philadelphia, nominated Mackey for the Guardian award
"He had a tremendous impact on me. There's the old saying, 'Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime,'" said Johnson. "Me and coach Mackey are the prime example of that saying. Because of his efforts I was able to finish my degree while coaching at Elizabeth City. I'm able to now to do what it is I enjoy doing for a career and as a life goal."
Johnson was a high school coach in Philadelphia, someone many college coaches went to when looking for players.
Mackey learned that Johnson had not completed his degree and offered him a chance to coach ECSU while also working toward his degree, something that Mackey values above all else and passed along to his players.
"Basketball, and he was big on this, is a small part of the day," Johnson said. "In the NCAA, we can only practice 20 hours per week. Well, what about those other hours in terms of being involved in a young man's life? These are things I got from coach Mackey. Being involved in these student-athletes' lives, helping them make sound decisions, helping them to become better people, teaching them things on and off the court. Those are the things (Mackey) prided himself on. Those are the things I took away from being with him."
"I felt that if (Johnson) was with me, all those players he was helping other folks get (would come here), but I owed him something and encouraged him to go on a graduate," Mackey said.
Through it all, Mackey always maintained a close relationship with teaching.
"Regardless of what I've done, I've always remained in the classroom," he said. "I love teaching."
Mackey is part of the Bobby Vaughan coaching tree, having played for and coached under the legendary coach at ECSU. He learned much of his love of education from Vaughan.
"Back in those days, we used to ride in station wagons and I don't care where we were going, coach Vaughan was always preaching, 'It's important that in May you graduate,' I will tell you that a majority of those guys who graduated from Elizabeth City State University, who went on to become coaches, preach the same thing. The old man kind of put it in us. That became a part of me."
He also coached current ECSU men's coach Shawn Walker, passing along those same values he learned from Vaughan.
"(Walker) used to talk to me a lot at night after games," Mackey said. "There were times I'd be in the office and he'd come back and he'd just talk basketball and I knew eventually, he was going to coach. My job was to try and help him best get into position that would put him in a situation where he is today."
While there have been many chapters to Mackey's life, he has treating each obstacle and each job as an assignment given to him by a higher power. His assignment was not to teach basketball players, but it was to teach young men the skills and values needed to succeed in life.
"Yeah, we won a few championships along the way, but I think we produced more champions because they now stand on their own turf dong it their way," Mackey said. "We may not have taught them a whole lot, but we gave them the opportunity by providing the credentials to get to the door. That is what a degree does, it allows you to get to the door, once you're through that door, you have to stand on your own feet."
