Former Missouri Southern coach Jim Phillips dies
Aug. 22—Jim Phillips, former Missouri Southern women's basketball coach, died Friday morning with his two daughters at his side at Wellstar Tranquility at Cobb Hospital near Atlanta.
He was 78.
Phillips is the second-winningest coach in MSSU history, compiling a 129-72 record from 1981-88.
Before coming to Missouri Southern, he was men's basketball coach at Friends University and women's basketball coach and assistant football coach at Virginia State.
"They were great years," Phillips said during a telephone interview in 2013. "I can honestly say there was never a day that I went to work at Missouri Southern that I did not enjoy it. It was a pleasure working there. The people around me, Sallie Beard and Jim Frazier (athletics directors), made it very pleasurable to work."
His first season saw the Lions finish 17-11 during the regular season and 7-7 in the Central States Intercollegiate Conference, good for fourth place. But when the postseason tipped off, the Lions took off.
Riding a four-game losing streak, the Lions won home games over Missouri Western 55-48 and William Woods 76-62 to win the NAIA District 16 Tournament.
The Area IV Tournament also was at Robert Ellis Young Gymnasium, and the Lions knocked off Milton (Wis.) 59-49 and Grand View (Iowa) 59-57 to qualify for the national tournament in Kansas City.
Apparently the NAIA women's basketball tournament committee didn't expect Missouri Southern to make the national tournament.
"When I called in the score," Phillips said, "they had already penciled in Grand View as the team. and we'd won."
Missouri Southern was the sixth seed at Kemper Area, but the Lions upset No. 3 Charleston (W.Va.) 74-65 in the quarterfinals and second-seeded Berry (Ga.) 59-57 in the semifinals.
The championship game saw Southwestern Oklahoma State live up to its No. 1 seed, grabbing a 20-4 lead in the first eight minutes en route to an 80-45 victory over the Lions.
On Feb. 5, 2020, that 1981-82 basketball team received commemorative rings during a women's basketball alumni day. All-American center Pam Brisby talked about Phillips' influence that day.
"We had a new coach, but we knew from Day 1 that he believed in us," she said. "He took a broken team — because we were basically the same team (from 1980-81) with one junior college transfer — from last in the conference to second in the nation because he believed in us.
"Such a good man, and such a good heart ... he fixed us. We didn't even know we had been broken until he came and fixed us."
The Lions posted three consecutive 20-win seasons — 22-6, 24-5, 25-7 — from 1983-84 through '85-86. They were second in the CSIC in 1984 and tied for first in the next two seasons.
Phillips resigned after the 1988 season to become head coach at Austin Peay in Tennessee, his alma mater. That also allowed him to be closer to his parents.
He was inducted into the Missouri Southern Athletics Hall of Fame in 2011.
After retiring from coaching, he served as Recreation Minister at First Baptist Church in Clarksville, Tennessee, combining his love for sports and Jesus Christ.
A celebration of life service will be held on Tuesday in Waynesboro, Tennessee. Donations can be made to Go Sports Ministry of First Baptist Church, P.O. Box 1796, Douglasville, Ga., where he was a member.
Follow Sports Editor Jim Henry on Twitter at @Jim_Henry53.
