The high school basketball community suffered a great loss in the passing of Coach Phil Lumpkin of O’Dea High School on November 2, 2009. It was a loss of a coach, teacher, friend and mentor to many.
Born in Dayton, Ohio on December 20, 1951, Phil’s contribution to the game of basketball came long before his entry into the coaching profession. As a player at Nettie Lee Roth High School in Dayton, Lumpkin was part of what is considered one of the best backcourts in Ohio prep basketball history as he teamed up with Donald Smith to average a combined 40 points per game in their senior season. Smith later went on to play at the University of Dayton and was later drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers and Phil played for Darrell Hedric at Miami of Ohio, had a career scoring average of 16 points per game and was a 2nd round draft pick of the Portland Trailblazers in 1974, later being traded to Phoenix the following season in 1975.
Lumpkin played in one of the biggest upsets in Miami of Ohio history, a 102-92 victory over fourth ranked North Carolina on the Tarheels home court on February 21, 1973 and one of the most memorable NBA games of all times: the 5th game of the 1976 NBA championship finals between Phoenix and the Boston Celtics. Phil was the Suns’ point guard in their 128-126 triple overtime loss to the Celtics. An unfortunate ankle injury ended his career in 1976.
Phil later returned to his alma mater and received his degree in Education in 1981 and was inducted into the Miami University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1983. Coach Hedric remained one of Phil’s most important mentors for many years.
Coach Lumpkin began his high school coaching career as an assistant at Bellevue High School in 1984 and was later named head boys coach at Seattle Prep in 1988. In 1991, he was named head coach at O’Dea where he would leave his mark in the state’s basketball records books for the next 18 years amassing a 442-148 career won-lost record, 15 trips to the WIAA state tournament, seven appearances in the state finals and five state championships in 1993, 1997, 2004, 2005 and 2007. In 2003, Coach Lumpkin was inducted into the O’Dea Athletic Wall of Honor. Phil was also a counselor and P.E. teacher at O’Dea.
His O’Dea teams weren’t flashy, but they would beat teams with tough defense, and a deliberate and disciplined offense. One had to be well prepared to play an O’Dea team coached by Phil Lumpkin. Once, asked to describe his coaching style, Phil responded with one word, “Discipline. It’s pretty simple,” he said, “I teach the game a certain way and I expect my teams to play the way I teach it.” He also expected his teams to respect the game as well as their coaches.
Phil was single, but in the words of one of his former players, Mitch Johnson, “He truly loved O’Dea and O’Dea was his family.” At the young age of 57, Coach Lumpkin has left a lasting legacy and an impact on the sport in the state of Washington for years to come.
