Kevin Mackey, the first Division I men's basketball coach to win an NCAA tournament game with a so-called "Cinderella" team, died Tuesday from an apparent heart attack, his son, Brian, told ESPN. Mackey was 80.
On March 14, 1986, Mackey coached the Cleveland State Vikings in a first-round game against the No. 3 seed Indiana Hoosiers, coached by Hall of Famer Bob Knight and led on the floor by All-American Steve Alford.
But the scrappy No. 14 seed Vikings, from a conference few people were familiar with (the Association of Mid-Continent Universities) and playing an in-your-face style of ball known as the "run 'n' stun," upset the heavily favored Hoosiers 83-79, a year before Knight, Alford, Keith Smart and Indiana would return to win the 1987 NCAA tournament.
Led on the court by guard Ken "Mouse" McFadden and forwards Clinton Smith and Clinton Ransey, Mackey's Vikings advanced to the second round of the 1986 NCAAs and next defeated Saint Joseph's. The Vikings were within seconds of advancing to the Elite Eight, but a last-second basket by David Robinson upended CSU's run with a 71-70 loss to Navy. The silver-tongued Mackey had always referred to the Vikings' 1985-86 season as a "magic carpet ride."
In the summer of 1990, Mackey had just signed a two-year, $350,000-a-year contract to remain coach at Cleveland State. Around town, he had acquired the nickname "the King of Cleveland" two decades before LeBron James would get that same moniker as a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
But by then, Mackey had acquired an addiction to crack cocaine and alcohol, he told ESPN and other media outlets later. He was in a crack house for nine hours on July 13, 1990, when someone called the Cleveland police and a local television station. Mackey stumbled out of the dwelling wearing his forest-green Cleveland State basketball polo shirt, high on cocaine and alcohol. He tried to drive away but was pulled over and arrested. It was all on tape and played in a loop on the local news, ending his college basketball coaching career.
In jail after his arrest, Mackey once told ESPN, the other inmates didn't even let him sleep on the bed. "I'm no longer the King of Cleveland," he said he thought to himself sitting on the cold, concrete floor. He underwent substance abuse treatment with former NBA player John Lucas and coached minor league basketball before Larry Bird, then president of basketball operations for the Indiana Pacers, hired him as a scout.
Before coming to Cleveland, he had been an assistant under Tom Davis at Boston College, where he recruited future NBA players John Bagley and Jay Murphy, both of whom had been overlooked by other coaches.
"He had a great eye" for talent, Brian Mackey said.
Kevin Mackey had been sober for 35 years at the time of his death. He leaves behind three children -- Brian, Cheryl and Kristy -- and was most proud of his seven grandchildren. He was living in Walpole, Massachusetts.
Dwayne Bray is the Vice President of Production at Andscape.
