For the first part of his coaching career, whether it was as an assistant manager at Wisconsin or an assistant coach at Xavier, James Whitford has been through Ball State in the past.
As he was introduced as the 19th men’s basketball coach in Ball State history, Whitford spoke about his past experiences with Ball State and Worthen Arena. He also said how he got his start into coaching basketball with the help of a former Ball State player.
“Ray [McCallum] called me out of the blue,” Whitford said. “He said ‘I want you to work with the program, be a student assistant, work as a manager.’”
After two days on the job, Whitford knew he wanted to coach basketball for the rest of his life.
From Wisconsin, Whitford moved to an assistant position at Miami of Ohio in the Mid-American Conference, making trips to Worthen Arena regularly.
Whitford said the tradition of Ball State basketball is what made the job opening appealing to him from the beginning. But having been an assistant at Miami and Xavier, he was sometimes on the wrong end of the tradition.
“I have two memories [about Worthen Arena] that I couldn’t forget,” Whitford said. “Every time you get the defensive rebound and go to outlet the ball, don’t throw it until you see Bonzi [Wells] ... I always remember telling our players I don’t care how many times Duane Clemens goes left, when he hesitates he’s going left again.”
The stories were followed by laughter from the packed crowd inside the Alumni Lounge at Worthen Arena.
Ball State athletic director Bill Scholl said during the interviewing process with Whitford, was impressed by his recruiting he had done in Indiana and the Midwest.
“I heard some stories today that I hadn’t heard,” Scholl said. “Clearly his ties to the Midwest, to Indiana ... certainly having ties to the area was an important factor.”
