JAY HARRINGTON

BASKETBALL

Born: March 24, 1948; Louisville, Kentucky
Coached For: Southwestern Illinois College

To say Jay Harrington’s life has revolved around the game of basketball would be putting it mildly. Although Jay has had a rewarding personal life away from the court with wife Patti Woods Harrington, three daughters and five grandchildren, basketball has proven a successful pursuit at every level.

Harrington formed a relationship with the sport as a player on the Kentucky state champion Breckenridge County High School team in 1965. He went on to play college basketball at Lindsey Wilson College and Montana State University. He also played professionally overseas for the French Federation of Basketball from 1969-73.

Coaching became the focus of his life by catching on as a graduate assistant coach at Western Kentucky University in 1973, followed by a head coaching job at Wabash Valley College from 1975-78, and assistant coaching position at Arkansas-Little Rock in 1978-79. But when Harrington was hired as head basketball coach at Southwestern Illinois College (then Belleville Area College) in 1979, a magical pairing of coach and school was formed.

Since his coaching duties at SWIC began, Coach Harrington has become a legend at the junior college level. At the time of his St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame induction in 2023, Harrington was #1 in basketball victories among all NJCAA coaches with a total over 950 and counting. He was also second in NJCAA basketball wins all-time.

Along the way, Coach Harrington has placed over 220 players and 16 All-Americans at four-year universities. He has won six Great Rivers Athletics Conference basketball championships, six NJCAA Region 24 championships, and taken his team to three NJCAA national tournament finals. He was also on the coaching staff for three USA Basketball national and international competitions; the COPABA Pre-World Championships in Argentina 2001, the World University Games championship team in 1999, and the gold medal North team at the USA Olympic Festival in 1988. Coach Harrington served as head coach of the silver medal-winning Antigua and Barbuda team in the 2018 FIBA Pre-World Caribbean Championships.

Harrington has also been a respected leader as President of the NJCAA Coaches Association from 1996-2000 and as a member of numerous NJCAA athletics committees during his SWIC tenure.

Besides his induction into the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame, Coach Harrington was inducted into the Breckenridge County Kentucky High School Hall of Fame in 1994, the Illinois Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame in 1999, and the NJCAA Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002. He was named IBCA Coach-of-the-Year three times and Great Rivers Athletics Conference Coach-of-the-Year six times.

Coach Harrington earned an Associates degree from Lindsey Wilson College, and his Bachelors and Masters degrees from Western Kentucky University. In his time away from the gymnasium, Coach Harrington has published a book of poems, “Love of the Game” in 2013, and written numerous articles for the JUCO Review.