A legend on the court and off, Milwaukee Lincoln coach Jim Smallins remembered for impact beyond the game

It wasn’t too long after one of Jim Smallins’ crowning moments as a basketball coach that he faced one of the defining moments of his life.

It was March of 1967 and the Milwaukee Lincoln boys basketball coach had just led the powerhouse program to its second straight state championship.

Soon thereafter Smallins received a call from new Milwaukee Public Schools superintendent Richard Gousha. Smallins was a young administrator in the district at the time and Gousha was of the thinking that an administrator shouldn’t have time to coach, not even one talented enough to pique college interest as Smallins had.

Smallins had to choose: coach or be an administrator.

“Now you, me and everyone I’ve ever known in the world would have said, ‘Well, I’m going for the fame and fortune. I’ll end up being a college coach. Who knows from there. I’ll make a lot of money,' ” Smallins’ son, Jim Jr., said.

“I remember asking him. I said you’re going to give up coaching and he said, ‘Jimmy, I can help more students as an administrator than I can as a coach' and that to me is my dad in a nutshell.”

Jim Smallins died unexpectedly Tuesday. He was 85.

Smallins is survived by his wife of 62 years, Roberta, sons Jim Jr. and Robert and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

A memorial is scheduled for Tuesday at Wisconsin Memorial Park in Brookfield. The visitation is from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. with remembrances from 1-2.

“You always hear where somebody will walk into a room and they have a presence. That was Dad," Smallins Jr. said. "When he walked into a room, he had this presence about him. He was one of those guys that when he spoke, people listened with rapt attention. He just had that way about him.”

After serving as an assistant to Dick Wadewitz for Lincoln’s 1961 and ’62 championships Smallins' took charge of the program in the fall of 1962. Over the next seven seasons, Lincoln won two state titles and posted a .810 winning percentage in the City Conference.

The 1966 and ’67 teams were considered among the best in state history. Four from that era, Ellis Turrentine, John Rushing, Clarence Sherrod and Fred Brown, were inducted into the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame.

Smallins was inducted into the WBCA Hall of Fame in 2000.

"He was one of the finest coaches around in my lifetime,"  said Brown, who won an NBA title with Seattle in 1979, told the Journal Sentinel in 1996. "I had a guy in college by the name of Ralph Miller (at Iowa) and a guy that's the winningest in the history of the NBA named Lenny Wilkens. I would stack Jim Smallins on top of all of them.

"They all were great in their own rights, but I would say none was as endearing as Smallins was. He's just an amazing person."

Smallins' career was filled with firsts. He was the first African-American inducted into the Indiana Tri-State Hall of Fame. He was also the first black player at the University of Evansville.

He was also the first black person to serve as a member of the WIAA board of control. He wasn't the first black head coach in the state, but he was one of the first.

Smallins Jr., however, said his father tried to look past race.

That was the case even when others made it an issue. Smallins' son recalled one of Lincoln’s state tournament games when the opponent’s fans threw black balls on the court, an apparent attempt to intimidate the members of the all-black school.

Smallins Jr. recalled the message his father gave the team before it took the floor. 

"We will not do anything other than make them never forget the day that they played Lincoln High School," he said. "We’re coming out pressing from the opening whistle and we’re not going to stop. They’re never going to forget the day they played us.

“That team played so hard, blew them out and I mean at the end of the game the substitutes were playing harder than they ever and I guarantee you that team never forgot the day they had to play Lincoln up at state.”

Smallins Jr. said that with pride.

Today he works in sales and as his father’s namesake, will often hand out one of his business cards and get a quizzical look from the person. Yes, he’ll say, I am the son of the Milwaukee Lincoln coach.

Most often when people want to talk about his father, the discussion isn't about basketball but how his father helped them outside of sports.

“it was all about family. It was all about his students, all about helping others rise up,” Smallins Jr. said. “If it can be done, you can do it. is an expression of Dad’s.  He’d always tell us, my brother and I, that if it can be done, a Smallins can do it.”