Ben Jobe
From Hoopedia
Ben Jobe (born 1933?) is a former American men's basketball coach. He is best known as the head coach of the Southern University Jaguars - a position he held for 12 years. He has also been head coach of the men's college basketball teams at Tuskegee University, Talladega College, Alabama State University, South Carolina State University, University of Denver and Alabama A&M University. Jobe has also served as assistant coach at the University of South Carolina, Georgia Tech, and briefly served as an assistant with the NBA's Denver Nuggets.
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Early Life
Ben Jobe was raised in Nashville, Tennessee. He attended Nashville Pearl High School, where he was a successful basketball player. In 1950, Jobe earned all-district and all-state honors and was then named to the 1951 all-national high school team.
Jobe then enrolled at Fisk University, earning all-conference honors during his junior and senior seasons. He earned a bachelor's degree from Fisk in 1956 and later went on to earn a master's degree from Tennessee A&I State University (now Tennessee State University).
In 1958, Jobe began his coaching career at Cameron High School in Nashville, Tennessee. His first (and only) Cameron team won 24 games, a school record. After the season was over, Jobe decided to move to Sierra Leone, West Africa to coach a junior college basketball team. Jobe's coaching had a quick effect: his teams posted back-to-back undefeated seasons.
College Coach
Jobe returned to the United States and began coaching at Talladega College in Alabama, a position which he held for three years. He then served a one year stint (1967) at Alabama State.
Jobe moved to South Carolina State College in 1969. His stay at SCSU lasted five years, a stint which produced two NAIA Division I Men's Tournament playoff teams. During his years at SC State, he was voted NAIA District IV Coach of the Year in 1968 and was a five-time recipient of the Colleges of South Carolina Coach of the Year award. He was also cited by the South Carolina House of Representatives in a resolution commending his achievements on the court.
Well-established in building winning programs, Jobe became an assistant coach under the legendary Frank McGuire at the University of South Carolina in 1973.
Jobe beat out more than 280 candidates for the job at the University of Denver, a financially weak program which had suffered 11 straight losing seasons. Yet he guided the Pioneers to a 15-12 mark his very first year there and went on to tally 20 wins the next season, leading the team to a national post-season tournament for the first time since 1947.
Jobe's next stops were at the NBA's Denver Nuggets (assistant coach and director of player personnel, 1980-81); Georgia Tech University (assistant coach, 1981-82); and Alabama A&M University (head coach, 1982-86). At A&M, he posted a record of 83-36 in four seasons, guiding the Bulldogs to three Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) championships and two NCAA Division II playoff berths.
Southern University
Jobe took the helm of the Southern University Jaguars in 1986. He stayed on until 1996. He returned again to Southern in 2001 for two more seasons, retiring completely from college basketball in 2003. In 12 years at Southern, Jobe compiled a 209-141 record, led the Jaguars to the NCAA tournament four times, went to the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) once, won five SIAC Championships, won 11 Southwestern Athletic Conference Championships, and won two NAIA Division I Men's Tournament Championships.
Perhaps his most memorable moment as a college basketball coach was the Jaguars 93-78 win over Georgia Tech, the ACC champions, in the first round of the 1993 NCAA Division I Men's Tournament in Tuscon, Arizona. It marked the first time an historically black college beat a powerhouse college program in the NCAA tournament. The victory was bittersweet for Jobe, since Georgia Tech was coached by Bobby Cremins, who had hired Jobe as an assistant coach and was still a good friend.
Jobe coached Avery Johnson, former San Antonio Spurs star guard and current coach of the Dallas Mavericks and late Charlotte Hornets star Bobby Phills.
Upon his retirement from Southern in 2003, Jobe had accumulated 524 wins as a head coach in college basketball spread among 8 teams over 31 seasons (a 61.1% win percentage).
In 2008 he was the featured in an ESPN documentary about black college basketball, Black Magic.
He and his wife Regina live in Tuskegee, Alabama. They have two adult children, Bryan and Gina.
