Sam Barry - Early Career

Early Career

Barry was born in Aberdeen, South Dakota. After starring in basketball, baseball and football while a high school student in Madison, Wisconsin, he continued his success at Lawrence College, later completing his degree at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He returned to Madison High School to begin his coaching career, and then proceeded to become athletic director at Knox College in Illinois from 1918 to 1922, where he also served as coach of football, basketball, baseball and track.

In 1922, Barry was named basketball coach at the University of Iowa, and also became a football assistant under then Hawkeyes coach Howard Jones, an association which would continue for 15 years at two universities. Barry also coached the Iowa baseball team in 1923 and 1924. He led the Hawkeye basketball team to Big Ten Conference co-championships in 1923 and 1926—the first two conference titles in team history—and helped Jones guide the football squad to an undefeated 7–0 season in 1922, winning a share of the Big Ten title—the last for Hawkeyes football until 1956.

In 1929, the University of Southern California was in need of a new basketball coach, and Jones—at USC since 1925—recommended his old colleague for the position. Barry followed Jones out west, and took over the USC basketball program as well as the baseball team, while also resuming his duties as an assistant football coach under Jones. Barry's Trojan teams enjoyed unprecedented successes on the USC campus, winning Pacific Coast Conference titles in basketball in 1930, 1935 and 1940—along with eight southern division titles between 1930 and 1940—and conference crowns in baseball in 1930, 1932, 1935, 1936, 1939, 1946, 1947, 1948 and 1949. In 1940, the USC basketball team was widely considered to be the best in the nation, and participated in the nascent NCAA tournament, but they lost their bid for the national title when they were upset in the national semifinal at Kansas City, against Kansas, when the son of opposing coach, Phog Allen, made a basket with seconds left for a one-point victory. Despite the loss, the Helms Athletic Foundation later retroactively selected USC as the 1940 national champions.

Barry was also a valued part of the USC football teams which claimed national championships in 1931, 1932 and 1939, as well as seven Pacific Coast Conference titles and five Rose Bowl victories. He was Jones' top assistant on the sidelines from 1929 to 1940, also serving as the team's chief scout and coach of the "Spartan" scout team. Barry was often credited by the "Headman" with devising the strategies that proved most effective in shutting down opponents. Although such titles were not used at the time, Barry's position would likely have been equivalent to that of the modern defensive coordinator. The team's football successes included a 25-game winning streak from 1931 to 1933, and the undefeated 1938 team's 7–3 victory in the 1939 Rose Bowl against Duke—a team which had previously not allowed any opponent to score.