Jim Boeheim

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James "Jim" Arthur Boeheim is a power hitting right fielder for the Cleveland Indians, in addition to the head coach of the Syracuse Orange men's basketball team.

Background[edit | edit source]

Jim was born on November 17, 1944 in Lyons, New York and is likely the oldest player in MLR.

Boeheim enrolled in Syracuse University as a student in 1962, and graduated with a bachelor's degree in social science. During his freshman year, Boeheim was a walk-on with the freshman basketball team. By his senior year he was the team captain and a teammate of All-American Dave Bing, his freshman roommate. The pair led coach Fred Lewis's Orange to a 22–6 overall win-loss record that earned the team's second-ever NCAA tournament berth. While at Syracuse, he joined the Delta Upsilon fraternity.

After graduating from Syracuse, Boeheim played professional basketball with the Scranton Miners of the American Basketball League, during which he won two championships and was a second-team all-star (SU Athletics).

Coaching

In 1969, Boeheim decided to coach basketball and was hired as a graduate assistant at Syracuse under Roy Danforth. Soon thereafter he was promoted to a full-time assistant coach and was a member of the coaching staff that helped guide the Orange to its first Final Four appearance in the 1975 NCAA Tournament.

In 1976, Danforth left to become head basketball coach and athletic director at Tulane University. A coaching search then led to naught, and Boeheim was promoted to be the head coach of his alma mater. Apart from his brief stint in the pros, Boeheim has spent his entire adult life at Syracuse as a student, player, assistant coach or head coach, a rarity in modern-day major collegiate athletics. In 1986 Boeheim was offered the head coaching job at Ohio State, but turned it down to stay at Syracuse.


During a Syracuse vs. Georgetown game, Hoyas star Patrick Ewing was nearly struck by an orange, and at times he had endured racial taunts from the SU student section. Boeheim borrowed a microphone and threatened to forfeit the game if fans continued to throw objects at Ewing.

In 39 years as head coach at Syracuse, Boeheim has guided the Orange to postseason berths, either in the NCAA or NIT tournaments, in every year in which the Orange have been eligible. The only times the Orange missed the postseason was in 1993, when NCAA sanctions barred them from postseason play despite a 20–9 record and in 2015 when Boeheim failed to meet compliance with NCAA rules within his program for a decade. During his tenure, the Orange have never had a losing season, have appeared in three NCAA national championship games (1987, 1996, and 2003) and have won the national title in 2003.

Boeheim has been named Big East coach of the year four times, and has been named as District II Coach of the Year by the National Association of Basketball Coaches ten times. In 2004, Boeheim received two additional awards. The first was during the spring when he was awarded the Clair Bee Award in recognition of his contributions to the sport of basketball. During the fall of the same year Boeheim was presented with Syracuse University's Arents Award, the University's highest alumni honor.

Boeheim's coaching style at Syracuse is unusual in that, whereas many highly-successful coaches prefer the man-to-man defense, he demonstrates an overwhelming preference for the 2–3 zone defense.

In an exhibition game on November 7, 2005 against Division II school Saint Rose from Albany, New York, Boeheim was ejected for the first time in his career after arguing a call late in the first half in the Orange's 86–73 victory. He was also ejected from Cameron Indoor Stadium on February 22, 2014 against Duke after arguing a player control foul call on C.J Fair by referee Tony Greene.

In late 2017, Boeheim announced that he would be pursuiting a career in Major League Redditball, while continuing to coach the Orange.


Redditball[edit | edit source]

Boeheim was drafted in the 5th round of the 2017 MLR Draft by the [Cleveland Indians] as a power hitting right fielder. He had his first career hit in Session 3 of the 2017-18 season, a solo home run.