Jim Lewis Parker-Gray

GROVETON HIGH, ALEXANDRIA (1964)
BASKETBALL

Before a 45-year coaching career, Jim Lewis was an All-state basketball player on Parker-Gray’s 1963 VIA Group II State runner-up. In 1964 he transferred to Fairfax County’s newly integrated Groveton High and was selected as a Washington Post All-Met player. Upon graduation in 1964 he was the first African-American to receive a basketball scholarship at West Virginia University. He played on a Southern Conference Championship Team in 1967 and graduated with a degree in journalism in 1968. He began his coaching career as an assistant coach with men's programs at Tennessee State (1969) and Gannon College (1970). In 1971 he was hired as the first AfricanAmerican assistant basketball coach at Duke University. He has coached at two high schools, eight colleges or universities and four Women’s Basketball Association (WNBA) teams. He had 20 years as a collegiate head coach in women’s basketball. At George Mason University, he coached for 14 seasons (1984-1997) and won more games than any other coach compiling a record of 201-177. He was head coach at Fordham University from 2001-2006. He was the first head coach of the WNBA’s Washington Mystics (1997-1998). He has been a television analyst for games broadcast by ESPN and Home Team Sports. He was appointed to the 1996 USA Basketball Committee to select the Women’s Olympic Team for that year.