The late Lee Patton was an outstanding WVU basketball coach from 1946-50. A Carbon, Texas, native, Patton led the Mountaineers to a 91-26 overall record during his tenure for a .778 winning percentage, still the second best in school history.
Patton led West Virginia to two straight NIT berths in 1946 and 1947.
Under his direction, WVU posted a school-record 57-game home winning streak that ended in the final home game of the 1949 season against Pitt.
Among his finest players at WVU were All-American forward Leland “Lefty” Byrd and Fred Schaus, who appeared in the first-ever NBA All-Star game in 1951.
Patton also recruited All-American center Mark Workman from Charleston, West Virginia, but he did not live long enough to coach him as a varsity player at WVU.
Prior to coaching at WVU, Patton was both a basketball and football coach at Princeton (West Virginia) High where his basketball teams made it to the state tournament six times and his 1943 football squad finished the year undefeated. Patton, a 1927 graduate of Arizona State College, also coached at Iona Preparatory School in New York.
Fondly nicknamed "Worry Bird," Coach Patton passed away March 8, 1950, from complications suffered after a Valentine’s Day automobile accident.
