[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 138 (Tuesday, October 6, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1915]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          HONORING FRED McCALL

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. BOB ETHERIDGE

                           of north carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, October 6, 1998

  Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a distinguished 
North Carolinian, former Campbell University coaching great, Fred 
McCall. He is an important figure on that legendary Tobacco Road where 
basketball is considered more a spiritual event than just another team 
sport. Coach McCall led the Fighting Camels to five state junior 
college championships in eight years, and through their first eight 
years at senior level competition. After leaving the head coaching 
position in 1969, Coach McCall remained at Campbell University as Vice-
President for Institutional Advancement for a decade, after which he 
served as Vice-President for Administration until his retirement in 
1986.
  During his tenure at the University, Coach McCall started the 
internationally respected Campbell Basketball School. That school is 
now the nation's oldest and largest continually running basketball 
camp, with over a thousand young men enrolled and a coaching staff of 
over 100, including the legendary UCLA coach, John Wooden.
  Coach McCall is not only a coach, teacher, administrator, and mentor, 
he is also an inventor. He saw a need for a more accurate way to 
evaluate a player's rebounding ability, so he took the initiative to 
invent a machine that measures reach, stretch, and jumping ability of 
the players, while developing strength and control in their fingers, 
hands, arms, legs, and torso. The McCall Rebounder can be considered 
nothing less than revolutionary to the teaching of rebounding skills. 
Most of the nation's top coaches have employed the machine as standard 
equipment, and it can be found in gymnasiums throughout the country and 
around the world.
  While attending Lenoir-Rhyne College, Fred McCall excelled in three 
varsity sports. As a member of the basketball team for four years, he 
was a phenomenal scorer and rebounder who made all-conference for two 
years. He also played for three years as an end-tackle on the football 
team and two years as a pitcher on the baseball team.
  Coach McCall graduated from Lenoir-Rhyne College in 1948 and later 
received his master's degree from Peabody College. Coach McCall also 
proudly served our country for four years during World War II as a 
first lieutenant in the U.S. Army.
  His many honors include being named ``Tarheel of the Week'' by the 
Raleigh News and Observer in 1969, and being profiled in the ``Who's 
Who in American Colleges and Schools'' for 1948. The great state of 
North Carolina has inducted him into its Sports Hall of Fame. Then 
there are the unmentioned tributes that come from the thousands of 
lives he has touched and the countless young men that consider him a 
mentor, myself included. I am honored to have played under Coach McCall 
at Campbell University. His esteemed colleague, John Wooden once 
remarked that Fred McCall was, ``As fine a man as I have ever met.'' I 
wholeheartedly agree.

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