FERRUM, Va. -- Former Ferrum College Men's Basketball Coach Carl Tacy, who led the Panthers for three years from 1968-70, has died. Tacy passed away Thursday, April 2, at the age of 86.
Tacy came to Ferrum in 1967 from nearby Pulaski High School, where he had spent eight seasons as boys basketball coach, leading the Cougars to a Virginia state title in 1962.
Tacy's 1970 Ferrum team posted the college's first-ever undefeated season in men's basketball, finishing the regular season at 20-0. That team went on to play in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Tournament in Hutchinson, Kansas. The Panthers went 1-2 at the NJCAA Tournament to finish the season at 21-2. The Panthers averaged over 100 points per game during the 1969-70 season. In Tacy's three years as Ferrum's head coach, he compiled an impressive 67-14 record.
The 1970 season was Ferrum's fourth appearance in the NJCAA tournament. Ferrum qualified for the NJCAA Tournament eight times overall, including 1972 when the Panthers were national runner-up.
"I remember when Hank Norton hired me in 1967," said Tacy in an interview for the book Black & Gold, A History of Athletics at Ferrum College, written by Gary Holden in 2014. "We were talking about my team's first game being in New York. Hank mentioned that we would be taking the Golden Goose, an old bus Ferrum teams rode in back in the 1960s and 1970s. When I asked Hank who was driving the bus, he laughed and told me I was driving … welcome to Ferrum."
Tacy left Ferrum in 1970 for Marshall University, where he spent the 1970-71 and 1971-72 seasons with the Thundering Herd, the first year as assistant coach and the second as head coach. Marshall went 23-4 and qualified for the 1972 NCAA Division I Tournament in Tacy's only season as head coach.
Tacy had been at Ferrum when the Panther football team won the 1968 NJCAA national championship, so he knew many of the players on that team. He was in his second year at Marshall when the plane carrying Marshall's football team crashed in November 1970, killing all 75 on board, including seven former Ferrum players. Tacy helped make phone calls to parents and other loved ones to break the news about the tragedy.
Tacy left Marshall to become head coach at Wake Forest University in 1972. He coached the Demon Deacons 13 seasons, compiling a 222-149 record. When he resigned in the summer of 1985, he was at the time #2 in men's basketball coaching wins in Wake Forest history behind Murray Greason, who was 288-243 over 23 seasons from 1934-57.
Tacy guided several of his Wake Forest teams to the NCAA Tournament. In 1977 the Demon Deacons advanced to the Midwest Regional finals, where they lost to eventual NCAA champion Marquette University. That Wake Forest team closed out the year ranked 9th nationally by the Associated Press.
Tacy was inducted into the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame in 1985, the Davis & Elkins Athletic Hall of Fame in 1989, and the Ferrum Alumni Sports Hall of Fame in 2007. Tacy was also honored as part of the ACC Legends Class of 2013.
One of Tacy's players at Ferrum, David Hobbs, went on to become assistant coach and then head coach at the University of Alabama.
A native of Huttonsville, West Virginia, Tacy went to school at NCAA Division II Davis & Elkins College, where he played basketball and graduated in 1956. In his first season with the Senators, he played for Coach Press Maravich, the father of NBA star Pete Maravich.
Carl Tacy was born on June 18, 1932. He is survived by his wife Donnie, son Carl Tacy, Jr., and daughters Beth Tacy Kelly and Carla Tacy.
