WVU Sports Hall of Fame

Inducted: 2004

Written by Shelly Poe

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.

Prior to coaching at WVU, Patton was both a basketball and football coach at Princeton (W.Va.) 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 in February, 1950, from complications suffered after a Valentine’s Day automobile accident. He was survived by his wife Agnes and two daughters, Anne Patton Heater and Laura Lee Patton. Both daughters are graduates of WVU.