James Carlos McNatt (December 19, 1918 – December 23, 2000)http://files.usgwarchives.net/tx/ector/obits/odessa/2000/obit/122900.txt was an All-American basketball player for the
Oklahoma Sooners
The Oklahoma Sooners are the athletic teams that represent the University of Oklahoma, located in Norman. The 19 men's and women's varsity teams are called the "Sooners", a reference to a nickname given to the early participants in the Land Run ...
and the AAU's
Phillips 66ers
The Phillips 66ers (also known as the Oilers) were an amateur basketball team located in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and sponsored and run by the Phillips Petroleum Company. The 66ers were a national phenomenon that grew from a small-town team to an ...
. At Oklahoma, McNatt led his team to the first-ever NCAA final Four in 1939, /ref> and at
Phillips 66
The Phillips 66 Company is an American Multinational corporation, multinational energy company headquartered in Westchase, Houston, Westchase, Houston, Houston, Texas. Its name, dating back to 1927 as a trademark of the Phillips Petroleum Compan ...
, McNatt guided the 66ers (also called the "Oilers") to four consecutive AAU national championships (1943, 1944, 1945, and 1946). He was a two-time All-American at Oklahoma (1939, 1940) and a four-time AAU All-American for Phillips 66 (1943, 1944, 1945, 1946). The speedy player came to be known by his nickname “Scat” McNatt, a moniker originally traced back to the term “Boy Scats” which sportswriters had used to describe McNatt's fast-breaking, sophomore-led 1937-38 Oklahoma Sooners basketball team. McNatt grew up in
Norman, Oklahoma
Norman () is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, with a population of 128,097 as of 2021. It is the largest city and the county seat of Cleveland County, Oklahoma, Cleveland County, and the second-largest city in the Oklahoma C ...
, attended
Norman High School
Norman High School is a four-year public high school in Norman, Oklahoma with a steady enrollment of approximately 2,000 students. It is accredited by North Central Association, the Oklahoma State Department of Education and the Oklahoma Second ...
, and then opted to stay in his hometown to play basketball for the
University of Oklahoma
The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two Territories became the state of Oklahom ...
.
During his collegiate career at Oklahoma, McNatt broke the
Big Six Conference
The Big Eight Conference was a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)-affiliated Division I-A college athletic association that sponsored football. It was formed in January 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Associatio ...
single-game scoring record on two occasions. As a junior, he set the mark with 29 points against
Iowa State University
Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the n ...
on February 18, 1939. Then as a senior, he broke his own record with 30 points against
Nebraska
Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...
on February 9, 1940. Another of Oklahoma's conference rivals in the Big Six was the
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...
, coached by the legendary
Phog Allen
Forrest Clare "Phog" Allen (November 18, 1885 – September 16, 1974) was an American basketball coach. Known as the "Father of Basketball Coaching,"Hugh McDermott and
Bruce Drake
Bruce Drake (December 5, 1905 – December 4, 1983) was a college men's basketball coach. The Gentry, Texas native was head coach at the University of Oklahoma between 1938 and 1955, compiling a 200–181 record. He also coached the Air Force team ...
and won back-to-back Big Six Conference championships in McNatt's junior (1938–39) and senior (1939–40) seasons. McNatt was the conference's leading scorer during the 1939-40 season.
In the
1939 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament
The 1939 NCAA basketball tournament involved eight schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship. It was the first NCAA basketball national championship tournament, although it was ope ...
, McNatt led his team to the first-ever Final Four. He topped all scorers with 12 points in the national quarterfinals (“Western Regional semifinal”) as the Sooners defeated
Utah State
Utah State University (USU or Utah State) is a public land-grant research university in Logan, Utah. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. With nearly 20,000 students living on or near campus, USU is Utah's ...
50-39. In the national semifinal (“Western Regional final”) against the
University of Oregon
The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...
, McNatt was again the Sooners’ leading scorer with 12 points as the Sooners fell to the eventual-champion Ducks. Both games were played in San Francisco at the 1939
Golden Gate International Exposition
The Golden Gate International Exposition (GGIE) (1939 and 1940), held at San Francisco's Treasure Island, was a World's Fair celebrating, among other things, the city's two newly built bridges. The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge opened in 1936 ...
. To advance to the Western Regional, the Big Six Conference Champion Sooners first had to defeat Missouri Valley Conference Champion Oklahoma A&M, coached by
Hank Iba
Henry Payne Iba (; August 6, 1904 – January 15, 1993) was an American basketball coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head basketball coach at Northwest Missouri State Teacher's College, now known as Northwest Missouri S ...
and led by Jesse Renick, on a neutral court in Oklahoma City one week earlier.
After graduating from Oklahoma, McNatt moved on to a career in
Amateur Athletic Union
The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It has ...
basketball, an early basketball league that preceded the
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...
. Though runners up in the 1942
AAU National Tournament
The Amateur Athletic Association is an amateur basketball league that was created in 1897. It hosts the annual AAU National Tournament. All players participating have to be amateurs.
During the 1960s players who left college before the formation ...
with a team featuring McNatt and former
Stanford
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...
star
Hank Luisetti
Angelo-Giuseppi "Hank" Luisetti (June 16, 1916 – December 17, 2002) was an American college men's basketball player. He is considered to be one of the great innovators of the sport. In an era that featured the traditional two-handed set shot, ...
, Phillips 66 won the next four consecutive AAU National Championships, led by the play of McNatt and
Gordon Carpenter
Gordon "Shorty" Carpenter (September 24, 1919 – March 8, 1988) was an American basketball player, and part of gold medal winning American basketball team at the 1948 Summer Olympics.
Born in Ash Flat, Arkansas and nicknamed ''Shorty'' despite ...
, both of whom were selected to the AAU All-America teams during these four seasons. In 1943 and 1944, the 66ers defeated Denver's American Legion team 57-40 and then 50-43 in the tournament-final games. In the 1945 championship game, a 47-46 win over Denver Ambrose, McNatt led Phillips 66 in scoring with 15 points, outdueling Denver star Robert Gruenig. In McNatt's final season, Phillips 66 defeated the San Diego Dons by the score of 45-34 in the AAU championship game.
McNatt was inducted into the
Helms Athletic Foundation
The Helms Athletic Foundation, founded in 1936, was a Los Angeles-based organization dedicated to the promotion of athletics and sportsmanship. Paul H. Helms was the organization's founder and benefactor, funding the foundation via his ownership ...
's Basketball Hall of Fame in 1960."Popular Alvin Man is Elected to Basketball Hall of Fame Recently", ''Alvin Sun'', September 27, 1960, p.7.
After his basketball career, McNatt worked as a petroleum engineer for the
Phillips Petroleum Company
Phillips Petroleum Company was an American oil company incorporated in 1917 that expanded into petroleum refining, marketing and transportation, natural gas gathering and the chemicals sectors. It was Phillips Petroleum that first found oil in the ...
, and held numerous supervisory and management positions at Phillips for his entire career, retiring July 1, 1980.