Nathaniel Frazier (April 18, 1935 – September 22, 2019) was an American

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

coach. He was head men's coach at Morgan State University, where in 1974 he led the program to the Division II national championship. Frazier played college basketball for

Tuskegee University Tuskegee University (Tuskegee or TU), formerly known as the Tuskegee Institute, is a private, historically black land-grant university in Tuskegee, Alabama. It was founded on Independence Day in 1881 by the state legislature. The campus was d ...

, where he was twice named to the All- Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference team. After several years coaching high school basketball in New York and New Jersey and reviving a master's degree from the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

, Frazier launched his college career as an assistant for Delaware State. He then joined the

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

staff as an assistant in 1967, at a time when few African-American coaches could be found on

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

coaching staffs. In 1971, Frazier was named head coach at

Morgan State Morgan may refer to: People and fictional characters * Morgan (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Morgan le Fay, a powerful witch in Arthurian legend * Morgan (surname), a surname of Welsh origin * Morgan (singer ...

. One of his first recruits was seven-footer Marvin Webster, nicknamed “the Human Eraser” due to his

shot-blocking In basketball, a block or blocked shot occurs when a defensive player legally deflects a field goal attempt from an offensive player to prevent a score. The defender is not allowed to make contact with the offensive player's hand (unless the de ...

prowess. In Webster's junior season of 1973–74, the Bears advanced to the

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

Final, where they defeated

Southwest Missouri State Missouri State University (MSU or MO State), formerly Southwest Missouri State University, is a public university in Springfield, Missouri. Founded in 1905 as the Fourth District Normal School, it is the state's second largest university by enr ...

67–52 to win the school's first national championship. He was named the college division national coach of the year by the

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. Frazier left the Bears in 1977 to join

Willis Reed Willis Reed Jr. (born June 25, 1942) is an American retired basketball player, coach and general manager. He spent his entire professional playing career (1964–1974) with the New York Knicks. In 1982, Reed was inducted into the Naismith Memo ...

's coaching staff on the

New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associat ...

of 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 ...

(NBA) for the 1977–78 season. He then went on to serve as president and head coach of the Washington Metros of the short-lived Women's Professional Basketball League (WBL). Frazier returned to college coaching as head coach at Bowie State from 1980 to 1982, and ultimately returned as head coach of Morgan State (now a Division I program) in 1985 and served in that role for four seasons. Frazier died on September 22, 2019 in

Columbia, Maryland Columbia is a census-designated place in Howard County, Maryland. It is one of the principal communities of the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area. It is a planned community consisting of 10 self-contained villages. Columbia began with ...

at age 84.

References