John McMullen, standout basketball coach at Santa Monica College, dies at 82

John McMullen, a Corridor of Fame group school basketball coach who was an influential determine in Southern California for greater than 5 a long time, died Friday in Brentwood. He was 82.

“He touched so many lives, gamers and coaches,” Santa Monica Excessive coach James Hecht mentioned.

McMullen was head coach at Santa Monica School from 1978 to 2004, compiling a report of 528-240. He was inducted into the California Neighborhood School Basketball Corridor of Fame in 2005 and was a four-time coach of the 12 months within the Western State Convention.

Born Sept. 13, 1939, in Topeka, Kan., McMullen moved to the San Fernando Valley as a highschool sophomore. He performed basketball at Van Nuys Grant Excessive and Cal State Northridge. He was head coach at Camarillo Excessive, profitable a Southern Part Division 3A championship in 1972.

He would work at John Wood‘s camps at UCLA and used a advice from Wood to change into an assistant coach at Brigham Younger underneath Frank Arnold earlier than becoming a member of Santa Monica in 1978. After retiring from Santa Monica, he served as an assistant at New Mexico State underneath his former assistant Marvin Menzies from 2007 to 2009.

“It’s an amazing loss,” Menzies mentioned. “He was an incredible man and left an amazing legacy.”

Hecht mentioned McMullen welcomed him and helped practice him.

“After I began teaching 33 years in the past, I went to a Santa Monica School recreation, launched myself and from then on he was a mentor,” Hecht mentioned.

Brian Beauchemin, the previous Glendale School coach, had some very aggressive video games via the years with McMullen and have become mates.

“He’s a kind of guys who would exit of his option to make you’re feeling comfy, and I’m certain he did that with gamers,” Beauchemin mentioned. “He had a beneficiant persona that allowed folks to come back into his life after which got here into theirs.”

McMullen is survived by his spouse, Cathy, sons Andy and Brian and 5 grandchildren. Funeral preparations are pending.