University of San Francisco Athletics

James Needles was born on March 3, 1900 in Tacoma, WA and attended the then Saint Ignatius College from 1920 to 1924. He played basketball for the then Grey Fog, and in his senior year he served as a Player-Coach. After graduation, he moved into the Head Coach position and the team won the Far Western Conference Title in 1928 as well as the Pacific Association Championship in 1929. The team lost in the second round, but Captain Ray Maloney was named an All-American and their season ended with a 23-2 record. 
 
Needles produced some of the finest basketball teams in the country from 1924 to 1931. While his squads were composed of talented individuals, it was the teamwork that he instilled in them that accounted for their success. He also was Head Coach of the football team during the same period, and led them to a runner-up position for the 1928 Far Western Regional Title.
 
After the 1931-1932 season an illness forced him to resign. The following fall, he began coaching in the Industrial Leagues. His Universal Pictures team won the AAU Championship. As a result, he was invited to coach the United States Olympic basketball team, and the team won gold the first year that basketball was a medal sport in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
 
Following the Olympics, he went on to coach at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, where he mentored future USF coaches Pete Newell and Phil Woolpert, and future Loyola coach Scotty McDonald. Needles returned to USF in 1941 as Graduate Manager and Athletic Director until 1950. He also served as Director of Public Relations and Supervisor of the USF Alumni Association. Needles was called the “founder of modern athletics on the Hilltop.” His overall basketball coaching record was 161-101, and his football record 25-31-8.