Cal Basketball: Bill McClintock to Receive Pete Newell Lifetime Achievement Award
Bill McClintock, a starter on Cal’s 1959 national championship team who went on to an accomplished career as a coach and teacher, will be honored with the Pete Newell Career Achievement Award during the Bears’ home game on Saturday afternoon against UCLA.
“I’m honored and humbled to receive the Pete Newell Career Achievement Award,” McClintock said. “I accept this award on behalf of my teammates, as Pete Newell always stressed the fact that team accomplishments are greater than individual ones.
"He also taught us to give back to others; I’ve really tried to do that my whole adult life, not only in basketball but in the field of education. Thank you to the Newell family and Cal’s selection committee for this honor.”
The Pete Newell Award is given to a former Cal basketball player who has achieved at a high level on and off the court, named for the former Cal coach who led the Bears to back-to-back Final Fours in 1959 and ’60, winning the program’s only national championship in ’59.
McClintock joins Al Buch and Earl Shultz, former teammates on the championship team, as Newell Award winners. Three others who played under Newell also have been honored since the award was instituted in 2011.
McClintock was inducted into the Cal Athletic Hall of Fame in 2021.
A 6-foot-4 forward, McClintock averaged 8.3 points as a sophomore starter in the Bears’ four wins en route to the 1959 NCAA title, scoring nine points in their 71-70 conquest of Cincinnati and Oscar Robertson in the championship game.
A year later, he averaged 13.3 points in the NCAA tournament and the Bears returned to the championship game before losing to Ohio State.
McClintock was a third-team All-American and an all-conference pick for the second time as a senior in 1960-61, when he averaged 15.0 points and 10.6 rebounds.
He finished his Cal career 740 rebounds, which was second-most in program history at the time and still ranks 10th on the all-time list. He had a career-best 20 rebounds against UCLA as a senior.
McClintock was chosen in the sixth round of the 1961 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Lakers but instead pursued a career in coaching and teaching.
He worked for years alongside Newell at his Big Man’s and Tall Woman’s basketball camps.
He was an assistant coach on the University of San Francisco 1972 team that featured the late Phil Smith and reached the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA tournament He later served as head coach and athletics director at Cal State Monterey Bay.
Later, McClintock taught continuing education in the Los Altos area and was a co-founder of the Foothill Middle College program that aided students requiring a non-traditional approach to school.
“I’m most pleased with my accomplishments in education, and I think they’re equal to my accomplishments in basketball,” McClintock told Cal.
The Bears’ game Saturday against UCLA tips off at 2:30 p.m. at Haas Pavilion.
Cover photo of Bill McClintock courtesy of Cal Athletics
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo
