Jim Phelan won 830 games at Mount St. Mary’s and touched even more lives

Jamion Christian remembers sitting in his office during his first season as the Mount St. Mary’s basketball coach, wondering whether his team was ever going to get it together. The night before, it had lost soundly to two-time defending Northeast Conference champion LIU Brooklyn.

In walked Jim Phelan, who had coached Christian in college and had been the coach at the Mount for 49 years. Phelan had retired 10 years earlier in 2003 after winning 830 games, including a Division II national championship, but still lived across from Knott Arena and all of the Mount’s athletic facilities.