Elite High School Coach Has Made Basketball a Family Business

After Morgan Park High School won the boys 3A, state championship in 2018, Nick Irvin held a news conference to talk about the team’s success. Photo credit: Courtesy of Nick Irvin
After Morgan Park High School won the boys 3A, state championship in 2018, Nick Irvin held a news conference to talk about the team’s success. Photo credit: Courtesy of Nick Irvin

Elite High School Coach Has Made Basketball a Family Business

BY WENDELL HUTSON, Contributing Writer

Playing basketball is all Nick Irvin, a former high school star, has done since he was a little boy growing up in Roseland on the Far South Side.

“Basketball is something that my dad instilled in me because it was what he knew and what he loved,” recalled Irvin, a 42-year-old Hyde Park resident. “It was basketball that kept me out of trouble when I was growing up and basketball gave me something constructive to do when I was not in school.”

After 12 years as the varsity boys’ basketball coach at Morgan Park High School, Irvin resigned two weeks ago to accept an assistant basketball coach position at Western Illinois University (WIU) in downstate Macomb. During his tenure at Morgan Park, Irvin became one of the most successful coaches in state history, winning 301 games and losing 12 and averaging 20 wins every season. He won four class 3A state titles, a state third-place finish and one Public League city championship.

But Irvin is not the only family member making a career out of basketball. His siblings also have matched his success.

There’s Byron Irvin, a former NBA player and now an NBA agent; Lance Irvin, men’s basketball coach at Chicago State University; Mike Irvin runs the family’s amateur basketball program, Mac Irvin Fire; McGlother Irvin Jr. runs the Mac Irvin Lady Fire basketball program; Cynthia Irvin is a sports coordinator for Chicago Public Schools; and Corry Irvin, his sister-in-law, is the women’s coach at St. Xavier University, a Catholic school on the southwest side.

And their late father, McGlother Irvin Sr., who died in 2011, was considered Chicago’s “Godfather” of high school basketball. He founded the Mac Irvin Foundation to help at-risk youth as well as the Mac Irvin Fire, whose alumni include former NBA star Antoine Walker. Nick Irvin’s mother, Louise Irvin, died in 2019.

“I know they [my parents] are proud of me and all their children and what we have accomplished thus far, and I look forward to the day when I can go visit their gravesite to tell them I became a head, college basketball coach,” said Nick Irvin, who is married with two daughters. “It is my goal to someday become a college basketball coach and this new position with WIU is a step in the right direction. I loved my job at Morgan Park and I will really miss the family I had there, but this was an opportunity I could not pass up.”

Lance Irvin, 51, said it was a treat to work for his little brother as an assistant coach at Morgan Park.

“Nick is a master motivator. He spent a lot [of] time with his players and made sure they performed well in the classroom,” said Lance Irvin. “As a coach myself, I know if you want guys to play for you, then you have to get to know them and Nick is something, he gets to know anyone he is around.”

And one thing people might not know about Nick, according to Lance Irvin, is his love for cooking.

“Chef Nick is what he likes to call himself,” Lance Irvin said, adding he and Nick sometimes have cooking battles and send each other photos of meals they’ve cooked, he jokingly said. “This guy thinks he is a five-star chef and if you ask him, he will tell you his specialty is sautéed potatoes with chicken.”

Among the first things Nick Irvin said he wants to help WIU do is to improve its overall record, whose overall record was 10 wins and 21 losses for the 2018-19 season. He also wants to help recruit “good” players to join what he described as a competitive team already in hopes of going to the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) tournament.

“Coach Jeter has been around a long time and is a very good coach, who I know I can learn a lot from,” Nick Irvin said. “I am grateful for the opportunity he has afforded me to work with him and his talented staff and help build on the future success of the program.”

In a statement, Rob Jeter, men’s basketball coach at WIU, said Nick knows how to win.

“He’s an energetic, successful head coach who has proven to develop high-level student-athletes. I have a ton of respect for Nick and the Irvin family,” said Jeter. “For such a big city, the Chicago basketball community is tight-knit, and the Irvins have strong ties. Coming back to Chicago and giving one of our own an opportunity was a priority for me, and I’m excited to have Nick join us at Western.”

Standing 6’1”, Nick Irvin graduated from Carver High School in 1997 as a standout guard and played two years at Fresno State University in California.

“Yeah, I would have loved to play in the NBA, but sometimes the ball does not always bounce your way,” Nick Irvin told the Citizen. “That is what I tell my players because not everyone will make it to the NBA.”

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