‘He loved people’: Columbus sports icon James ‘Jimmy’ Lee dies at 84
James W. “Jimmy” Lee, who played basketball at Auburn and later coached at both Hardaway and Shaw, died Sunday at St. Francis Hospital, according to McMullen Funeral Home.
He was 84 years old.
Lee played for the late Bubba Ball at Baker High School, where he captained the 1954 state basketball championship team. He was named the MVP of the state tournament that year.
Lee graduated from Baker in 1955, then played at Auburn for coach Joel Eaves. He graduated from Auburn in 1960.
Lee twice led the Tigers in scoring as a sophomore (15.9 points per game) and a senior (13.1 points per game).
“Bubba said he was one of the best athletes he had ever coached,” Debbie Ball, former Shaw athletic director and Bubba Ball’s wife, said. “He loved people, he loved to teach, he loved to coach, and he was always willing to help.”
Lee later returned home to coach at Hardaway and Shaw, running the shuffle offense that Ball helped perfect. He was named the Bi-City and region Coach of the Year in 1968 and 1973.
He was inducted into the Chattahoochee Valley Sports Hall of Fame in 2004.
He retired after 32 years as a coach and teacher at Hardaway and Shaw.
“I remember just being honored to be sitting on the bench by coach Lee and coach Ball,” Mike Stephens, who was an assistant coach with Lee for Shaw’s football and basketball teams from 1978 to 1982, said. “To sit on the bench with Jimmy Lee and be a part of the staff ... it was an honor.”
Lee “prided himself on what he could do for others,” according to his McMullen obituary.
Lee was born June 13, 1935 in Macon, son of the late John William and Ruth Davis Lee.
Survivors include his wife, Beverly Massey Harrison Lee of Columbus, five children, two sisters, six grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a service will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family request donations be made to your favorite charity in Lee’s memory.
