Throughout my career I have been fortunate to meet a lot of very good people in the coaching profession. But unfortunately, I have never had the pleasure of meeting coach Jim Phelan. Like so many people, I have admired him from afar, but our paths have never crossed.

Those who know him well, speak very highly of his abilities as a coach. Those same voices also exude pure pleasure when speaking of Jim Phelan, the person. By all accounts, coach Phelan is a gentleman who -- throughout his 49 years as coach -- has done everything with a lot of class.

His coaching accomplishments are staggering. Perhaps most impressive is that in the history of our great game, no coach -- at any level -- has coached as many games as Jim Phelan.

Much of Phelan's lengthy career has been spent out of the spotlight. Only in the past few years have people begun to truly appreciate his impressive career. A lot of that is attributed to the fact that Mount St. Mary's did not join the ranks of division I until 1988.

Interestingly enough, it can be said that Phelan and Mount St. Mary's actually left division I and returned in '88. During the first couple of years, of Phelan's tenure, there was only one division. It wasn't until the middle to late 1950's when college basketball was broken up into different classifications.

A decade later, coach Phelan became the school's Athletics Director and spearheaded an effort to bring the division II program to division I. His campaign as an administrator was helped greatly by his coaching campaign during the decade of the 1980's.

Eight times during the decade his teams won 20 or more games. He posted a school-record 28-3 mark in 1981, advancing to the division II championship game. He would coach his team back to the Final Four in 1985 and logged 26 wins in both 1986 and '87.

A year later his 22-year stint as an administrator ended, when the Mount was welcomed into the division I ranks. He wanted to focus solely on his team.

Through the years, coach Phelan guided Mount St. Mary's to sixteen to NCAA tournaments. Five times he coached in the Division II Final Four, winning a national championship in 1962.

What he has accomplished to date is mind boggling.

Perhaps more mind boggling is that he has amassed over 800 wins and is not enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Jim Phelan is the only coach to win as many games and not be in the Hall of Fame.

With conference tournaments just around the bend, many will not cheer against the other Northeast Conference schools, but they will rather route for Jim Phelan to conclude his fine career with an NEC tournament title and one final trip to the Big Dance.

On March 1, 2003, Jim Phelan will coach his final regular season game, when Mount St. Mary's plays host to Central Connecticut. Mount St. Mary's and CollegeInsider.com's Angela Lento are making a concerted effort to encourage coaches all across America pay tribute to coach Phelan by wearing a bow tie.

That is a wonderful idea.

For 49 years Jim Phelan has coached with dignity and class and his presence will most certainly be missed.