After starting his coaching career at the high school level in 1917, Sam Barry moved to Knox College for 4 years (1918-21), where he was the football, basketball, baseball and track coach and the athletic director. Barry was hired as Iowa's basketball and baseball coach in 1922, where he won a pair of Big Ten basketball titles in his 7-year stay (1923-29) at Iowa.
In 1930, Sam Barry took over as head baseball coach for the USC Trojans. His first USC team went 25-5-1 overall, 15-2-1 in college games and 11-2 in the CIBA to take the league title.
Barry and the Trojans would end up with five CIBA crowns (including two ties), five seasons of 20-plus wins and career marks of 219-89-3 against all competition, 133-54-2 versus college opponents and 112-52 in conference games.
In a unique situation, Barry and Rod Dedeaux were co-head coaches in 1942 — until Barry left to join the Navy during World War II — and from 1946 until Barry's death in 1950. The duo led USC to CIBA championships in five of the six years, including 1948, a significant milestone year for the Trojan program. Not only did USC get its first 40-win season that year, but it also won its first national championship, against Yale.
The final marks for the Barry-Dedeaux tandem were 170-70-3 overall, 110-28 against college foes and 67-18 in CIBA games.
Barry, having also coached football and basketball at USC, remains one of only three coaches to take teams to both the Final Four and the College World Series.
Barry is the winningest basketball coach in USC history, as he guided the Trojans to a 260-138 record in his 17 years (1930-41, 1946-50). His teams won 8 conference crowns and posted 32 consecutive wins over crosstown rival UCLA.
He was elected into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1979 and the USC Athletic Hall of Fame in 2007. He is also a member of the Pac-12 Hall of Honor.
