Former Cleveland State coach Kevin Mackey dies at 80 - ESPN

Kevin Mackey, the first Division I men's basketball coach to win an NCAA tournament game with a so-called «Cinderella» team, died Tuesday from an apparent heart attack, his son Brian told ESPN. Mackey was 80.

On March 14, 1986, Mackey coached the Cleveland State Vikings in a first-round game against the No. 3 seed Indiana Hoosiers, coached by Hall of Famer Bob Knight and led on the floor by All-American Steve Alford.

But the scrappy No. 14 seed Vikings, from a conference few people were familiar with (the Association of Mid-Continent Universities-8) and playing an in-your-face style of ball knowns as the «run 'n' stun,» upset the heavily favored Hoosiers 83-79, a year before Knight, Alford, Keith Smart and Indiana would return to win the 1987 NCAA tournament.

Led on the court by guard Ken «Mouse» McFadden and forwards Clinton Smith and Clinton Ransey, Mackey's Vikings advanced to the second round of the 1986 NCAAs and next defeated Saint Joseph's. The Vikings were within seconds of advancing to the Elite Eight, but a last-second basket by David Robinson upended CSU's run with a 71-70 loss to Navy. The silver-tongued Mackey had always referred to the Vikings' 1985-86 season as a «magic carpet ride.»

By 1990, Mackey had just signed a two-year, $350,000-a-year contract to remain coach at Cleveland State. Around town, he had acquired the nickname «the King of Cleveland,» two decades before LeBron James would get that same moniker as a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

But by then, Mackey had acquired an addiction to crack cocaine and alcohol, he told ESPN and other media outlets later. He was in a crack house for nine hours on July 13, 1990, when someone called the Cleveland police and a local television station. Mackey