Hubcaps, Psychology, and Basketball - the Odd World of Bob McCoid

Ex-psych prof, hubcap master and basketball shot genius
 Bob McCoid from the Wetzel, (WV) Chronicle

Don't let the Yankee Rub it In

The small white structure at the end of a scruffy I-70 exit ramp in Western Pennsylvania was obviously an old service station: its pumps long ago removed and all oil company signage unceremoniously ripped down when the site was abandoned as unlucrative for the selling of gasoline.

A one-word sign in red lettering is the only indicator of what now occupies the interior of the property where grass is slowly overtaking the once busy asphalt parking lot – “HUBCAPS.”

Oh there are hubcaps inside all right. At one time there were more than 200,000 of them. They are piled high on shelves in an order that only the master of the premises can navigate. 

The humble little hubcap shop has stood for decades alongside I-70, first at one abandoned gas station at another exit and now at its present location. It has offered motorists an affordable alternative to costly visits to their car dealer when forced to seek replacements for wheel covers lost along the highways and byways of the West Virginia/Pennsylvania region. 

Need something snazzy to jazz up that 1984 Dodge?  It’s likely in the back next to those fancy 1968 Cadillac hubcaps or under those wheel covers for a 1988 Nisson.

But it isn’t the vast array of hubcaps that wows the visitor to the little shop. 

It isn’t the magnificent disarray of the tiny office where the most modern piece of office equipment you are likely to find amidst the rubble of paper is probably a 1970s era electronic calculator.

The main attraction is the 76-year-old proprietor – Bob McCoid, what he has done with his remarkable life, and what he can do with a basketball.  A quick visit with McCoid is likely to knock your socks off just like a sharp curve on the highway will pop off a right front hubcap.

McCoid is a retired college psychology professor and researcher who molded young minds at the University of Kentucky and at his alma mater, Marshall University. He has been operating the hubcap shop since retiring from the Community College of Allegheny County and lives on a rural Pennsylvania farm.

The first time I stopped in to the shop in search of a hubcap for a 1991 Plymouth Reliant, McCoid was all business and came up with just what I needed. He didn’t mention his odd hobby and particularly incredible skill until I noticed an array of press clippings that festooned his office wall that said something about basketball shooting.

“What’s all this then?” I asked, sounding like John Cleese in a Python sketch while gesturing to the articles.

Turns out, McCoid is a multiple world champion basketball shooter from the free-throw line and the three-point arc.  That sentence is heavy on current tense because McCoid is a dead eye that still travels America to compete against rivals who are often his junior by decades.

McCoid lights up when offered the chance to talk about his skill and he picked up a basketball from his hubcap-selling counter when he began to answer my questions.

“I’m headed to the World Senior Games in Utah and the Senior Olympics in Los Vegas in October,” he explained, spinning the ball in the upturned palm of his hand. “I just got back from South Dakota.  I did a competition in Tennessee not long ago. They stopped me after I put 20 out of 20 in and won the competition.  They said, “hey, don’t let the Yankee rub it in.’”

The question of how he got involved in such an exacting activity sparked a surprising answer.

“I was on the (1955) Wheeling (WV) High Basketball team and I was always a pretty good shot,” he said. “We once scored 140 points against Weir High. Of course, they scored 110 points. It was a record that stood for years.”

McCoid practices at Wheeling WV's Howard Long
Wellness Center

McCoid said he put down the basketball when he left high school to go to college and never picked up another one until he was 60 years old and he found that his knack for knocking them in with a swish had not diminished even after a 37-year hiatus.

He believes in frequent and long practice sessions. On my first visit, McCoid pulled out a well-worn small notebook in which he keeps meticulous records of his practices and its results.  Page after page of dates and numbers indicating shots taken and shots made appear in his careful unique handwriting.

Over a ten-year period, his record shows that he averages about 14,000 three-point shots per year and 20,000 free throws per year.

One day, not long ago, he shot for 3.5 hours and was successful on 985 free throws out of 1,000. His personal record is 990 out of 1,000.  His record in 2012 for consecutive free throws was 304.  He has an all time best of 354. Since 1998, he has hit on 100 or more consecutive free throws more than 700 times.

He is just as prolific from the three-point arc. 

He has been written about by local sports writers from Pittsburgh to Martins Ferry, OH and appeared on television shows when they “miked-me-up” so the unique sound of the ball leaving his fingers can be clearly heard. He has given demonstrations all over the nation and is quick to criticize the way young people have been taught to shoot the basketball at the free throw line. You can get a quick lesson from him on free throws on YouTube. 

 “They teach kids to stand with their weight balanced with one foot ahead of the other,” he said. “That’s wrong.  That makes their orientation to the left or right. You need to stand with both toes on the foul line.”

He also believes in shooting the ball with the center finger of the shooting hand centered firmly over the little air hole in the ball to ensure proper balance. He said the ball should rest on the fingertips with a clear pocket of air between the ball and the shooting hand palm.

He has a wall full of trophies and medals from his many competitions and he has no intention of slowing down, just like the double knee replacements he had a few years ago did little to dent his skill or enthusiasm.

McCoid has another skill that today’s ball players would do well to emulate: he is confident without being an egomaniac.  If not specifically asked about his success, he would never have mentioned it to me. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a firm belief in himself.

“I expect to make them all,” he told John Howell of the Martins Ferry Times Leader last January.

Howell wrote that during one competition recently his closest competitor missed a free throw and Bob told the person next to him “he just lost” and then stepped in and made all of his shots to win.

As impressed as I was with McCoid’s obvious skill and competitive spirit; the uniqueness of his little hubcap shop; and his respected career in higher education, I walked away from my conversations with a keen appreciation for the temperament of the man and his willingness to share his experience and skill in a genuine fashion that doesn’t say “look at me and how great I am” but rather “look at what I’ve done and think about what you can do.”

That’s what knocked the caps right off my hubs and made me appreciate the uniqueness of Bob McCoid.  Long may he shoot and swish.