In the winter of 1971, when he finished his first season as basketball coach at Washington College with a 3-20 record, Tom Finnegan had one thought in mind.
"I wanted to catch the next bus out of town," Finnegan said.
"Actually, I considered myself lucky to win any games my first year. But it just made me more determined. I told myself, 'You've got to do better than this.' "
Two more losing seasons followed, but Finnegan decided to stay in Chestertown. And last week, in his 24th season as coach of the Shoremen, he reached the 300-victory milestone by beating Wilmington College. The Shoremen visit winless UMBC tonight.
Between 1982 and 1990, his Division III teams compiled a 152-59 record. In 1984, he was named Kodak's Division III Mid-Atlantic Coach of the Year. His team finished third in the 1990 NCAA tournament.
Washington College basketball and Finnegan have been synonymous since 1962, when the Newark, N.J., native transferred from Seton Hall to the small Eastern Shore college after his freshman year.
"Seton Hall got caught up in the 1960s basketball [gambling] scandal," he said. "The school couldn't guarantee my scholarship if I stayed. One of my grammar school coaches knew [then-Washington coach] Ed Athey. And he offered me some financial help. But going from Newark to a sleepy place like Chestertown was a bit of a culture shock for me."
More shocking was what Finnegan was able to do against Mason-Dixon Conference competition after sitting out a year. In two seasons, he scored 1,120 points.
His career average of 29.6 still stands as a school record, as does his single-game mark of 51 points in his senior season, when he was named a small college All-American.
Finnegan also played baseball and was goalie for an unbeaten Shoremen soccer team. After graduating, he signed a minor-league contract as a shortstop with the Chicago Cubs, playing two seasons of Double-A in Idaho and Minnesota.
"It was a great experience, and I had a chance to move up to Triple-A the next year, but I was really more interested in getting into coaching," he said.
Finnegan interned at McDonogh, helping Dick Working coach football and baseball. But then Washington College asked Finnegan to coach basketball.
He has been there since, though he took a sabbatical from coaching last season to work on his doctorate in cultural history.