James Carlos McNatt was an All-American basketball player for the Oklahoma Sooners and the AAU's Phillips 66ers. At Oklahoma, McNatt led his team to the first-ever NCAA final Four in 1939, and at Phillips 66, McNatt guided the 66ers to four consecutive AAU national championships. He was a two-time All-American at Oklahoma and a four-time AAU All-American for Phillips 66. The speedy player came to be known by his nickname “Scat” McNatt, a moniker originally traced back to the term “Boy Scats” which sportswriters had used to describe McNatt's fast-breaking, sophomore-led 1937-38 Oklahoma Sooners basketball team. McNatt grew up in Norman, Oklahoma, attended Norman High School, and then opted to stay in his hometown to play basketball for the University of Oklahoma.
McNatt during his senior season at Oklahoma
Jimmy McNatt (left) and Hank Luisetti (right), Phillips 66ers teammates, during the 1941-42 AAU basketball season.
Photograph of Jimmy McNatt (jersey #9), from a team picture of the 1944–45 AAU National Champion Phillips 66ers.
AAU All-Americans Robert "Ace" Gruenig (left), Jimmy "Scat" McNatt (center) and Gordon "Shorty" Carpenter (right).
The Phillips 66ers were an amateur basketball team located in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and sponsored and run by the Phillips Petroleum Company. The 66ers were a national phenomenon that grew from a small-town team to an organization of accomplished amateur athletes receiving national and worldwide attention. Under the sponsorship of the company's owner, Frank Phillips, the team, which began playing in 1919, participated in the Amateur Athletic Union, the nation's premier basketball league before the National Basketball Association. Between 1920 and 1950, some of the strongest basketball teams in the United States were sponsored by corporations: Phillips 66, 20th Century Fox, Safeway Inc., Caterpillar Inc., and others.
Phillips 66ers players Jimmy McNatt (left) and Hank Luisetti (right) during the 1941–42 season.
Bud Browning played for the 66ers from 1937–1943 and served as the team's head coach 1943–48, 1953–54 and 1958–64
66ers guard Wayne Glasgow, circa 1952
The 1963–64 Phillips 66ers, from left to right: [standing] Don Watkins (team manager), Jerry Shipp, Ken Charlton, Jim Hagen, Mike Moran, Terry Cerkvenik, Bud Browning, [kneeling] Ken Saylors, Del Ray Mounts, Denny Price, Larry Pursiful, Charlie Bowerman and Bob Turner.