Baltimore ? Jim Phelan remembers the last time Mount St. Mary’s went looking for a new basketball coach, back in 1954.

Phelan was 25 and working as an assistant coach at La Salle University. His boss offered to recommend him for the job.

He told Phelan: “You’ll love it. You’ll win a lot of games, you’ll stay forever, and no one will ever hear of you.”

Forty-nine years later, the prediction has come true — except for the part about people hearing of him.

The bow tie-wearing Phelan will coach his final game Saturday.

Coaches across the country — including Kansas University’s Roy Williams — will wear bow ties on the court Saturday to honor the man who has coached more college basketball games than anyone else in the history of the sport.

Coaches at Texas, Cincinnati, South Florida, Saint Joseph’s, Rider, San Diego, Tennessee, Rice and Oklahoma already have committed to wearing bow ties for their games.

Some of the coaches contacted by collegeinsider.com, the organizer of the tribute, weren’t yet born when Phelan, 73, began his coaching career.

“I’m not sure a lot of the coaches who are wearing the bow ties ever met him. It’s just a thing of respect more than anything else,” Tennessee assistant coach Kerry Keating said.

Some of those digging bow ties out of their closets include big names in college basketball such as Williams, who said he had long admired Phelan.

“To accomplish what he’s accomplished and to last in this business today as long as he has is mind-boggling to me,” he said. “He never lost his enthusiasm, and he never lost his own integrity. He didn’t sacrifice anything to try to jump to what some people might call a bigger or better place.”