University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 79, No. 2, Ed. 1 Friday, September 6, 2002 Page: 8 of 8
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University Press • Friday, September 6,2002 • Page 8
Tubbs-
Continued from page 1
the Sooners’ basketball team and
later recruited by Texas Christian
University to coach the Horned
Frogs basketball team.
Tubbs has since returned to
Lamar University as the new director
for athletics, stepping in for former
director Dean Billick. In the past,
Tiibbs brought Cardinal basketball to
national prominence when he was
coach here. He left LU athletics in
1980 with an uneclipsed success
record as the head coach of the men’s
basketball program.
He is mostly known in the
Golden Triangle for his four-year
stint from 1976 to 1980 when he led
the men’s team to the first round in
the NCAA basketball tournament in
1979 and to the NCAA sweet 16 in
1980.
“There is a purpose in Billy’s life,
and he wants to come back and give
back to his alma mater,” said Norman
Bellard in an interview with the
Beaumont Enterprise in May. Bellard
was a former point-guard on the 1978
to 1979 Cardinal team that played in
the first round of the NCAA
Basketball Tournament against the
eventual champions Magic Johnson
and the Michigan State Spartans.
This time, Tubbs’s re-admission
into Cardinal athletics as the AD
places him in a position that is differ-
ent from coaching and is not unfamil-
iar in the realm of influence.
“Remember, I’m also on a learn-
ing curve here,” said Hibbs in the pre-
vious interview. “You’re not bringing
in an experienced AD who knows all
the answers. I’ve been around long
enough that I think I understand
what it’s all about.
“It is kind of a new career, per
se,” said Tubbs, “but I probably
wouldn’t have gone any place else as
the AD other than Lamar.”
Lamar president Jimmy
Simmons brought in Tubbs in the
peak of the university’s re-beautifica-
tion project to help revitalize the
athletics program.
“This is a great time to be at
Lamar ■ right now,” said Tubbs,
“because we have a commitment in
our athletics program from our presi-
dent Jimmy Simmons. He’s a great
president. He has a big commitment
to everything. This is a time when the
university is in an up-cycle as a
whole.”
Lamar’s new AD brings with him
a celebrity status and a lot of experi-
ence. He is also bringing with him an
assertive attitude in sharpening the
whole athletic department into a win-
ning program.
“Lamar has a great athletic tradi-
tion,” said Tubbs. “When we had foot-
ball, we had good football teams.
Lamar has a great tradition in all of
its sports. What we would like to do at
this particular time is to take our ath-
letic program to another level. We
still have some good teams...golf,
baseball and volleyball teams that
won conference championships and
conference tournaments. We want to
get back to being the best in the con-
ference. We are... retooling the athlet-
ic department and want to capture
the greatness that Lamar athletics
had since the 1950s.”
The angle that Tubbs is attacking
the athletic issue from is in student
and administration commitment as
well as community involvement.
“We have to have commitment
from all phases,” said Tubbs. “We do
have a commitment from the admin-
istration. I think we need a big-time
commitment from the student body,
not only in the financial aspect of it
but also in the support of coming to
the games in the physical support —
being out here supporting our teams.
“We need the same commitment
plus financial commitment from the
Golden Triangle in general. We need
boosters and even former lettermen;
everybody needs to pitch in and
make this happen. We need to build
this arena, so to speak, and I think
that the things that drive it is that
Lamar is on a roll.”
One of the current issues with
Lamar athletics is the re-emergence
of a Division I AA Cardinal football
team.
“I think that this is the time to
strike for football.” said Hibbs, “I
think there is definitely a growing
swell to bring football back to Lamar
University. I think mood is right.
Personally, Jimmy Simmons would
love to see football back at LU. So it’s
a matter of figuring out how to get it
back. It’s not really a matter of
whether we want it back. It’s how to
do it.
“Certainly it has to have the
financial backing — financial backing
in the Golden Triangle from a lot of
people to make it happen. I’ve talked
to very few people that don’t want it
back. In fact, I got one letter that was
saying that we shouldn’t bring foot-
ball back. But for that one letter, I’ve
probably received 75 letters saying,
‘Bring football back.’”
One of the past problems with
student attendance at games and
financial support from the Golden
Triangle, especially in football, is the
“win” factor. Tiibbs explained, how-
ever, that there is a way to create an
environment that builds a winning
program.
“Winning gathers support,” said
Tiibbs. “There’s no question about it.
We need to win. We need to1 be excit-
ing. We have to have outstanding
teams. We’ll make the commitment to
our athletes so that they should feel
first class. They should feel first class.
They should feel like there is a com-
mitment to them and that we expect
them to perform.
“We can’t have any of our ath-
letes feeling like they’re second-class
citizens. I created teams that were
first class. They know they were want-
ed. They will know they’re treated
first class and they are important.
Then I expect that same thing in
return. When they perform under
those guidelines (they will say), ‘Hey,
I’m important. I’m going to be ready
to play. I’m going to be excited. I’m
going to be happy that I’m at Lamar
University.’ This will be a class-act.”
Simmons says he believes that
Tiibbs is the right man for this job.
Hibbs’ prestigious career as one of
the hardest working Division I coach-
es in the NCAA contains many dis-
tinguishing highlights.
Some of those career highlights
include being named by Basketball
Weekly the “National Coach of the
Year” in 1983 and 1985; “Big Eight
Coach of the Year” in 1983, 1984,
1988 and 1989; leading Oklahoma
University to consecutive sweet 16
appearances from 1985 to 1990; and
leading OU to the elite eight in 1985
and 1990.
At Oklahoma, Hibbs built its
basketball team into a nationally
competitive program throughout the
1980s. In his 14-season tenure, the
Sooners had numerous NCAA
Basketball Tournament appearances
and a battle for the 1988 NCAA
Championship trophy.
After Hibbs’ successful years
with Oklahoma, he was recruited as
head basketball coach for Texas
Christian University in 1994, where
he turned its team into a competitive
program.
Hibbs made a reputation of
building mediocre basketball teams
into nationally competitive basket-
ball programs. Prior to Tubbs, the
Horned Frogs’ basketball program
was in shambles. Hibbs helped revi-
talize the program into a consistent
.500 winning average and garnered
four of TCU’s seven 20-win season’s,
ranking him second in TCU’s all-time
win record with 140 wins.
FroA 1994 until 2002, Tubbs
essentially finished his basketball
coaching days with the Homed Frogs,
having a .636 win average which is
also ranked second in TCU history.
Tubbs was ranked as 12th among all-
time winning active coaches in the
NCAA.
“I was the head coach of TCU
for the last eight years.” he said, “and
I basically retired from coaching.”
Before Tubbs could retire,
Simmons gave Hibbs a call to come
home where his talents were needed
again.
“The bottom line,” Hibbs says, “is
we have to step to the table and win.”
For a man who has “been there,
done that, and is now back again,”
winning is and has always been some-
thing that Tubbs has done best no
matter where he goes.
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Achilles, Jenny. University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 79, No. 2, Ed. 1 Friday, September 6, 2002, newspaper, September 6, 2002; Beaumont, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth501020/m1/8/: accessed April 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Lamar University.