Oklahoma basketball: Remembering the life, legend of Billy Tubbs

Billy Tubbs was hired as the 10th head coach of men’s Oklahoma basketball on April Fool’s Day in 1980. But Tubbs’ hire was no joke.

Just as Bud Wilkinson is remembered as the man who put Oklahoma football on the national map, Tubbs will forever be known as the man who did the same for Oklahoma basketball.

Tubbs was as colorful a character as they come and was often criticized for his fierce competitiveness and outspoken demeanor, but he also was an outstanding college coach. He coached 14 seasons at Oklahoma and his 333 wins are the most in the history of the Sooner basketball program.

The legendary Sooner head coach died Sunday at his home in Norman, Oklahoma, reportedly from a form of leukemia. He was 85 years old.

Tubbs compiled an overall record of 333-132 (.716) in his 14 seasons leading the Sooners’ men’s program, and he was 118-64 (.618) in the highly competitive Big Eight Conference.

Tubbs’ Oklahoma teams were known for their high scoring, up-tempo style of play. They even coined the term “Billy ball” to describe it.

He fervently believed that the more shots you put up the more opportunity you have to score. And his teams put up points aplenty. OU once scored 173 points in a 1989 game against U.S. International. And that was just one of numerous games in which Tubbs’ teams eclipsed the century mark.

In 1987-88, Oklahoma averaged — that’s right, averaged — 102.9 points a game, a school record. The next season, in 1988-89, the Sooners scored over 100 points in a record 20 of their 36 games.

Before Tubbs arrived on the scene in Norman, Oklahoma had appeared in the NCAA Tournament just four times. From 1983 to 1990, Tubbs took the Sooners to the NCAA Tournament eight consecutive years and they made it into the Big Dance a total of nine times while he was head coach.

Tubbs’ Sooner teams won four Big Eight championships in a six-year span (1984, 1985, 1988 and 1989), earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament four different times (1985, 1988, 1989 and 1990) and made it to the national championship game in 1988, where heavily favored and No. 1-seeded OU was upset by Kansas.

He was a two-time National Coach of the Year and he coached seven All-Americans while at Oklahoma.

Some of the great Oklahoma players Tubbs recruited and coached include Wayman Tisdale, Darryl “Choo” Kennedy, Stacey King, Mookie Blaylock, Skeeter Henry, Jeff Webster, Brent Price and Ryan Minor.

Tubbs once told reporters that the best coaching advice he ever received was from former Tyler (Texas) Junior College coach Floyd Wagstaff, who told him, “Never count on your coaching ability. Get good players.” That was something Tubbs never had a problem with.”

Perhaps the most memorable line I remember from Tubbs came during a 1989 game between Oklahoma and Missouri.

The game was being played in Norman, and Mizzou had jumped out to a double-digit lead in the first half. Sooner fans reacted by beginning to throw things onto the floor. That’s when the officials stopped the game and asked Tubbs to speak to the crowd or the OU team would be assessed a technical foul.

Tubbs approached the scorer’s table, picked up the public address microphone and implored the crowd:

"“Please stop throwing items on the floor no matter how bad the officiating is.”"

The partisan crowd reacted immediately with a resounding roar of approval.

The Oklahoma head coach no sooner got the words out of his mouth before the referee abruptly charged him with a technical foul. We’ll never know whether Tubbs actually knew what he was doing or was just ticked off because OU was playing so poorly. Whatever the reason, it worked.

The fifth-ranked Sooners went on a big scoring run and eventually took over the game, winning 112-105.

“The history and tradition of Oklahoma basketball is rooted in Billy Tubbs and his legendary teams,” said current Sooner head coach Lon Kruger in a press release issued by the university. Kruger was a head coach at Kansas State (1986-90) during part of the time Tubbs was coaching at OU.

"“Coach Tubbs was an incredible innovator and mastermind behind some of the highest scoring teams in college basketball history. His historic run with Sooner basketball continues to be the foundation of our program to this day.”"

Tubbs coached at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, his alma mater, before coming to Oklahoma. He continued in coaching after leaving Oklahoma, serving for eight season as head coach at TCU (1994-2002). He ended his 31-year head-coaching career with a record of 609-317 (.658).

He returned to Lamar in 2002 and served as the school’s athletic director until 2010.

Tubbs is survived by his wife, Pat, a son and a daughter and eight grandchildren. His son, Tommy, played for his dad at OU from 1982-85.