Billy Tubbs, the Basketball Coach Dies at 85

The basketball stalwart, Billy Tubbs passes away at 85. After facing a year of struggle with leukemia the legendary coach died on November 1, 2020. The best of his career was -- the four Big Eight Coach of the Year awards at the time he was at the University of Oklahoma in 1980. 

The family announced his passing away of the legendary sports star in a Twitter post. The post revealed Tubbs’s battle with leukemia since 2015. The family the Twitter post statement said, "Though his passing represents a tremendous loss for everyone close to him, our family is comforted by the knowledge he lived an extremely spirited life full of outstanding accomplishment in and out of sports. Many are aware of his remarkable achievements as a basketball coach, but we will remember him for way more than all of his wins, conference titles, and NCAA Tournament success. He was a fierce competitor in everything he faced, and that was never more evident than in his final days."

Billy Tubbs Achievements as a Basketball Coach.

During his college basketball career from 1970 to 2000, Tubbs won 609 games. It was the beginning of his legendary career. The most successful part of his career was at the University of Oklahoma where he served as a coach for Sooners1980-1994. 

Tubbs brought his team four Big Eight regular-season races and two Big Eight Tournament titles. In addition to that, he led his team to nine NCAA Tournament appearances. In 1988, under the coaching of Tubbs, Sooners went to the national title game, however, they could not win the title. Kansas defeated Sooners and took home the title. 

At Lamar, Tubbs started his career and it was also where he spent the last phase of his playing career in 1957. In 1971, Tubbs went to Southwestern after leaving school and he returned to become the head coach in 1976. Later in 1980, he left for Oklahoma, and finally, in 2003 he worked as a coach there serving his retirement years in 2011. The school later honored him by naming the Montagne Center floor as the "Billy and Pat Tubbs Court".

Billy Tubbs’s story of success

At Lamar, Billy created the story of his success like no one else would have done. It was Tubbs who led the cardinals to NCAA Tournament appearances two times and brought for them three regular-season championships. It was under Billy that the Cardinals Sweet 16 appearance came when they took out Oregon State and Weber State in the 1980s. Tubbs was about to "talk about LU basketball and their careers" through a live Facebook event in November. 

Billy has to his name two National Coach of the Year honors. Apart from that Tubbs had trained seven All-Americans & 17 NBA Draft picks under his coaching journey. He had coached legendary basketball players like Wayman Tisdale. On top of that, Tubbs was most popularly known for his vibrant personality and the great offensive basketball he played. People of his fraternity remember him for having teams that were composed of only great players and for the quick-witted humor that was a part of his personality.