An inspirational story: Connie Smith has made his life meaningful

          Connie Smith has been an inspiration to anyone who knows him, and the story linked below bears that out.

     He has been partially paralyzed since a swimming accident in 1971 -- the first two vertebrae in his neck were crushed -- but he has made a life for himself.

     It is a story much like that of Kenneth Harvey (Logansport), subject of a series of stories/posts on my blog and on Facebook. Their courage, and faith, and the lives they have lived since each had a horrific moment as  young men are testaments to strong will.

     Both were outstanding high school athletes, and Connie went on to compete in college for three years. But their dreams of athletic fame were shattered.

     Researching baseball history in North Louisiana brought a reminder of Connie Smith, who starred at Spearsville (La.) High School and in American Legion baseball for the T.L. James Contractors of Ruston, and then at East Texas Baptist College.

     He was a versatile baseball player, a leader, an All-State catcher in high school (Class B, 1968, .427 average, four home runs in 15 games) who played first base in Legion baseball, and then after a year at Louisiana Tech in which playing time was more sparing, a pitcher and shortstop after a transfer to ETBC.

     He also was a good high school basketball player, helping Spearsville into the state regionals, and was one of the top scorers on the La. Tech freshman team in 1968-69 (my senior year there). 

     "But baseball was my passion," he said. 

     His talent was impressive enough that he was selected in the 1971 Major League Baseball draft by  the San Francisco Giants. 

     MLB at that time did make the draft-pick lists public instantly, nor did we at The Shreveport Times cover it closely. So, unless you were around Spearsville and Ruston then, the news of his being drafted did not make The Times until three weeks later. 

     His accident occurred two weeks later, seven days after his 21st birthday. Life changed forever.

     After a long rehabilitation period, Connie -- in his wheelchair -- worked in law enforcement for some 35 years.

Connie and Linda Smith (from his Facebook page)

     And then he had a calling to serve the Lord. For the past 15 years, he has been pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church in rural Dubach, La. -- 13 miles north of Ruston. It is another 19 miles north to Spearsville (also rural), which is in upper Union Parish near the Arkansas border.

     Spearsville -- many familiar with North Louisiana athletics know this -- is a basketball/baseball town. Among my friends from there, athletes all, were the late Cecil Upshaw, Ike Futch, R.V. Lockwood, Joey Barron and James Smith (Connie's older brother).

     James is back living in Spearsville after 25 years as a women's basketball coach at Northwestern State University, where he became a legend. After eight seasons as top assistant coach, he was the Lady Demons' head coach for 17 years, and his teams won 340 games and played in four postseason tournaments (two NCAAs). 

      And you know he is as proud of his younger brother, as Connie is of him.

      Connie and wife Linda built a home with a Farmerville address and lived there for 35-plus years. When he turned to his second career -- as a pastor -- they moved to a home a quarter-mile from the Fellowship church.

      "I love it here," Connie said Monday when we talked by phone. "This is one of those things God just opened up for us."

---

      Here then is a story written by Brian Blackwell in July 2006 and posted online on  baptistmessage.com.:

     Wheelchair not a handicap for this pastor

     DUBACH -- Pastor Connie Smith may be confined to a wheelchair, but his congregation has never considered his disability a hindrance to their leader's ministry.

      "Since Brother Connie has been here, we don't even notice that he has a limitation," Deacon William Green said of their pastor, who was called to Fellowship Baptist Church in Dubach last month. "His good qualities outweigh that."

     Before Smith became pastor at Fellowship Baptist, Connie Ward said the congregation was struggling with transition. Since then, Fellowship Baptist and Smith have been the perfect fit for one another.

      "The people's attitude toward Connie (Smith) is what Fellowship Baptist is all about," explained Ward, pastor of Zion Hill Baptist Church in Farmerville. "To see God bring these two together has been a joy to my heart."

The Shreveport Times story, Aug. 1, 1971

     Smith's journey to Fellowship Baptist is an amazing story, indeed. If not for an accident on July 11, 1971, Smith may never have entered into the ministry.

     A former draft pick of the San Francisco Giants, Smith was spending that afternoon in 1971 with some friends at an East Texas lake before he was scheduled to report to camp in a week-and-a-half to play for the baseball team's A farm club.

     But in the blink of an eye, the Spearsville native's life changed.

     Smith attempted to skim just beneath the top of the water. However, in what Smith calls a "freakish accident," his forehead hit the bottom of the lake, three feet deep, leaving him paralyzed.

     Smith's next one-and-a-half years were spent in Denver and New Orleans hospitals and rehabilitation centers.

     Soon after he completed his rehabilitation in 1971, Smith married his high school sweetheart, Linda, and entered the workforce.

      "I couldn't have made it without Linda," Smith said. "She has been such a help to me as a spouse and pastor."

     After working as a dispatcher at the Union Parish Sheriff's Office, he moved to the Lincoln Parish Detention Center to become the control room operator. By the time, he retired from the detention center, Smith had worked himself to the position of assistant warden.

     Since he was retired, Smith devoted more time to service at Zion Hill Baptist. It was there that Smith discovered his need for Christ and, in 1995, he made a profession of faith.

     For the next eight years, Smith was an active member of the church, serving as a deacon. Eventually, his heart for Christian service led to a call to full-time ministry in 2004.

      "I had been feeling God dealing with me for some time," Smith said. "For years I had run from salvation. But I told Connie Ward that I wasn't going to run from this call to preach."

     One year later Zion Hill Baptist called Smith as its associate pastor.

      To support his call to preach, Zion Hill Baptist allowed Smith to preach monthly one Sunday there and two Sundays at other area churches. One church he preached at, Fellowship Baptist, extended a call to serve as its interim pastor in August 2005.

     For three months, Smith struggled with the decision.

     "Each day my family, which now included a God-given 15-year-old daughter, Heather Elizabeth Meredith, and I passed by Zion Hill as I was on my way to preach at Fellowship," Smith said. "It hit me that the Lord was leading me away from Zion Hill to be the pastor of Fellowship. We felt like if it was God's will, I wanted to be at the center of His will."

     In December 2005, Smith accepted the call as interim pastor. Six months later, the church called Smith as its pastor by unanimous secret ballot votes.

     "I had struggled with the possibility of 'no' votes," Smith recalled. "For my assurance that this was God's leading, I wanted there to be unity among the members.

     "When I found that 100 percent of the congregation voted to call me as pastor, it reassured me that this was the place for me to serve."

     For Smith, Fellowship Baptist has been like a second family.

     "God couldn't place me in a better situation and church," Smith said. "From the time I was here, I felt at home immediately."

---

     He is still serving today.

     "God has truly blessed me," Connie said Monday. "A lot of people died from accidents like what happened to me. I was able to work all my life, and I have not had any major health problems.

     "It was definitely a change [in lifestyle, after the accident," he said. "But it has been a blessed life."

     And the kid baseball player -- who was a player -- added this: "When spring is near, I can still feel the spring of the ball coming off the wooden bat."        

Hildebrand, Part V: Keeping watch on the officials

     (Fifth in a series)
      In the last 16 years of his working days, Tynes Hildebrand did what he did so often as a basketball coach: He watched the officials.
      He was a lot less vocal and a lot less critical, and in his role as evaluator and trainer of college basketball officials, certainly more understanding of the difficulty of their jobs.

Clinics or games, Coach Hildebrand watched closely.

      Those who know Coach Hildebrand, though, know he was direct and earnest in his evaluations, and offering what he thought was best for the game.
      If that meant criticism, so be it. He was known to speak his mind.
      The job -- eight years covering five conferences and then eight more years as one of four regional evaluators for the NCAA -- kept him busy for at least five months a year, with lots of traveling -- to arenas and campuses all over the country --  and paperwork.
        Mrs. Hildebrand (Julia) made many of the trips and, says the coach, "helped me with tons of typing and computer input." He added that she "has been a great story and has had a great career."
        In 2013, nearing his mid-80s, Coach decided it was time to relax for good.
        "There just comes a time when you have to stop," he said. "It wasn't my health; I'm doing great. But the travel, the  schedule, and the paperwork got to be too much."
        OK, but when the next basketball season started, "I was watching games on TV and I missed it. I told Julia, 'I think I made a mistake.' "
        But the retirement stuck ... unlike his previous retirement.
---
        In 1996, when he was 65 and retired from the athletic director position at Northwestern State University -- after 39 years of work in Natchitoches -- he didn't think he'd work again.
        "I stayed out one year," he said. "It was a good time. Julia and I enjoyed ourselves. We traveled some, and we liked it."
        Then, again, his many connections kicked in. He got an interesting call from Dale Kelley, a longtime college basketball official, one of the best and most respected in the game.
        Kelley, who lives in Huntingdon, Tenn., where he is the longtime mayor, also involved in state politics, and the last few years the athletic director at Bethel University, in 1998 was coordinator of officials for five conferences (among them Big 12, Conference USA and Southland). He wanted Coach Hildebrand to evaluate officials in those leagues.
        Done deal. In addition, Coach would give presentations and be an instructor in off-season officiating clinics.
        The structure changed in 2006 when the NCAA decided to hire four regional observers of officials. He was recommended by Kelley, Big 12 administrator John Underwood and Kansas senior associate athletic director Larry Keating (who was on the NCAA basketball selection committee).
        "I was on a working [basketball] trip, so I was interviewed by phone," he recalled. "Eight people on the phone listening in. The last question I was asked was about the play when a ball was going out of bounds and a player in possession and in the air could call time out. They were thinking about changing that rule [eliminating the time out possibility]. I didn't like the rule and said so, and I think I made a lot of sense."
        A couple of days later, he got a call telling him he had the job. "An interesting way to be hired," he said.
        So he had eight Division I conferences to cover.
        "I was observing 75 live games or more each season, plus another 20-30 TV games," he said. "We could observe outside our eight conferences, but we had to be sure that two of us did not show at the same arena for the same game."
        And so scheduling was tricky, and had to be coordinated. "I would do games in swings trying to get five games or more on one trip," he said. 
        When Hank Nichols, another longtime college official who had worked the biggest games and was NCAA coordinator of officials for 22 years, retired in 2010 and was replaced by John Adams, Hildebrand was the only one of the four regional observers retained.
        "I think my administrative ability helped me with the committee," he said. "I did a lot of things for the other three regional advisors. Nichols recommended to Adams that he keep me on."
        Hildebrand feels he "was really good" at the evaluations and training, but the coach in him still looks at it with reservations.
        "No doubt having three officials [in a game] has helped basketball officiating," he said, "but it has allowed some officials not to work hard. Traveling, palming (carrying) the ball and post play, in my judgement, is poorly officiated. Players move their feet after a dribble and stop, they move their feet after a pass and before a dribble in the post, etc.
        "Post play is still very rough. [For officials] mobility and getting when they can see the play is big."
---
        Coach Hildebrand was a co-founder of the Louisiana Association of Basketball Coaches (LABC), served as its first secretary and its third president. He also was president of the Louisiana Athletic Directors Association.
        Among his honors: Louisiana Mr. Basketball (1981), N Club (Northwestern State) Hall of Fame (1985), LABC Hall of Fame (1992) and the Dave Dixon Award (2014).
        He often was a guest speaker or master of ceremonies at banquets or meetings, with a folksy, comedic touch.
        "Tynes and I shared a passion for speaking at banquets and other events," said Jerry Pierce, "and we shared a lot of our stories and other material. If a joke fell flat during a talk, I always mentioned that I got it from Tynes."

Bruce, Julia, Coach, Tynes Jr.

      One reward Coach Hildebrand received for his work evaluating officials was that he had a prime seat for many NCAA Tournament games. He was part of the process of selecting officials for March Madness games.
        For many years, Coach and his sons -- Tynes Jr. and Bruce -- shared their love of the game with an annual trip to the NCAA Tournament Final Four.
        Now live games are mostly part of the past, and TV is the easy ticket. Julia and Coach are into their new life in their new residential facility in Shreveport, entertaining and traveling when they want to, and taking pride in their family.
        Tynes Jr., who played guard for his father at Northwestern from 1969 to '73, has his own CPA business in Atlanta. His son is a Clemson graduate; his daughter will be soon.
        Bruce, while at Northwestern State, was a reliable Natchitoches correspondent for The Shreveport Times sports department. He tried coaching for a couple of years; just after graduation, he was hired as head basketball coach at Neville High in Monroe.
        Then, after taking accounting classes, he became a CPA and now is chief financial officer for a bank in Abilene, Texas.
       He and wife Nancy, whose father Dan Poole was a longtime Natchitoches High coach, have three sons -- all Texas A&M graduates, all married to Aggies.
        Julia and Coach have five great grandchildren.
        Tynes Hildebrand reflects on his school days, his military success, his coaching and subsequent careers, and he says, "What a great life ...
        "You work hard in school and that leads to good jobs, good rewards, a good life," he says. "I have preached that to young people always, and I am still telling them that." 

Coach, with daughter-in-law Nancy (left), Tynes Jr.
(front) and Bruce (right)

 

 

 

 

 



Hildebrand, Part IV: Innovative athletic director, mentor

         (Fourth in a series)
         He wasn't sure he wanted the job at first, but once he became athletic director at Northwestern State early in 1983, Tynes Hildebrand -- as he did in all phases of his life and career -- made the most of it.
          He had the job for 13 1/2 years and, as NSU sports information director Doug Ireland wrote a couple of years ago, he "used creative approaches that maximized resources" and "his tenure was marked by unprecedented competitive and fundraising success."
          But first, an interlude, and another job.
          His coaching career done in 1980, he stayed on the NSU campus in an administrative role for 2 1/2 years: placement director for students.
           "That meant getting jobs for graduates," he said, noting how much he enjoyed the position. "It was a time when plenty of jobs were available all over the country. I worked with every department on campus. Jobs were easy to get."
            And then, fortuitously, as the job market waned, the NSU athletic director position came open late in 1982 when  A.L. Williams was not retained as head football coach and AD (and moved on to become head coach at his alma mater, Louisiana Tech).
           "When they put athletics in my area in 1982," said longtime NSU vice-president Jerry Pierce, "my first call was to Tynes to see if he would take the AD position."
           Coach Hildebrand demurred.
           He recalled that when he was told that new NSU president Dr. Joseph Orze wanted to see him, and it was about the AD job, he wasn't ready.
           "Julia and I were co-chairs of the Natchitoches Christmas Festival that year, and we were so busy with that," he recalled. "I just didn't want to think about changing positions at that point. So I put off the meeting."
           Natchitoches is known for that annual holiday festival, with thousands coming in the first Saturday in December when the bright lights come on for the first time in the decorated downtown area (with the brick-paved main road next to the Cane River). It is a big deal there. 
         "I didn't want that damn job," Coach Hildebrand said of his initial feeling. "I was hoping he [Dr. Orze] would find someone else [in the meantime.]"
         Eventually, after the holiday season, he was convinced he was the right man for the job, and the job was right for him. And, as always, he transitioned into another phase.
         He became involved in NCAA committee work, including selection of the Division I-AA postseason selection panels; in 1987, he helped Northwestern move into the Southland Conference, where it remains today; and he was instrumental in installation of artificial turf at much-used Turpin Stadium, a $750,000 cost as NSU was among the first schools in the state to go that route.

Through the years Coach Hildebrand has been a
popular -- and often humorous -- public speaker.

        "Tynes and I were involved in three different conferences," said longtime coach/AD/conference commissioner Don Landry. "In each one, he was a leader and one of the most respected members. He always supported anything that was best for the league."
        Hildebrand had a plus in that NSU had only one head football coach, Sam Goodwin, in his time as AD -- a stable, consistently competitive program (highlighted by a 10-3 record in 1988).
        But as funding for athletics at the state's public universities (other than LSU) was trimmed through the years, fund-raising and smaller staffs were challenges for Hildebrand as AD.
        "Every day we had to think about money," he said. "At places like Northwestern, you have got to raise money or you don't survive. We'd have staff meetings every Monday and I'd ask everyone, 'How much money did you raise last week?'
        "But we were fortunate to operate at our own pace without killing someone."
        And he found a formula to supplement the short-staffed situation. His athletic director role was marked -- again -- by the connections he made and the people he mentored.
        "He was very innovative," Landry said. "With a small budget, he could not hire adequate number of fulltime staff members to do the work required. He started hiring young, bright graduates with sports administration degrees.
        "He would train them, give them lots of responsibility and let them grow into experienced sports administrators."
        "These young people were required to get a hands-on year to finish their [sports administration] degree," explained Hildebrand. So he had a spot for them.
        The list of Hildebrand trainees is impressive, and it's just a sample:
         • Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey, who went from NSU athletics (including two years as golf coach) to director of compliance and academic services on campus, then moved on to the Southland Conference and the SEC in various administrative roles.
        • Greg Burke, Hildebrand's assistant AD for six years at NSU and his successor who now has been in the job for 21 years, long-serving AD in Louisiana and respected far beyond the state.
        • Ross Cobb, who was at NSU 1993-97, now senior associate AD for business and facilities at University of Arizona.
        • Glen Krupica, former executive director of the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, now involved in fund-raising in Illinois.
        • Mark Molesworth, retired after 20 years as AD at Division III Wisconsin-Platteville.
        "He was a mentor and a role model," said Pierce.
        "I do wish I would have done the job without spending half my time getting money to operate," Hildebrand said recently of his AD days. "But it was a great time."
        And then in 1996, he retired ... or so he thought.
        (Next: Keeping watch on the officials)
       

 

Hildebrand, Part III: Let's hear it for your Demons

         (Third in a series)
         In 15 seasons as Northwestern State's head basketball coach, Tynes Hildebrand's teams won 191 games and were competitive and entertaining. No question, though, he wished the Demons had won a lot more.
         The overall record was eight games below .500 (at one point, it was 22 games above .500), marred by two poor seasons at the end. The coach's intensity and ability never wavered, but the talent level fell off.

One of Tynes Hildebrand's favorite coach/player ties
is with very successful Notre Dame coach Mike Brey.

          It was a tough job because (1) Northwestern was a mostly regional school, recruiting from nearby and (2) the basketball competition, especially within the state, was strong, with a cast of well-regarded coaches.
           In the Gulf States Conference (all in state) alone, coaches included Ralph Ward (McNeese State), Beryl Shipley (Southwestern Louisiana), Lenny Fant and then Benny Hollis (Northeast Louisiana) and Scotty Robertson (Louisiana Tech) -- all consistent winners in their careers.
         NSU also had yearly rivalries with strong independents Centenary (which had several head coaches in Hildebrand's time) and Louisiana College (where Billy Allgood got as much from regional talent as any of the coaches).
         Eventually Dale Brown came on and made basketball at LSU more important than it had ever been.
        "What a great group of coaches," Hildebrand noted recently.
        The GSC rivalries were hot, gyms were often packed, and with the start of the state tournament in Shreveport in 1961, the game was more popular than it ever had been in Louisiana.
        Northwestern, like the other schools, had its natural rivals -- LC was one -- but none as fierce as Louisiana Tech and Centenary. That threesome, in the 1950s through '70s, was called the "Pine Cone Rivalry," especially by The Shreveport Times sports editors/columnists Jack Fiser and Bill McIntyre. 
       When Hildebrand took over as NSU's coach, it was only a year after Robertson became the Tech head coach. Thus resumed a matchup that began with Natchitoches vs. Shreveport Byrd High.
        "I really liked Scotty," Hildebrand said, a statement which might surprise a few folks. "We were very competitive, we competed hard, so maybe how I felt about him might not have showed.
        "I always have had a lot of respect for Louisiana Tech. Their people always had a lot of pride in their school; they wanted the very best for it. I thought that was admirable."
         Robertson left Tech -- and the duels with Hildebrand -- for the NBA, becoming the first coach of the expansion New Orleans Jazz in 1974, only to be fired after only 15 games (1-14 record).
         Says Hildebrand: "I respected Scotty as a coach; he got a raw deal in the NBA ... nobody ever got more of a raw deal in the NBA than he did."
         Robertson, however, stayed in the NBA for the next couple of decades as a scout, a couple of other head-coaching stints and mostly as an assistant coach. Hildebrand was in the game, and athletics, even longer.
---
         Significantly, Hildebrand's first NSU team got the best of Tech and Robertson. The 1965-66 Demons were, in fact, the best team Hildebrand had, percentage-wise, in his 15 years -- 18-7 (.720) -- and, more importantly, the conference championship.
         This, after the previous Demons' team was 9-17, including a 30-point loss to Tech near the end of the season.

David Clark

         But at the start of 1966, Jan. 3, in its first GSC road game under Hildebrand, NSU went to Ruston and beat Tech 73-68 and followed with a victory over a very good Centenary team -- led by hook-shooting Tom Kerwin and "The Ringgold Rifle," Barrie Haynie. 
         Later in the season, the Demons won at McNeese and then Southwestern Louisiana (USL) ... and a surprising conference title was theirs.
         That team was led by David Clark, a sharpshooting forward who had also starred for Hildebrand at Natchitoches High, had a couple of savvy seniors -- point guard Lester Lee, also of Natchitoches, and burly Billy Ray of Ringgold (Haynie's high school teammate) -- and one sensational freshman.
         James Wyatt was a lean 6-foot-5 forward -- the first "major" recruit signed by the coach not long after he took the job.
         It is noteworthy that Hildebrand recruited the two players who for almost 40 years were 1-2 on NSU career scoring and rebounding lists: Wyatt and Billy Reynolds. 

James Wyatt (40): The best rebounder
in NSU basketball history.

         Both were from small schools and led their teams to state championships. One was a natural for NSU; the other a "steal" of sorts.
         Wyatt was from tiny Belmont, where several Demons' stars in the late 1950s had played. His 50-point game in the 1965 Class C title game set the state-tournament record and was the top performance of the Top Twenty's six-year stay in Shreveport.
         "Louisiana Tech thought they were going to get him," Hildebrand recalled, "but I was from Sabine Parish, and I knew I had a great chance to recruit him." 
         He did, and Wyatt was an instant college star. As David Clark was, he was a three-time all-conference player.
         "I would get mad at him because I thought he would be out of position, not lined up right when a shot was taken," Hildebrand said, "but he'd float to the other side of the basket and he'd have the rebound. Just had a great knack for knowing where shots were coming off."
         Wyatt could score inside and out, and his career rebound total (1,549) is 399 more than anyone else in NSU history, including nine of the top 13 single-game totals at the school. He had three 30-rebound games.
         "I took him out early in one of those," Hildebrand said, "and I always wondered how many he could have had that night."
         Reynolds was from Calhoun, which he led to the Class B state title in 1973, and it is located almost halfway between Ruston (La. Tech) and Monroe (then-Northeast Louisiana). But somehow Hildebrand and his staff out-recruited those schools for Reynolds.
         A lithe small forward, his 2,009 career points eclipsed Wyatt's 1,874 and Reynolds' 26.4 points-per-game average as a senior is the school record. He was a Seattle SuperSonics' draft pick in 1977.
         Among the other notable players of the Hildebrand coaching era at NSU:
         • Charles Bloodworth: A 6-8 power forward from Natchitoches, he transferred from Southern University to  integrate the NSU program in 1968-70, was twice all-conference and was drafted by NBA and ABA teams.
         • Vernon Wilson: A sharpshooting guard from Logansport (1970-73), he led the Demons in scoring in all three seasons he played, averaged 20.6 points a game, earned All-America honors, and his jersey No. 24 was retired.
         • Lee Arthur Smith: He was a forward from Castor, La., who played only one season (1976-77) because he was also good at another sport. He could throw a baseball with some velocity. He gave up school for fulltime duty with the Chicago Cubs, and wound up as baseball's all-time saves leader (478) for more than a decade. 
          "He could have been an NBA player if he had chosen basketball," said Hildebrand. "He could have been great at track -- shot put/discus. Phenomenal athlete. He was 6-5 and powerful."
          • Mike Brey: He played point guard at a national high school powerhouse, DeMatha Catholic in the Washington, D.C., area, and his Hall of Fame coach there, Morgan Wootten, knew Hildebrand and set him up to recruit Brey to Northwestern. After three years, Brey left NSU when Hildebrand left coaching and transferred for one season to George Washington, then embarked on a remarkable coaching career.
            • Dan Bell: A guard from Huntsville, Ala., he was a leader -- with Reynolds -- on Hildebrand's last good team (17-9 in 1976-77, the Demons' first year in NCAA Division I). He returned as NSU  head coach for six seasons (1988-94), and his first team beat Kentucky. Yes, it did.
            One other player gave Hildebrand a vivid memory. Pete Gray was a 6-2 center from Marthaville, La., undersized (obviously) but rugged and skilled inside the lane. When Louisiana Tech and 7-foot center Charlie Bishop were about to come to Natchitoches in 1968, Hildebrand told Gray, "There is no way he can stop you."
          Gray that night completely outplayed Bishop -- "ran circles around him," said Hildebrand -- and the Demons won a close game. "That was one win I really enjoyed," said the coach.
           Two other significant Hildebrand-NSU connections were assistant coaches Don Beasley and Derwood Duke.
           Beasley had been the 1959 Class AA All-State quarterback at Natchitoches High, and also an All-State basketball player coached by Hildebrand, and then started at QB for NSU.
           He came back to NSU as Hildebrand's coaching assistant before moving on to several major-college stops, then returned in 1985 -- with Tynes as athletic director -- as NSU head coach for three seasons. Unfortunately, that also resulted in NCAA probation and penalties for the program.        
           Duke succeeded Hildebrand as Natchitoches High's basketball coach, two of his teams narrowly missed winning state championships, and then followed Beasley as Tynes' top assistant at NSU. He went on to earn a doctorate and became superintendent of Natchitoches Parish schools.   
---                         
          Hildebrand's 1968-69 team finished its season with a notable first-ever matchup against Grambling State -- traditionally all-white school (although integration had begun) vs. all-black. It was a best-of-three NAIA district playoff series; Grambling won Game 3 at NSU.
           In a similar NAIA district playoff in 1973-74, NSU beat Xavier twice in New Orleans to advance to the NAIA national tournament -- then a longtime, prestigious event in Kansas City -- where the Demons went 1-1 and finished 21-9, the most wins for a Hildebrand NSU team.
        Again, connections: Tynes was invited to the training camp of the 1972 U.S. Olympic basketball team by legendary coach Hank Iba, and worked there with Bob Knight. (That was the ill-fated team, lost -- robbed -- of the gold medal by the Russians and the officials in Munich, Germany.) And he could call two more coaching giants, John Wooden and Don Haskins, friends.
---
         One coach who was inspired by Hildebrand, among other coaches, was the last Centenary coach he faced, Tommy Canterbury.
          Like me, Canterbury was a freshman at Louisiana Tech the year Hildebrand began coaching at Northwestern State. More than a decade later, they were coaching opponents ... and friends.
          "I looked at those [older] guys differently," Canterbury said, "because I could not imagine coaching against Tynes and some of the others.
          "I always thought he was the epitome of a solid program-building coach -- not too high, not too low. He loved the sport so much ... and we all did things together."
         Canterbury said the influence of television, shoe-contract deals and other outside factors "changed coaching" near the end of Hildebrand's tenure and perhaps made it more difficult.

Coach with Pesky Hill, a Shreveport resident who was
one of the SIDs at Northwestern in the Hildebrand era.

     "He was the kind of guy you looked up to, an old-school type coach. ... I always called him Coach Hildebrand. I wouldn't go up to him and say, 'Hi, Tynes.' He had earned that respect."
---
         Another personal confession: For nine years -- four as a Tech student, five as the sports information director at Centenary -- I did not root for Hildebrand's teams. 
          But when a person always treats you kindly and cordially and is cooperative with the media, as a sportswriter, you take note of that. So it was with Coach Hildebrand, and so it is.
          "Write about the great sportswriters and SIDs over the years at the schools and newspapers [in the state]," he included in notes he sent to me recently. 
          That's a generous thought -- and excluding myself -- I agree.
          (Next: Innovative athletic director, mentor)

Hildebrand, part II: The road from Florien to Natchitoches

       (Second in a series)
       Sabine Parish is prime Northwestern State territory and prime small-town basketball territory, and Florien -- 38 miles southwest of Natchitoches -- is one of Louisiana's best small places for the sport.
        Tynes Hildebrand grew up in Florien, Julia in nearby Fisher. Those are villages (not towns). Their fathers each were involved in the lumber business, so prevalent then (1940/'50s) all over North Louisiana and still today.
        But timber yards and mills, or farming (his family lived on a farm) weren't for Tynes. Basketball was. He loved the game from the start, and he could play.
        He was a stocky (barrel-chested) kid (and adult), about 6-foot-1 by the time he got to Florien and eventually Northwestern State. From 1947 to 1950, he helped the Black Cats become a basketball power ... for the first time.
        Because Class B and C schools could begin playing in early November and played tournaments every weekend for the first couple of months, Florien in 1949-50 -- Tynes' senior season -- played 5-6 games a week. And it won 74 and lost 4. You read that correctly: 74-4.
        Coached by Joe Cavanaugh, the team won the Class C  state championship in the Armory Building on the LSU campus, where -- amazingly -- two courts were set up side by side (with a net in between), and games were played simultaneously.
        "You'd hear a whistle, and both games would stop," Coach Hildebrand remembered. "We have come a long way. The game has changed."
        Florien since that season has won six more state boys championships (Class B), played in 15 state finals and sent dozen of players into college basketball.
         Only a few years after Hildebrand, Jimmy "Red" Leach was a shooting star from Florien, a guard who in 1959 set the Northwestern State single-game scoring record (still stands) with 54 points, one game after he had set it with 43. (No  benefit of 3-point baskets then). He would return to Florien to coach four state championship teams in a long coaching career.
        "It [Florien] was always a good academic school," Hildebrand remembers. "We always had good teachers. What a blessing to have been from there."
         At Northwestern, he was a four-year regular under


Tynes Hildebrand at NSC (No. 15)

Coach Charles "Red" Thomas, who had been a star Demons' player (one of three whose jersey number -- 5 -- is retired). NSC (it was a college then) went 15-11, 17-14, 22-10 and was the Gulf States Conference champ in Tynes' senior year (23-9 record).
        "You didn't have all the knowledge, all the theories, etc., about the game then that you would later," he said. "In practice, Coach Thomas would say, for example, 'Tynes, you guard Sammy Booras,' and he'd pair off people to guard each other.
         "He'd get so mad at me because I'd always say, whoever I was paired with, "Coach Thomas, you know he can't guard me.'
     "I enjoyed the game; [college] was an enjoyable time," Hildebrand said. "I enjoyed Northwestern and the town, and I loved the competition."
         How good a player was he? He laughed, and said, "I was in the middle, you could say. Some nights I was good, some nights not so good. But I loved playing.'
      A few years ago, he was selected as one of NSU's top 100 players all-time.

Tynes Hildebrand, second row, far left, next 
to NSC track/field coach Walter Ledet.

     He also was a track athlete for four years, running the 220, 440 and on the relay teams and helping Coach Walter Ledet's Demons to the first two of five consecutive GSC championships.
     He took pride in his school work, was an honor graduate, and obviously showed promise as a basketball student, too. He was hired as Natchitoches High School's basketball coach (and football assistant) soon after graduation.
         But that job was put on hold for two years. The Army intervened. "I had an ROTC obligation I had to fulfill," he said.
         So after basic training, the U.S. Army assigned him to the Hanford Project site in south-central Washington state, alongside the Columbia River. This was a plutonium development site, part of the Manhattan Project that produced the world's first atomic bomb in the mid-1940s.
         "Very secretive place, I had to have military clearance to be there," Coach Hildebrand said. And, as he noted, the cleanup for -- according to a story I saw -- "the biggest, most toxic nuclear waste site in the Western Hemisphere" (56 million gallons of radioactive liquid waste" on a 586 square-mile site) continues. Estimated price tag: $120 billion.
         Basketball had to be more fun.
---
          In 1957, he was back at Natchitoches High, joining a staff with head coach Trent Melder, Dan Carr and another young coach and Army veteran, Jim Bruning (subject of my Aug. 30, 2016, blog piece). 
      In his first basketball coaching season, Hildebrand's Red Devils -- led by Raymond Arthur, later an NSC player and guard Don Beasley (later his assistant coach at Northwestern) -- didn't have a sterling record (26-14), but finished strong and took the Class AA state championship, winning the final game 44-38 at New Iberia.
          Question: Did you think it would be that easy every year?
          "You think you're pretty good," Coach answered, "then you find out differently pretty quickly."
         But his Natchitoches teams held their own against the tough and bigger Shreveport-Bossier schools over the years and they won six district titles in eight seasons.

The young coach at Natchitoches High
(yearbook photos provided by
 Donald Mayeaux)

         In 1961 and 1962 -- the first two years of the Top Twenty state tournament in Shreveport -- the Red Devils made the Class AA championship game, beaten by powerful Ruston teams both times. Natchitoches' records those seasons: 20-10 and 25-4. 
          It was during this time that he caught the attention of Don Landry, later a college coaching opponent and good friend.
          "My first impression of Tynes came during the Louisiana high school coaching clinic on the LSU campus in the 1960s," Landry said. "He was one of the guest speakers. Instead of giving his talk in front of a blackboard, as most coaches did, he took his entire team and the coaches in attendance to the Gym Armory. He explained his system and his players demonstrated his offense and defense. It was one of the best clinic sessions I ever attended."
          Among the many Natchitoches players who appreciated him is Baton Rouge resident Bill Beyer, known as Willie in high school.
         "He was a great coach and a mentor and we have remained good friends over the years," Beyer said. "Always a treat to see him and Julia. Allen Posey and I attended his induction in the Louisiana Sports of Hall Fame in 2014 and saw them at a LSU basketball game this year. And, I always looked for him on TV at the NCAA finals.
        "I guess you always love your high school basketball coach," Beyer added. "I sure did. We had a pretty good team at Natchitoches High in 1963. In the state quarterfinals, we got beat badly by Neville. I remember fouling out with no points and walking off the court. Coach told me to get my head up. A teaching point I never forgot.
         "We ran the Auburn Shuffle offense. The first minute of my first junior varsity game, I ran a give-and-go and made a layup. I thought the game was easy."

         Hildebrand's '65 Natchitoches team (23-12 record) made it to the Class AA semifinals in Shreveport, where it couldn't hold a late lead and lost to Gonzales. It was his last high school game.         
          Among the many Hildebrand fans among his ex-players are twins Donald and Ronald Mayeaux, who were on the 1965 team (Ronald was an All-State selection.)
          Donald's remembrances of their coach:
          "Commanded respect from his players.
          "Was a deacon at First Baptist Church in Natchitoches and very visible in the everyday activities.
          "Always had us prepared for our next opponent even to the point we knew their players' names.
          "He believed in sagging man-to-man defense patterned after Hank Iba (Oklahoma State). We ran complicated offenses against both man-to-man and zone defenses patterned after the 'pinwheel offense' designed by Garland Pinholster of Oglethore University. But Coach designed options if any pass was blocked, what we could do next. In practice we ran these over and over until it was clockwork.
          "I will say, I never saw these run by him at the college level. He always told me they were too complicated.
          "The Natchitoches High Class of 1965 has had many reunions. He has attended every one of them and always takes the opportunity to address the class with words of wisdom.
          "One memory that stands out was seeing his hurt when his brother was killed in a hunting accident. We were at a Saturday practice when he received the news."
---

          At Northwestern State, Huey Cranford -- succeeding Thomas -- had done well, with two conference titles in his first three years and teams built with players mostly from the surrounding area. But personal issues diminished Cranford's coaching ability, the program sagged, and by March 1965, the job was open.
          The next challenge and the next NSU coach were a perfect fit. Natchitoches High was located on the road leading to the main NSU campus entrance.
          Tynes Hildebrand just had to move a few hundred yards to the almost-new Prather Coliseum.
          (Next: The coaching years at NSU)

Coach Hildebrand: A man of many seasons

           (First of a series)
        He is one of the most recognizable people in athletics in North Louisiana -- and the state as a whole -- and has been for 6 1/2 decades.
        Tynes Hildebrand's work -- finally -- is done after some 57 years in athletics. He has a career of memories and achievements, and friendships and connections to cherish.
        So many connections, such as: Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey began his sports administrative career as an assistant to Hildebrand; Notre Dame basketball coach Mike Brey played for him at Northwestern State University and calls him one of his major influences.
        Most people will remember him for the connection with Northwestern State -- student/basketball player (1950-54) and head coach (1965-80), placement director (2 1/2 years) and athletic director (13 1/2 years, 1983-96) -- and the city of Natchitoches, La.

Julia and Coach: This was at a wedding celebration.

        He figures, at age 85, he has had "a great life" and "beaten the odds." Still, he and Julia, his bride of 65 years, are into a new phase. 
        Last October, they made an admirable late-in-life decision -- to give up the home they had built and lived in for 43 years, and make a move. So long, Natchitoches; hello, Shreveport.
        Their sons, Tynes Jr. and Bruce, long ago left home (and Natchitoches) and now have successful certified public accountant careers, and families. So two daughters-in-law and five grandchildren are part of the Hildebrand family.
        In a note to friends, Coach and Julia wrote, "2016 has been a year of change for us. While we are still healthy, and very thankful for that, we decided to downsize and leave a house, yard and pool that required constant care. We moved to ... a residential independent living facility in Shreveport.
         "We have a nice apartment ... and enjoy the benefits of multiple dining options, spa and wellness center, walking trails, theatre, maid service, and many choice of things to do. We seem busier now than ever. Leaving [the house in Natchitoches] wasn't easy, but we are enjoying our new home."
       A couple of weeks ago, Coach told me that "we did not want to leave the house and so much we had accumulated for the kids to deal with eventually." Thus, the move.
       And so while we talked one afternoon last week -- after their morning workout -- Coach and Mrs. Hildebrand were making plans for a theatre visit and a lunch date with a basketball official coming through Shreveport on his way to work a game.
        Coach remains sharp, his story-telling and connections intact, and the meeting with the basketball official isn't coincidental.
         Because for the last 16 years of his working life, Tynes Hildebrand evaluated and trained college basketball officials -- half that time for a five-conference combination, the second half as one of the four nationwide NCAA advisors.
         If you watched enough college games on television, and knew to look for him, Coach Hildebrand often had a seat at the [courtside] table. This was especially true during the NCAA Tournament, when he was part of the group selecting the officials working the games.

As a coach, he was known
for his intensity.

         Let's interject this: Those of us who watched Coach Hildebrand bluster along the sidelines -- eight years at Natchitoches High (1957-65), 15 years at Northwestern -- know he was not Coach Congeniality.
         Maybe before games and a few hours/days/months after games, he got along with the officials working his teams' games, but ...
         "When I coached against Tynes," remembered Don Landry, who was at Louisiana Tech two years as an assistant to Scotty Robertson and then head coach at Nicholls State in the late 1960s and 1970s, "he often showed a temper, sometimes even throwing a chair around."
         A friend remembers a coat being tossed from the vicinity of the visitors' bench at Centenary's Gold Dome and landing on the playing floor and the Northwestern coach standing there, well, coatless.
         (Confession: At Tech in the late '60s, I had a friend who did a spot-on Tynes imitation -- chest puffed out, stomping toward an official, blankety-blank comment. Of course, we also had our Scotty imitation.)
         So when I first heard that Coach Hildebrand was evaluating officials, my thought was "fox guarding the hen house."
          Laugh intended there. But the serious thought was who was better qualified to judge officials. Because we all knew that Tynes Hildebrand knew the game, and even more, that he loved the game almost as much as he loved his family and friends.
          Basketball and athletics have done so much for him, and he has done so much in return. And many people know that.
        "I think of Tynes as a leader, a competitor, and a success at everything he did," said Landry, who after his comment above added, "after each game we were always friends. We had great respect for each other.
        "Lucille and I have been friends with Tynes and Julia for over 50 years. They are a special couple."
        Jerry Pierce was in his first year as sports information director at NSU when Hildebrand was the first-year basketball coach (1965-66). It was the start of Pierce's 51 years on the university staff, the last 26 at vice-president of external affairs, with overseeing athletics part of his responsibilities. So he had a large role in Hildebrand's becoming athletic director.
       "Tynes Hildebrand is a giant in the history of Northwestern State University," Pierce said last week.
       "It was a tremendous pleasure to work with Tynes for more than four decades. He was fastidious in every element and aspect of his job as a coach, athletic director and in his work with the NCAA.
       "We worked closely together at Northwestern, went to the same church for decades and are still close friends. He is a class act who deserves all of the honors and accolades that reflect the success of his long career in college athletics." 
        The list of honors is long, and a significant one was the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame's Dave Dixon Award -- for leadership and contributions benefiting the state -- in 2014, at ceremonies at the new Sports Hall of Fame Museum (fittingly) in Natchitoches.
        Receiving the award that night, Coach Hildebrand said he was "humbled to be in the presence of so many  great sports people. It sort of makes me look like a midget among a bunch of giants."
        No, we'll choose giant over midget for this man.
        (Next: The road from Florien to Natchitoches)