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)      
  

Media matters: Fighting back against the bullies

        Keep in mind, I was a newspaper person for decades. So, yes, I'm partial to the media. I know the job isn't as easy as you might think, especially when you deal with jerks.
      And there are media people I did not respect all that much. But attacks on the media -- or disdain toward media people -- I don't like it. This has been a previous subject in this blog, so maybe you know how I feel.

      I find it disgusting, a copout, a poor excuse. But don't get the wrong idea. This is about football coaches, not politics. 

      Oh, I'll touch on politics -- but only for a moment.

      I don't agree at all when I hear the President -- making great use of his (appropriately named) bully pulpit -- attack the "dishonest, lying" media, just as he did as a candidate and then as President-elect. I think it is BS, Nixon-like paranoia, and we know how Nixon's political career ended.

      It takes a dishonest, lying person -- a bully -- to use those words. And it's every darned day; it gets old. It is a declared war.
      Media people are doing their jobs. If they don't agree with the President's actions and words, they are labeled "dishonest" and "lying." They are being told, by the President's top advisor, to "shut up."
      Wrong, wrong, wrong. That's not what the First Amendment is about.

      You don't like what I'm writing, you don't agree ... tough. Take it elsewhere. You are not going to convince that I am off-base, and I'm not going to convince you how ignorant you are to believe everything that's being said and done.

      I could do another whole blog on this (but I already have). Repeating what I said then: When I hear "mainstream media," it is a glittering generality. Be specific, give me names. Don't just say "the media."

      OK, I am going to leave it there. Back to football.

      Media access for those covering the NFL and college football is as limited as it ever has been. It is ridiculous; it is paranoia-plus. It is an undeclared war. 

Nick Saban: Election? What election? He's friendly and
 cooperative with the media only when he wants to be.

      Head football coaches, almost without exception, are running a secret society. They are a bunch of bullies. Yet we -- fans and, yes, sportswriters and talking heads -- glorify them, treat them like rock stars, like gods.

      Some of these coaches are being paid millions and millions of dollars -- that's the market now -- and it's all too much, in my opinion. Football should not be that important ... but in America, it is. And so are the coaches, unfortunately.

      When I wrote about this at the start of the 2015 football season -- http://nvanthyn.blogspot.com/2015/09/ready-for-football-except-for-those.html -- a man I was about to interview first admonished me for that blog piece. I did not apologize, and I'm not apologizing now.
      And because we all look for affirmation of our beliefs (as we do about political matters), I found mine in a Sports Illustrated article by its media columnist Richard Deitsch posted Jan. 19.
      His main point is this "one voice" aspect that is almost universally followed now by head football coaches (NFL, college). Only one person -- the head coach -- speaks to the media. Access to the players is severely limited.
       These media-limited policies began, I believe, with Bill Parcells, an interesting guy and also a bully who passed it on to his cronies -- the unsmiling Bill Belichick (great friend of Nick Saban), Tom Coughlin, Al Groh, and on down the line. Soon it became standard procedure.
      We still like watching the games, we like the competition, we accept that brutality -- injuries, especially concussions and long-lasting effects -- are part of football and always will be. There's only so much that can be done to make the game "safer."
       (I use "like" instead of "love" for football now; I am, as I wrote last week, enjoyed it less and less. And part of the reason for that is the coaches' attitudes.)
 ---
       Here is how Deitsch began his article: 
       "I know, I know. Nobody wants to hear about the complaints of the sport media. But this is something that impacts you as a reader.                            

       "As part of an NFL roundtable discussion on a number of NFL-related topics, I asked six beat writers what they considered to be the most absurd media restriction in their market. I’ve always thought one of the most foolish media restrictions in sports was college football coaches not allowing assistant coaches to speak to the media. The restriction always struck me as strange (yes, I know Nick Saban has won a billion titles with it), especially given how successful teams in other college sports have no issues with their assistants speaking (e.g. Auriemma, Geno). It’s also an odd message to send to student-athletes: Only one person speaks for the program. But I digress."

       Here are some of the writers' responses:
       • Les Bowen, Eagles beat writer/columnist, Philadelphia Daily News: "I could write until my fingers bleed on this. There are about a dozen things that make it hard to do our jobs, starting with the fact that last year, the Eagles moved us from the media room, next to the media relations offices, into an outbuilding at the far edge of the parking lot, next to the entry gate. We have less access to the main building than we had previously. Also, we also only watch warmups and a brief bit of individual drills during the season; most of practice, we don’t see. And after games, the coach takes so long to come to the postgame press conference, if you go to that, you miss the players in the locker room. Then there is accessibility when it comes to the GM and the owner."                             

       • Mike Freeman, NFL writer, Bleacher Report. "The most ridiculous restriction of all time is not allowing journalists to cover practice. You hear from coaches and players how writers don’t understand football. So the logic is then to let us see less football?                            

       • John McClain, NFL writer, Houston Chronicle.  "Don’t get me started. How in the world did Vince Lombardi, Don Shula, Tom Landry, Chuck Noll and Bill Walsh build dynasties while they allowed reporters to watch practice and interview their assistant coaches? Most coaches are so paranoid today. Not allowing assistants to talk to the media except when it’s required by the league is preposterous. I think these restrictions on assistant coaches are ridiculous. I value relationships I built with players and coaches with the Oilers that I never will be able to forge with the Texans because the rules are so different. You can’t just talk and get to know them anymore because access is so limited. And who decided so many players talk once a week and players don’t have to do but a few conference calls with visiting media? Why were those rules implemented?"

       • Armando Salguero, NFL columnist, Miami Herald. "I covered Don Shula. And the way it worked was, after practice he’d come over and speak to reporters. And if, during that time, I preferred to go an speak with an assistant, I could do that — all the time recognizing I was missing what DON FREAKIN’ SHULA was saying. The point is Don Shula didn’t keep his assistants off limits. He had no fear that their message would be different than his message. (Maybe because he put out a message and everyone fell in line). I find that keeping assistants off limits to the media is about fear by head coaches and organizations. They are afraid someone might say something that doesn’t agree with the “one voice” message. That’s not an attempt by an organization or the head coach to protect position coaches. That’s an attempt by an organization or the head coach to protect itself or himself."                             

       • Eric Branch, 49ers beat reporter, San Francisco Chronicle: "The 49ers’ highest-profile players -- NaVorro Bowman, Colin Kaepernick, etc. -- are typically only available to reporters once during the week and those sessions are often cut off prematurely as a member of the PR staff announces, 'Last question.' It’s very little access to the team’s top players, particularly when compared to those in other sports: LeBron James and Mike Trout routinely speak to the media twice in the same day.                            

       • Mary Kay Cabot, Browns beat reporter, Cleveland.com: "I dislike the fact that we’re not allowed on the field before the games. We used to be, and I always took advantage of it. In addition to running into some interesting people and celebrities, you can often the read the vibe of the team or the mood of a player heading into a game. You can glean something from pregame warmups and you can see how players interact with each other and their coaches. You see who the owner likes to talk to before games, and you have some great photo opportunities. There are tons of people on the sidelines before the game, from guests to corporate sponsors to people’s children and grandchildren -- and the media covering the team is not allowed down there. The other thing I don’t love is the once-a-week player designation. In the NFL, a few star players only have to talk to the media once a week, but lately it seems like too many players are only talking once a week. Here’s another way to solve the access issue. Once or twice a week, in addition to locker room access, let the media into the players’ lounge to have a more relaxed conversation with a player sitting on a couch, or over a game of ping-pong. Let us get to know the players and tell their stories. Don’t be afraid. It will be O.K."
--- 
     Of course, I empathize with these media people. Several of my friends and former co-workers are still covering college football and NFL teams, and I'm happy for them that (1) they're still employed and (2) doing what they love to do, and what needs to be done.
      I often have been critical in this blog about Cowboys owner/general manager Jerry Jones. But I will give him this: As far as I can tell, he makes himself available to the media -- because he loves the camera and those mikes. Do I pay attention to what he says? I do not. But he's there for the media.
      Jason Garrett, however, I think is as bland, as predictable, as secretive and paranoid as any coach in the NFL. Fits right in.
      But let's go back to -- other than the eccentric and wound-tight Jim Harbaugh -- the most fascinating character in college football: Nick Saban. He can be cooperative with the media and often is, and when he feels like ranting and going off on somebody or some subject, he does. He's the king; he knows it, and he shows it.
      (And Dabo Sweeney of national champion Clemson has a charming side to his personality. But we've seen some Saban-like rants from him, on the sideline and with the media.)
      While I'm sure there were other low spots during this past football season, it was Saban who provided the low spot for me. Back to politics.
      When he was asked about the Presidential election the day after Mr. Trump's victory, Saban replied that he was unaware that Tuesday (Nov. 8) was Election Day.

      "It was so important to me that I didn't even know it was happening," Saban told the media. "We're focused on other things here."

      Oh, good god. How macho. Football is the only thing that matters. The rest of society be damned.
      I feel sure that Alabama had some football players who were eligible to vote. Maybe the head coach could have dealt in some civics lessons for his players. Or does that matter, as long as they win games?
      Give Saban credit, though. He followed up that inane comment with an explanation of why  he didn't want to talk about politics.
       "If I say I like one person, that means everybody that voted for the other person doesn't like me," Saban said. "So, why would I do that? I want what's best for our country. I'm not sure I can figure that out.
       "I want what's best for people who want to improve the quality of their life. I hope whoever our leader is will do all that he can do to make our country safe and improve the quality of life for a lot of the people we have in our country and I don't think I am qualified to determine who that should be."
      Of course, he's qualified to tell the media what they should think.
       As it relates to football and to the head coaches -- hello, Nick and Sabo and Gary Patterson and Harbaugh, Urban Meyer, Jim McElwain, Bobby Petrino and even (when he returns to the game) Les Miles, and all the rest, here's what I think can improve quality of life: Don't be such secretive, tight asses.
       As for the bully President and his buddies, attack the media all you want. Make it the enemy; it's a convenient, easy target. Throw all that general crap out there because a lot of people believe everything you say. And a lot of us don't believe much at all.
       Be sure that the media will fight back. Truth will win out.
 

Staying positive while the world keeps turning

Happy reading: It's 738 pages

       So after a 2 1/2-week blogging break, we're back because I know you eagerly -- anxiously? -- have been waiting.
       The blogs are supposed to make a point, but sometimes I'm just writing to be writing, just to say hello and catch you up on our lives.
       We have a big day -- anniversary -- coming up in 11 days. Wait for it; watch this space. 
       There were several reasons for the break, most notably the change in the political atmosphere. I'm not going to go into politics again -- much -- since we all have our minds made up anyway.
       What I will say is that, no matter what, the intention here is to remain positive. Heck, no, I don't like a lot of what is happening; I think it's a bizarre world -- you must remember that from previous blogs -- but the only control I have is over my own thoughts.
       So I take the positives out of each day, and I keep my gratitude journal, and I always find something for which to be grateful.
       Hope you do, too.
       Life has its challenges, though. Let's see:
       • My cellphone died two weeks ago on a trip to  Shreveport; there was no bringing it back.  Hello, new cellphone. Still trying to figure out how to use it.
       • Yesterday afternoon the water heater in the apartment went cold. Not good. Work order turned in; repairs made. Looking forward to a hot shower after my daily walk in a few minutes.
       • Facebook changed its Messenger page; I don't like it. Technology wins out again. Quit messing with me.
       • Then there was this: A two-week battle with bronchitis. A first for me -- cough, cough. It only took nine days for my caring, overly concerned wife to convince me to go to an urgent care clinic. A few meds -- and a thousand more coughs later -- and I'm (almost) well. 
       You know when, for 13 days, I don't go to the Downtown YMCA for yoga/stretching and when I get in only one daily walk in the same time frame that I'm off-course.
       Please hold the sympathy notes. I am not often sick and I don't do it well, but I have a friend who injured herself in a fall while running, one who is paralyzed and mostly bed-ridden, a couple dealing with cancer (and treatment), and one who had open-heart surgery Thursday. So bronchitis is nothin'.
       The time away from blogging left me with other goals, and a lot on which to comment: 
       • Still promoting my book, Survivors: 62511, 70726. Uh, sales are down a bit from November and December. So check Amazon or CreateSpace, and tell your friends.
       • Spent much time researching professional baseball history in Shreveport, a project that might lead to a publication. It is a daunting task. If anyone reading this has stories or photos to share from the Shreveport Sports/Captains/Swamp Dragons days, let me know.
       • Lots of time to watch sports ... but it has its limits.  Friends can hardly believe this when I tell them: I seldom enjoy watching games, in person or on TV, these days. I find much hypocrisy in athletics, college and/or pro. Just where I am in life; it's probably a blog piece in itself.
       • I did record a number of the college bowl games and College Football Playoffs and watched them later. (Bea is so anti-football that I don't subject her to the sport, and I'm less of a football fan every day.)
       Did not even watch LSU-Louisville live. Had other things to do that day, and did not begin watching the game until a couple of hours it was over (stayed off social media, so I did not know the score). Great effort by the Tigers. 
       • Did not watch any of the NFL playoffs live; no, not even the Cowboys. Sure I rooted for the Cowboys -- I always have -- and it's easy to root for QB Dak Prescott (from Haughton, La.), but it's hard to feel sorry for Jerry Jones and the Jones family.
       • I won't watch the Super Bowl, haven't watched it live for several years. Will record it; might or might not watch. Bottom line: I just don't care much about the NFL.
       I will root for the Atlanta Falcons, although I think the New England Patriots -- again -- will win the Super Bowl. As a New York Yankees fan, I should appreciate a "dynasty" franchise. But I am not a Patriots' fan, never have been, never will be.
       Believe, strongly, that Tom Brady is the best quarterback ever -- that's for my old late 1980s friends from  the Florida Times-Union sports staff who argued about that status every day for months -- and that Bill Belichick is arguably the best NFL coach ever. But Belichick (my opinion) is a boor, or a bore, whatever. Takes the fun out of the game, although some people thinking winning is fun.
       And speaking of boor/bore/no-fun-except-winning, how about Belichick's close friend, Nick Saban?
       No question the Clemson-Alabama national championship game was tremendous, and to me it proved how great an effort it takes to (barely) beat Alabama (and Saban). You have to know that nationally the only fans not rooting for Clemson were Alabama fans.
       • Also in my "don't care" category: the NFL's Pro Bowl; the NHL All-Star Game; the NBA All-Star Game; tennis (Australian Open). OK, I'm more cynical than ever.
       • Which takes me to college football recruiting, as it nears National Signing Day. I've written this previously, and I repeat: This is so overblown, so overdone, so unhealthy -- I believe -- for the kids' egos (and the fans' egos). I advise again: Don't put so much stock in the "verbal commitments" by these 17- and 18-year-olds. Waiting until they sign the scholarship papers and, beyond that, they actually qualify academically and enroll in school.
       • I wish I could care more about college basketball, but with the way LSU's men are playing -- 30-point losses are mounting -- it is discouraging. The less I say, the better. March Madness can't come soon enough.
       • We're going to miss Mary Tyler Moore. She was one of America's Sweethearts -- Laura Petrie of the 1960s, Mary Richards of the 1970s. Like many of us, she had her issues, but didn't you love her smiling face? 
       • No more "you're looking live" at Brent Musburger, thank you. Sorry, not going to miss him. It's about time he left TV sports play-by-play to others. I liked that he was a newspaper sports columnist decades ago, but once he went to television -- and we saw him so often -- I got the feeling that Brent's biggest fan was/is ... Brent.
       So I mostly used the "mute" button for his games on TV, and I occasionally would turn on the sound to hear him proclaim something stupid. He never failed.
---
       And speaking of "mute" -- fair warning -- I now turn to a bit of politics. You can stop reading here. 
       • We won't be listening on our TV to President Barnum's omnipresent "spokespeople," known here as Wicked Woman and Press Attack Dog. They have no voice here.

       • Here is the coolest thing I did in these 2 1/2 weeks; I fulfilled a promise to Bea, and myself, to (1) finish reading Hamilton The Revolution, the book on the genesis, writing, production and organization of the play and (2) kept reading Ron Chernow's Alexander Hamilton (I am through 106 pages; only 632 to go).  
       You know Hamilton, the "overrated" Broadway play that won only 11 Tony Awards.
       It reminds me that a couple of months ago when you-know-who was critical in two tweets of the Hamilton cast's "statement" to the Vice-President-elect and I posted how outrageous that was, I was told -- repeatedly -- that the statement was ill-timed and out-of-place. 
       And my reply was: If you think this was a protest, you haven't seen anything yet.
       Now you're seeing the protests, in all forms ... day after day after day, from shore to shore and beyond. And it's not going to stop for four years. 
       Hamilton, of course, reminds us how divided our political world always has been, since the beginning of this great country. It did not start with the previous President.
       George Washington had his critics, but Hamilton had enemies, among them Thomas Jefferson and -- yes -- Aaron Burr. And Burr, the then-Vice President,  shot the former Secretary of the Treasury to death in a duel.   
       Build that wall. Attack the "dishonest, lying" media. Send federal troops to protect the Alamo from the Mexican army. Watch the bizarre world turn every day.
       Take heart: No duels are scheduled ... yet.
       Here's what I repeat: Stay positive. Deal with it.