If there were a Mount Rushmore of Owensboro natives who had an impact in sports, several names would come to mind.
A list of questions can help narrow down the candidates.
Did they play at Kentucky Wesleyan College or the University of Kentucky? Did they coach multiple sports during their time as a Panther? Did they coach Bluegrass hoops legends King Kelly Coleman, Jerry Thruston, Dartez Talbott and countless others? Did they lead Mercer University to its first NCAA Tournament berth in 1981? Were they the commissioner of the Atlantic Sun Conference? Did their career span more than five decades?
Only one person did all those things.
That person was Bill Bibb, who died July 9. His impact on sports started back in 1952 while at the University of Kentucky playing basketball under Adolph Rupp, but he also played baseball for the Wildcats.
From Owensboro to Lexington to Owensboro
Bibb played with future NBA players Cliff Hagan and Frank Ramsey during his time under Rupp, including a stellar 25-0 regular season in 1954 despite the Wildcats not playing in the NCAA Tournament that year.
After a couple of seasons in Lexington, Bibb made the trek back to Owensboro to suit up for the Panthers. He became a basketball assistant, baseball assistant and an assistant athletic director after his playing days were over.
As a player, Bibb was an honorable mention All-American in 1957 along with averaging a double-double (14 ppg, 11.9 rpg) during his senior season.
During his time as an assistant for KWC, Bibb coached hoops standouts Coleman, Martin Holland and Gary Auten.
Stops in Texas, Missouri and Utah were next, but in 1973 Bibb took an assistant job at Mercer University in Georgia.
The rest is history.
Brad Bibb remembers his father’s legacy
Bibb was named the head coach in 1974 and it started not only the rise of the Bears, but also what would turn into the Atlantic Sun Conference where he was commissioner from 1991-2006.
Bibb’s son Brad lives in Georgia but remembers his times back in Kentucky from when he was a young boy. He said he remembers spending his early summers with his grandparents in Henderson.
“You kind of lose touch with Kentucky, but not totally,” Brad said.
Brad knew of his father’s impact when he was growing up, and he would get asked about it whenever he would return to the area.
He said there was a telltale sign that those asking actually knew his father.
“A lot of people would ask about Billy, so you knew if they said Billy that they were old friends,” he said.
The sports gene passed down from Bill to Brad, as he too played basketball and baseball like his father.
Brad even played for his father at Mercer and was on the 1981 Bears team that earned the school’s first NCAA Tournament bid.
It’s Talbott Time
Brad wasn’t the only Owensboro native on the squad, as Talbott led the offense after transferring to Mercer from a college in Oklahoma in 1978.
“He just weaved through their pressure,” Brad said of Talbott’s performance against Arkansas in the first round of the 1981 NCAA Tournament. “They couldn’t handle him. He was a good little player. He was 5-11, could jump out of the gym and could handle it great.”
Talbott said Bill did everything in his “own type of Bill Bibb way,” which also helped Talbott launch a successful coaching career in Georgia.
“He had his own way of doing things,” Talbott said. “I think he took some of his stuff from Rupp. It ended up being a joy afterward. Coach Bibb was tough — he was a tough individual.”
The way Bill coached Talbott helped make him the person and coach he is today.
“I felt, when kids come back to me, the way I felt toward Coach Bibb about making sure you come in as a gentleman and conduct yourself properly,” he said. “Those are the things I was hoping I would push to my basketball players.”
Talbott said he still remembers the game against the Arkansas Razorbacks, as they were coached by another Kentucky connection in Eddie Sutton.
“It was great for Owensboro,” Talbott said. “A lot of people when we were on TV, we played Arkansas and I got so many phone calls … I scored 22 points against Arkansas and they ended up beating us by six. I was really wanting to win that game because that would have given us an opportunity to play the University of Louisville.”
Bill never forgot about Owensboro
Talbott wasn’t the only Owensboro player Bill recruited during his career, as he also brought in Mr. Basketball winner Jerry Thruston and countless others.
Bill’s player tree is something of legend, as he was one to never forget where he came from.
“He knew basketball was huge; he knew high school basketball was well-coached, well played,” Brad said. “He had a lot of contacts in that region so it was almost natural for him to go back and recruit that area.”
Mercer’s continued rise under Bill
Bill coached at Mercer until 1989 while being the school’s athletic director from 1980-89 before spending two years at the University of Texas at Arlington.
Brad said his father was important in turning the page for Mercer athletics.
“He saw the whole Mercer transformation. They were certainly not big-time by any means, but trying to become more of a big-time program. I think it was bittersweet.”
Brad said his dad knew they would have to make their mark in other ways, as the program didn’t have the revenue of the bigger schools.
“I can remember Dick Vitale vividly saying on TV, ‘What’s a Dartez Talbott, what’s a Mercer,’” Brad said. “Going into that ’81 tournament game — you can’t buy that kind of publicity. Just like Mercer couldn’t buy the publicity they had after beating Duke. People everywhere have heard of Mercer now.”
Brad graduated in 1983, but his time being close to the Bears program wasn’t over just yet.
“Once I graduated, I was into broadcasting and I started working at the local TV station,” he said. “I did weekend sports on the CBS affiliate here, which is called WMAZ-TV. I started doing Mercer play-by-play right out of college so I would travel with them and do play-by-play with them. I was a one-man play-by-play guy, which most of the conference was.
“That part of our relationship was really one of the best times we had. We’d travel together, we’d do play-by-play, we’d have a cocktail after the game, talk about it. Sometimes we’d room together if he wanted a roommate. If he wanted to be by himself, he’d room by himself. We did that together from 1982-1989 when he left.”
Bill’s help in forming the Atlantic Sun
In 1978, while he was still head coach of the Bears, Bill helped form the Trans America Athletic Conference.
“My dad was a founding member of that conference,” Brad said.
Brad said his father understood how important it was to be a member of a conference, not only for a bid to the NCAA Tournament, but for scheduling and regionality as well.
“You weren’t going to get selected for an at-large bid as an independent of Mercer’s size,” he said.
After a couple of years in Arlington, Bill was named the commissioner of the Atlantic Sun, as it was named in 2011.
“He had an affinity for administration, and I would say his commissioner years were just as enjoyable in a whole different spectrum than his coaching years,” Brad said.
Mercer is now a member of the Southern Conference in all sports except beach volleyball.
Brad’s memories of his father and Adolph Rupp
In 1954, the Wildcats were undefeated when the regular season ended. On that team was Bill, along with Hagan, Ramsey and Lou Tsiorpoulos. The latter three were all graduate students, but they were still eligible to play by the NCAA in the regular season — though they couldn’t play in the tournament.
“Coach Rupp got the team together and said ‘OK guys, what do you want to do? Do you want to go play without them or do we just not want to play?’ My dad, and all the players on the team, voted unanimously to play,” Brad said. “Coach Rupp said ‘You’re crazy, we’re not going to play without these three guys.’”
Kentucky ended the season at 25-0 while La Salle beat Bradley for the NCAA Championship.
Brad’s next memory came when his father was inducted in the Mercer Athletics Hall of Fame.
“When Bill did his Mercer Hall of Fame speech, he referenced Coach Rupp, and he said ‘I played at Kentucky. Coach Rupp was a disciplinarian. I learned a lot and I was kind of a student of the game and told Coach Rupp one day, I’d be kind of interested in being a coach,’” Brad said of Bill’s speech. “He said ‘Well Bill, you’ve got a good mind for it and a good attitude.’ He said ‘I think that’s the path you should go down because as a player you weren’t worth a darn.’”
Turns out, Bill made the best decision by becoming a coach.
Brad said throughout Rupp’s later years, his father would see him from time to time. He said there’s one visit Bill told him about that stands out.
“Coach Rupp would tell Bill when he’s coming into town and meet him in the lobby,” he said. “Dad would go down and meet him. They might have a cup of coffee and chat a few minutes and Coach Rupp would say ‘Bill, come on up to the room for a minute.’”
Brad said at this point, his dad was excited that he would get to hang out with Rupp more, but Rupp wanted Bill to carry his bag to the room.
“Coach Rupp had a huge influence on my dad,” Brad said. “He didn’t play a lot but Rupp’s legacy lived through my dad and he would imitate him and tell him stories. I could fill a book up with stories.”
The impact of Bill’s legacy can be found across the country, but when looking at the roots of his excellence, you can see the Boro and Kentucky were never too far away. So, whoever decides to sculpt Owensboro’s own Mount Rushmore, remember the name Bill Bibb.
Information for this story was obtained from the Atlantic Sun Conference and Kentucky Wesleyan Athletics.
