The late 1990’s were a rough time for Texas A&M-Commerce in athletics, but during the Fall and Winter, Men’s Basketball was heating up the campus and keeping fans on the edge of their seats, and Paul Peak had built a program that had duplicated the success that the Jim Gudger era teams had. Heading into…

For East Texas A&M Lion Basketball in the late 1990’s, it was a time of change for the Lion program. After 2 years of positive momentum and winning the Lone Star Conference and making the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history in 1996, Paul Peak & his Lions the change and went…

1991 was the end of an era for Men’s Basketball. Jerry Matthews, who had been a vanguard of the Lion Basketball program and guided them to 2 conference titles, decided to ride into the sunset after a Hall of Fame Career as a Football player and Head Basketball Coach at ETSU and also a hall…

First, a congratulations to the ET Men’s Basketball team for winning their first invitational in the DIvision I era under Coach Jaret Von Rosenberg! Jerry Matthews had been coaching in Commerce for 7 seasons and was heading into his final season, needed something to help him and the entire athletic department at ET. The transition…

“Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are, and to make new things like them.” Those immortal words, spoken by the great Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, speak of the nature of life…

When Jim Gudger took the head basketball coaching position at East Texas State, he had a tall order, which was to turn around a team used to winning that was not winning, and turn them into winners again. After his first 4 seasons resulting in a 35-68 record, Gudger recruited and brought winning basketball back…

After a challenging first four years at East Texas State University, Jim Gudger had gotten the Lions back to where they had been in the previous decades. He had them winning conference championships, making the NAIA postseason, making deep runs, and winning the conference tournament championships. He had the program among the elite in the…

I did not live through the 1970’s, but ask anyone who was there, times changed, and the ways of doing thing had changed. One thing had not changed, and that was Jim Gudger’s powerful East Texas State Men’s Basketball team. 1975 had been gotten the Lions a conference title, but not a chance to get…

Basketball changes, that is just the nature of the game. Even if the game itself does not change, because after all, the whole point is to put a leather ball in a round hoop and do it more times than the other team, things still change, and in the 1974-1975 season, things were changing more…

When Norman Pilgrim left Commerce after a decade at the helm with two LSC titles and two NAIA appearances, one of Pilgrim’s players, Phil Andrews took over for one season and the results was a 9-18 season. It was a time for the ET athletic department to look for a coach who was seasoned and…

Norman Pilgrim’s time as Head Basketball Coach at East Texas State can be described in one word: challenging. He had success, won conference championships, took his teams to the NAIA postseason and posted winning records. He was also in inadvertent party to some historical moments in not just program history, but college basketball history. After…

After 5 seasons, 4 conference championships, 3 trips to the NAIA basketball tournament, and a national title, Bob Rogers’ stock had risen in the coaching universe. He had become a hot commodity, and this led him to being named head basketball coach at Texas A&M University at the end of the 1957 season. The Lions…

Every Coach, regardless of how good they are, has difficult or rough seasons. Sometimes they even happen after Championship seasons. For Lion Coach Bob Rogers, he was no exception to this happening. In his first three seasons, Rogers had won three straight Conference Championships, three straight NAIA District 4 Championships, and had gone to the…

It takes a lot to be a Champion. A lot of games played, a lot of miles traveled, a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. Then, and only then, comes the treasure. For the East Texas State Lions, the 1950’s midpoint saw them make serious back to back runs in the NAIA National Tournament. Two…

Bob Rogers first season in Commerce saw the Lions go the furthest they ever had as the reached the NAIA Final four, the first of 3 appearances in school history. After countless conference titles and NAIA tournament appearances, it was as ever a time to make another run at a national championship. It would hard…

In the early 1950’s Lion Basketball hit a bit of a rut. Milburn Smith, who would coach arguably the greatest Lion Football team ever in 1952, coached the Lion Basketball team to a 13-9 record in 1950, before taking over a Lion football program that would be dominant from 1951-1953 and then Jack Woodruff came…

Ask anyone who knows anything about what East Texas State College was like in the 1950’s and many will call it “The Golden Fifties.” In addition to becoming a full fledged State College and making a name for itself as an emerging regional educational power, but would end up being a major collegiate power in…

Year 3 for Darrell Tully’s East Texas State squad was roughly what one would have expected. He had a winning record, contention for conference championships, and in the hunt for the NAIA postseason. It would be his final season before heading south to the Houston area where he would become one of the most notable…