Back in 2016, something happened that really showed me some of us Lions have a lot to learn when it comes to “fansmanship.” After a 5-0 start, the Lions faced the always tough Bill Maskill coached Midwestern State Mustangs. It was a game in Commerce on a beautiful fall evening and it was another big…
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…
Have you been on Interstate 30 lately? Chances are you have been. I haven’t and for good reason. How about Highway 380 between Denton and Greenville? Yep, sure have, and I have seen all I need to see. So, what does traffic have to do with our transition to being a Division I institution? Well,…
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…
Today it was announced that the late Mike Leach, the former head football coach at Texas Tech, Washington State, and Mississippi State, an innovator in college football and character persona number one in college football, would now be eligible to be in the College Football Hall of Fame. As someone who still is in absolute…
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…
When the news broke that the Texas A&M University system was going to finally approve the construction of a new events center that would host our Men’s and Women’s Basketball teams, along with the Volleyball program among other things, I was excited like to much of Lion nation. I also had some ideas that I…
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…
I will never forget my first on campus visit to what was then Texas A&M-Commerce. Spring of 2005. I took my first walk around campus and on the old quad where the Rayburn Student Center used to be, scribbled in chalk there was written RUSH PIKE 2005 or Rush EX and then two large letters…
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