Biographical details | |
---|---|
Born | Ruston, Louisiana, U.S. | June 3, 1944
Playing career | |
1965–1967 | Louisiana Tech |
Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
1967–1971 | Bastrop HS |
1971–1977 | Ruston HS |
1977–1980 | Louisiana Tech (assistant) |
1980–1982 | Louisiana Tech (assoc. HC) |
1982–1985 | Louisiana Tech (co-HC) |
1985–2002 | Louisiana Tech |
2008–2011 | Baylor (assistant) |
Head coaching record | |
Overall | 576–87 (.869) |
Accomplishments and honors | |
Championships | |
NCAA Division I (1988) 9 NCAA Regional—Final Four (1983, 1984, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1994, 1998, 1999) 3 American South (1988–1990) 4 American South tournament (1988–1991) 9 Sun Belt (1993–2001) 7 Sun Belt Tournament (1994, 1996–2001) WAC (2002) WAC tournament (2002) | |
Awards | |
Naismith Coach of the Year Award (1988) USBWA Coach of the Year Award (1996) 4× American South Coach of the Year (1988–1991) 6× Sun Belt Coach of the Year (1993, 1994, 1996–1999) Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame (2004) Louisiana Tech Athletic Hall of Fame (2003) Ark-La-Tex Sports Museum of Champions (2008) | |
Records | |
2nd Best winning percentage in basketball history (.869) | |
Basketball Hall of Fame Inducted in 2003 | |
Women's Basketball Hall of Fame |
William Leon Barmore (born June 3, 1944) is a college women's basketball coach best known for his 35-year association with the Louisiana Tech University Lady Techsters. After five years as an assistant coach, he served as head coach from 1982 to 2002, serving the first three years as co-head coach with Sonja Hogg, who had begun the program in 1974. Upon his retirement, Barmore's .869 winning percentage was the best in major college basketball history, for both men and women's basketball. His nine appearances in the Final Four was second most in NCAA women's basketball history, and as of 2023 it is tied for fourth most all-time. [1] Barmore was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003.
Barmore was born June 3, 1944, in Ruston, Louisiana, to Jasper Barmore and Flora McCurry. He earned All-State honors as a basketball player at Ruston High School, helping his team to two state championships. [2] He went on to play basketball at Louisiana Tech, serving as captain of the team and earned Gulf States All-Conference honors. [1] [2] In his first coaching job after graduation, he coached the boys basketball team at Bastrop High School where his teams recorded a record of 84–41. In 1971, he moved to his alma mater Ruston High School, where he remained until 1977, and coached the team to a record of 148–49. [2]
Barmore joined the Louisiana Tech staff in 1977, nominally as Hogg's top assistant. In truth, Barmore handled nearly all game strategy. He was named associate head coach in 1980 and co-head coach in 1982. [1] He took over the reins full-time in 1985, when Hogg left Ruston.
In 20 years as either co-head coach or head coach, Barmore never suffered a losing season and only failed to win 20 games once. He tallied an amazing 13 30-plus win campaigns while also coaching the Lady Techsters to 20 straight NCAA Tournaments, nine Final Fours (including eight in a row from 1983 to 1990), five national championship games and the 1988 national title. [1] He also led Tech to 13 regular season titles in 15 years as a member of either the American South, Sun Belt or Western Athletic conferences, including 10 in a row from 1992 to 2002. When Barmore coached Tech to a 31–5 mark in 2000–01, he became the first coach in Division I college basketball history to record six straight 30-plus win seasons. He was the fastest to reach 450 victories, achieving that accomplishment in 520 games. [2]
Barmore coached 12 Kodak All-Americans, 14 players who have been selected in the WNBA Draft, and 37 first team all-conference selections.
Barmore was awarded the US Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) Coach of the Year award in 1996, [3] as well as the 1996 Russell Athletic/WBCA National Coach of the Year [4]
In 2008, Leon decided to resume his coaching career at Baylor University, [5] where he was an assistant under former Louisiana Tech player Kim Mulkey, who played under Barmore from 1980 to 1984 and was his top assistant from 1985 to 2000. In the first round of the 2009 NCAA Tournament, Barmore served as Baylor's interim head coach and led the Bears to an overtime victory over UT-San Antonio (Mulkey missed the game with an illness). Both Mulkey and Barmore are members of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame (Mulkey as a player and Barmore as a coach) and the Basketball Hall of Fame. [6] [7]
Season | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Postseason | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters (NCAA Division I independent)(1982–1987) | |||||||||
1982–83 | Louisiana Tech | 31–2 | NCAA Finalists | ||||||
1983–84 | Louisiana Tech | 30–3 | NCAA Final Four | ||||||
1984–85 | Louisiana Tech | 29–4 | NCAA Elite Eight | ||||||
1985–86 | Louisiana Tech | 27–5 | NCAA Elite Eight | ||||||
1986–87 | Louisiana Tech | 30–3 | NCAA Finalists | ||||||
Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters (American South Conference)(1987–1991) | |||||||||
1987–88 | Louisiana Tech | 32–2 | 9–0 | 1st | NCAA Champions | ||||
1988–89 | Louisiana Tech | 32–4 | 10–0 | 1st | NCAA Final Four | ||||
1989–90 | Louisiana Tech | 32–1 | 10–0 | 1st | NCAA Final Four | ||||
1990–91 | Louisiana Tech | 18–12 | 9–3 | 2nd | NCAA First Round | ||||
Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters (Sun Belt Conference)(1991–2001) | |||||||||
1991–92 | Louisiana Tech | 20–10 | 12–4 | T–3rd | NCAA First Round | ||||
1992–93 | Louisiana Tech | 26–6 | 13–1 | T–1st | NCAA Elite Eight | ||||
1993–94 | Louisiana Tech | 31–4 | 14–0 | 1st | NCAA Finalists | ||||
1994–95 | Louisiana Tech | 28–5 | 13–1 | 1st | NCAA Sweet Sixteen | ||||
1995–96 | Louisiana Tech | 31–2 | 14–0 | 1st | NCAA Elite Eight | ||||
1996–97 | Louisiana Tech | 31–4 | 12–2 | T–1st | NCAA Sweet Sixteen | ||||
1997–98 | Louisiana Tech | 31–4 | 13–1 | 1st | NCAA Finalists | ||||
1998–99 | Louisiana Tech | 30–3 | 12–0 | 1st | NCAA Final Four | ||||
1999–00 | Louisiana Tech | 31–3 | 16–0 | 1st | NCAA Elite Eight | ||||
2000–01 | Louisiana Tech | 31–5 | 16–0 | 1st | NCAA Elite Eight | ||||
Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters (Western Athletic Conference)(2001–2002) | |||||||||
2001–02 | Louisiana Tech | 25–5 | 17–1 | 1st | NCAA First Round | ||||
Louisiana Tech: | 576–87 (.869) | 190–13 (.936) | |||||||
Total: | 576–87 (.869) | ||||||||
National champion Postseason invitational champion |
Eight former assistant coaches under head coach Leon Barmore have become head women's basketball coaches.
Louisiana Tech University is a public research university in Ruston, Louisiana. It is part of the University of Louisiana System and classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".
Ruston is a small city and the parish seat of Lincoln Parish, Louisiana, United States. The 2020 population was 22,166. Ruston is near the eastern border of the Ark-La-Tex region and is the home of Louisiana Tech University. Ruston is the principal city of the Ruston micropolitan statistical area, which includes all of Lincoln Parish.
Addie Jo "Jody" Conradt is a retired women's basketball coach. She was the head coach for the women's team at University of Texas at Austin (UT). Her coaching career spanned 38 years, with the last 31 years at UT from 1976 to 2007. She also served concurrently as the UT women's athletic director from 1992 to 2001. During her tenure at UT, she achieved several notable personal and team milestones in collegiate basketball. At retirement, she had tallied 900 career victories, second place in all time victories for an NCAA Division I basketball coach. Conradt was inducted in the inaugural class at the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999.
Kimberly Duane Mulkey is an American college basketball coach and former player. She is the head coach for Louisiana State University's women's basketball team. A Pan-American gold medalist in 1983 and Olympic gold medalist in 1984, she became the first person in NCAA women's basketball history to win a national championship as a player, assistant coach, and head coach. She has won NCAA championships as the coach of Baylor in 2005, 2012, and 2019 and of LSU in 2023. Mulkey was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000 and into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2020.
Sonja Hogg is the former women's basketball program head coach at Louisiana Tech University and Baylor University. She posted an overall record of 307–55 at Louisiana Tech. Her record at Baylor in the Southwest Conference era was 24–33 overall. Hogg's record at Baylor in the Big 12 conference era was 59–58 overall. Her overall record at Baylor for all years was 83–91. Her combined overall record for her entire coaching career was 390–146.
The Wade Trophy is an award presented annually to the best upperclass women's basketball player in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I competition. It is named after three–time national champion Delta State University coach Lily Margaret Wade. The award debuted in 1978 as the first–ever women's national player of the year award in college basketball. State Farm Insurance sponsors the award, and the trophy is presented at the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) National Convention.
Dana "Pokey" Chatman is currently an assistant coach for the Seattle Storm in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Chatman is the former head coach of the Indiana Fever and Chicago Sky of the WNBA. She is also the former head coach of the LSU Lady Tigers basketball team and the Spartak Moscow women's basketball team.
Ruston High School is a four-year public high school located in the Lincoln Parish School District of Ruston, Louisiana, United States. The school has an enrollment of approximately 1300 students with 85 faculty members; the mascot is the Bearcats named "Rusty,” by a class of 2009 student, Anna Ward. The school colors are red, white, and gray. Black students were first admitted in 1970. Ruston High School also serves as a memorial to the survivors of the Gulf War.
Gary Claude Blair is a retired women's basketball head coach. He coached for 37 years closing with Texas A&M Aggies women's basketball, who he coached from 2003 until his retirement in 2022. In his 37 years as a collegiate head coach, Blair only suffered two losing seasons, and has reached postseason play 28 times, including 23 NCAA Tournament appearances and Final Four appearances in 1998 with Arkansas and 2011 with Texas A&M. He led the Aggies to the NCAA national championship in 2011. He is listed in the top 35 of the all-time winningest NCAA Division I women's basketball coaches, and he is one of the few coaches to guide three different schools to national rankings and NCAA Tournament berths. Blair was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013 and the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2023.
The 1982 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament was the first Women's Basketball Tournament held under the auspices of the NCAA. From 1972 to 1982, there were national tournaments for Division I schools held under the auspices of the AIAW. The inaugural NCAA Tournament included 32 teams. Tennessee, Louisiana Tech, Cheyney, and Maryland met in the Final Four, held at the Norfolk Scope in Norfolk, Virginia and hosted by Old Dominion University, with Louisiana Tech defeating Cheyney for the title, 76-62. Louisiana Tech's Janice Lawrence was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament. Her teammate Kim Mulkey went on to become the first woman to win NCAA Division I basketball titles as a player and coach, winning the 2005, 2012, 2019 titles as head coach at Baylor and the 2023 title at LSU..
Ann "Muffet" McGraw is an American former college basketball coach, who served as the head women's basketball coach at Notre Dame from 1987 to 2020, compiling a 848–252 (.771) record over 33 seasons.
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs and Lady Techsters, commonly abbreviated La. Tech and Dawgs, refer to the sports teams of Louisiana Tech University, in Ruston, Louisiana. The teams compete in Division I of NCAA sports. Since 2013, Louisiana Tech has been a member of Conference USA (C-USA).
The traditions of Louisiana Tech University are key aspects to the culture and student life at Louisiana Tech University. The earliest traditions started shortly after the university's founding in the 1890s while other traditions have been introduced more recently. The most notable visible tradition among current students and university alumni is the Lady of the Mist statue and fountain that was constructed in the middle of the Quadrangle in 1938.
The Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters basketball team represents Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana. The team currently competes in Conference USA. The current head coach of the Lady Techsters is Brooke Stoehr. Louisiana Tech has won three National Championships and has competed in 13 Final Fours, 23 Sweet Sixteens, and 27 NCAA tournaments. The Lady Techsters basketball program boasts three Wade Trophy winners, five Olympic medalists, eight members of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, 16 All-Americans, and 21 WNBA players. The Lady Techsters have an all-time record of 1201–398, with a .752 winning percentage, and are the fifth program in NCAA history to reach 1,200 wins. The Lady Techsters have made 27 appearances in the NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament, which is the twelfth most all-time.
The Louisiana Tech Bulldogs basketball program, nicknamed the Dunkin' Dogs, represents intercollegiate men's basketball at Louisiana Tech University. The program competes in Conference USA in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and plays home games at the Thomas Assembly Center in Ruston, Louisiana. Talvin Hester is in his second season as the Bulldogs' head coach.
The Baylor Bears women's basketball team represents Baylor University in Waco, Texas, in NCAA Division I women's basketball competition. They currently compete in the Big 12 Conference. The team plays its home games in the Foster Pavilion. Before the 2021–22 season, the team had been known as the "Lady Bears", but on September 3, 2021, the school officially announced that women's basketball had dropped "Lady" from its nickname. At the same time, soccer and volleyball, the other two Baylor women's teams that were still using "Lady" in their nicknames, also abandoned that usage.
Jennifer White is a former women's basketball program head coach at St. Edward's University. She played college basketball at Louisiana Tech University where she was a member of the 1981 AIAW Division I and 1982 NCAA Division I National Championship teams. White earned her undergraduate degree in physical education in 1983 and her master's degree in physical education in 1985; both at Louisiana Tech. In 1985 Louisiana Tech head coach Leon Barmore hired White as a full-time assistant coach; the Lady Techsters basketball would win the 1988 NCAA Division I National Championship. In 1990 White left Louisiana Tech to serve as an assistant coach for Jody Conradt at the University of Texas at Austin where she coached until 1993. She then worked a basketball training and conditioning programs for the PlayStrong division of Ironsmith Corporation in Austin, Texas. From 2003 to 2012, White had been with the St. Edward's women's basketball program as head coach and achieved a 91–155 record. White played high school basketball at Loretto High School in Tennessee. White has been a women’s basketball referee for the National Collegiate Athletic Association since 2012.
Angela Lawson is the senior associate director of athletics at the University of the Incarnate Word. She played college basketball at Louisiana Tech University where she was a three-year starter for Leon Barmore and the Lady Techsters and won the 1988 NCAA Division I National Championship in her senior season. Lawson went to the University of Tennessee to earn a master's degree and serve as a graduate assistant for Pat Summitt and the Lady Vols. In her second season as GA, Tennessee won the 1991 NCAA Division I National Championship. Lawson then took an assistant coaching position at Texas State, which she served for 3 seasons. Then she took an assistant coaching position at Baylor with former Louisiana Tech coach Sonja Hogg. After serving 6 years at Baylor, Lawson took the head coaching position which at the University of the Incarnate Word until 2013.
LaQuan Stallworth is a former professional women's basketball player. She played for coach Leon Barmore and Kim Mulkey to play for Louisiana Tech University. After successful collegiate playing years, LaQuan took her talents overseas for the next 7 years.
The 1987–88 Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters basketball team represented Louisiana Tech University during the 1987–88 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The team was led by third–year head coach Leon Barmore, who led the team to a 32–2 record and the 1988 NCAA Division 1 championship. This was the program's third championship of the decade, following an NCAA championship in 1982 and an AIAW championship in 1981. The Lady Techsters played their home games at the Thomas Assembly Center in Ruston, Louisiana as a member of the American South Conference.