COACHING STAFF
COACHING STAFF made 190 appearances in the AP Top 25 Poll, to rank among the top 25 all-time and No. 15 among active coaches. He continues to elevate Texas A&M into one of the nation’s elite programs after just five seasons in Aggieland where he has compiled a 102-58 record. “Coach Blair has led our women’s basketball program to the heights we knew he would reach upon his hiring five years ago,” Byrne said. “Our first-ever NCAA Elite Eight appearance in April exceeded expectations we could have only imagined before the hiring of Coach Blair and his staff. He is a great ambassador of the women’s game who continues to produce winners in the classroom and on the court. Coach Blair is a proven winner himself and I see our program’s success continuing for years to come.” A National Coach of the Year honoree by Basketball Times and the Women’s Basketball News Service in 1995, Blair has also been named Converse Coach of the Year for District VI five times. In the summer of 2008, the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents approved a salary increase and contract extension for Blair. His new contract will now pay him $800,000 annually through May 31, 2012. “It is such an honor to coach at Texas A&M and work with young people,” Blair said. “Thank you to Bill Byrne, our administration and the University System for allowing us to continue to compete at the highest level. Very few programs around the country have the full support of their University President, Board of Regents, Athletic Director and administration which makes A&M a very special place.” In 10 seasons at Arkansas, Blair became the winningest coach in school history as he built a 198-120 record with the Lady Razorbacks. In his final season in 2002-03, Arkansas reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament and finished ranked 24th nationally. During his first season in Fayetteville, Ark., he turned the Lady Razorbacks around from a two-year losing skid with a 15-14 record. Then, he molded a team loaded with youth - five freshmen and four sophomores - into a 23-7 NCAA Second Round team. While coaching Arkansas to back-to-back Southeastern Conference Tournament semifinal finishes in 2001 and 2002, his 1997-98 team made history. He took a sixth-place team that was unranked and seeded ninth to the NCAA Final Four - each one a first in hoops history.
Prior to taking over the helm at Arkansas, Blair led Stephen F. Austin to a 210-43 record over eight seasons. He won seven-straight conference championships and made six NCAA Tournament appearances. Blair’s SFA teams were ranked in the final AP Top 25 Polls, during his last six seasons in Nacogdoches, Texas. Starting with his second season as a college coach in 1986-87, Blair recorded seven seasons with 25+ winning records. That translated into increased home attendance for SFA as it ranked in the top 12 among NCAA Division I attendance leaders. Prior to his stint at SFA, Blair served as an assistant coach at Louisiana Tech. During those five seasons, La. Tech won two national championships in four Final Four appearances. A member of the Texas High School Basketball Hall of Fame, Blair was a groundbreaking coach at Dallas’ South Oak Cliff High School. In seven seasons there, he set a state record with five consecutive state tournament appearances and a stellar 239-18 record. His teams won three state Class 4A titles in 1977, ’78 and ’80, and finished as runner-up by a mere two points in 1979. Blair made nine-straight final four appearances with five at South Oak Cliff and four at Louisiana Tech. His ability to work with athletes from the high school level through postgraduate is proven. Blair spent the summer of 1996 in Taiwan as the assistant coach for the U.S. Jones Cup team. The 1996 team not only won the gold medal, it became the first in U.S. history to go undefeated at the Jones Cup tournament. Every one of the players from the Jones Cup team that Blair worked with are currently stars in the WNBA and four were members of the gold medal U.S. Olympic Team in 2000 and on the team in 2004. Several of Blair’s former assistant coaches have become head coaches on the high school, collegiate and WNBA level. The list includes former A&M head coach Candi Harvey, who was the head coach for the WNBA’s San Antonio Silver Stars before taking the helm at Mansfield Timberview High School, Tom Collen who is the head coach at Arkansas and Nell Fortner, former U.S. Olympic coach and former head coach of the WNBA’s Indiana Fever who is now at Auburn. Also, former assistant, Sue Donohoe, is currently the vice president for NCAA Division I women’s basketball in Indianapolis.
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