Bob Mckillop
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Bob McKillop The McKillop Era Owns Davidson record in career wins with 340 All-time leader in SoCon victories with 191 Five NCAA Tournament appearances Three NIT appearances 2008 National Association of Basketball Coaches Coach of the Year 2008 Coach Clair Bee Award winner 65 of 65 seniors graduated Eight 20-win seasons Five SoCon Tournament championships Nine SoCon regular-season titles Three undefeated SoCon seasons 36 professional players BOB MCKILLOP Davidson coach Bob McKillop gets on into the players’ entrance at Ford Field. THE MCKILLOP FILE the bus like a general preparing to lead his The trip took 15 minutes. It was no or- troops into battle. He takes his seat on the dinary trip from Dearborn into Detroit. It NAME Robert McKillop front row to the right of the driver, and was more magic than routine. It was a BIRTHDATE July 13, 1950 when he sits it’s the signal for the driver ride that took the Wildcats to the site of BIRTHPLACE Queens, N.Y. to shut the door and get the NCAA Elite Eight, the finals of the WIFE Cathy moving. Midwest Regionals. CHILDREN Kerrin, Matt, Brendan This is the way it is for Davidson was on the Broadway stage, COLLEGE Hofstra ’72 Davidson basketball on all right. The Wildcats of Bob McKillop DEGREE History road trips. Bus leaves at against the mighty Kansas Jayhawks, All-time winningest coach in Davidson and Southern 6:40. It’s best to be steeped in a rich basketball tradition. The Conference history with 340 victories and 191 league aboard by 6:30, because dome hosted 57,563 fans for this game wins. the Wildcats operate on while millions more watched on televi- 65 of 65 seniors have graduated during the McKillop era. sion around the world. They saw a great MST – McKillop Stan- COACHING HONORS Bob McKillop dard Time. game, a fierce tug of war that saw neither Head Coach Once the bus rolls, si- side blink, neither team willing to con- NABC NATIONAL COACH OF THE YEAR lence prevails. It’s time cede an inch. College basketball at its best. 2008 to focus, reflect, get ready to play. As Kansas ended the 40-minute battle with COACH CLAIR BEE AWARD McKillop likes to say to his players at two more points than Davidson and went 2008 breakfast the morning of a road game, on to become national champions. SOCON COACH OF THE YEAR “It’s Game Day, baby.” All was not lost for the ‘Cats, though. 1994, 1996, 1997, 2002, 2005, 2007, 2008 This time things were different, signifi- They proved that dreams do come true, HUGH DURHAM FINALIST cantly so. It was March 30, 2008, and while that David and Goliath can be replayed in 2007, 2008 the calendar said it was spring the brisk the 21st century, and that pride in a bas- CHAMPIONSHIPS Michigan air said otherwise. It was cold ketball program and the way it goes about 1996 SOUTHERN CONFERENCE and snow lay on the ground. The team its business can bring more goodwill and North Division Regular Season 1997 SOUTHERN CONFERENCE North Division Regular Season “Last year during the NCAA Tournament, the entire country got to see what I've 1998 SOUTHERN CONFERENCE known for 30 years. Bob McKillop is one of the best coaches in the country and North Division Regular Season has been for a long time.” Southern Conference Tournament University of Texas coach Rick Barnes 2002 SOUTHERN CONFERENCE North Division Regular Season bus was preparing to leave the Dearborn recognition to a great liberal arts college Southern Conference Tournament Inn and head over to Ford Field in Detroit, than could $20 million in the hands of a 2003 SOUTHERN CONFERENCE ordinarily a ride of 30 to 35 minutes de- New York advertising agency. North Division Regular Season pending on traffic. Inside Ford Field, “Sweet Caroline,” the 2004 SOUTHERN CONFERENCE Not this day, though. adopted theme song of the Wildcats, was South Division Regular Season A Detroit policeman stood next to the never louder or delivered with more 2005 SOUTHERN CONFERENCE Davidson bus, and once the driver said, pride than on this Sunday afternoon. South Division Regular Season 2006 SOUTHERN CONFERENCE “We’re ready,” the officer barked his own McKillop had lost a game but the body Southern Conference Tournament orders. Five Detroit police cars sprung of their work had captured a nation’s bas- 2007 SOUTHERN CONFERENCE into action, emergency lights swirling and ketball heart. It was real life Hoosiers. All South Division Regular Season sirens blaring. Working with as much co- the hard work paid off. Southern Conference Tournament ordination as synchronized swimmers the Each morning when McKillop enters 2008 SOUTHERN CONFERENCE officers raced down Oakwood Blvd., his office in Davidson’s Baker Sports South Division Regular Season clearing a path for the bus by stopping Complex, he passes a December 1968 Southern Conference Tournament traffic and shooing it aside. Police cars in Sports Illustrated magazine that is dis- NCAA Tournament Regional Finalist front of the bus, beside it, behind it, one played prominently, one that has a cover racing ahead to clear a path. picturing North Carolina’s Charlie Scott, history, finished the season ranked third The bus moved rapidly behind a flying Kentucky’s Mike Casey and Davidson’s in the nation, and fought powerful North wedge of black and whites. Down Oak- Mike Maloy, under a headline that reads, Carolina to the final second before falling wood Blvd. past the Ford plant to I-94, “Challengers to UCLA.” 87-85 in the NCAA Elite Eight. One step four lanes, traffic being whisked to a stop. While others might have doubted from the Final Four. Lefty Driesell, the The police caravan cleared the way for a Davidson’s ability to again achieve such a coach at the time, said it was most likely high-speed transition to I-96 East and then lofty place among basketball’s elite, the best team he ever had at Davidson. onto Fisher Street past the beautiful St. McKillop never did. He knew his Wildcats To even suggest that Davidson basket- John’s Episcopal church. A right onto – with dedication and hard work – could ball might reach those heights again Rush Street, a left on St. Automotive, a reach the pinnacle, too. Davidson won 27 caused some people to scoff. Not McKil- right on Beacon and finally down a ramp games in 1969, the second most in school lop. He knew it could be accomplished. It 72 BOB MCKILLOP was in his heart and soul, so sure was he. He received the Coach If he hadn’t allowed himself this dream, Clair Bee Award. He hadn’t had such faith, he wouldn’t have was named the South- stayed at Davidson for 20 years as its head ern Conference Coach basketball coach. He would have sought of the Year for the sev- another rainbow where maybe dreams do enth time. Davidson come true. has won nine of the He knows now that nothing is impossi- last 13 Southern Con- ble for Davidson basketball. Hey, if he tells ference Division cham- his players to latch onto large dreams, pionships, six of the why should he be different? Coming off last seven, and three two consecutive 29-win seasons, he be- consecutive league ti- lieves now more than ever. Believing tles. should not be confused with complacency, Every basketball fan however. He remains fired up and hungry. in America knows ation in 1972, he signed as a free agent He signed a contract extension with about Davidson now. The dream-maker with the Philadelphia 76ers but was cut. Davidson that will keep him with the has spun some magic. The 76ers went 9-72 that season. “I was school at least through 2016. Davidson is “Many times you only hear about the cut from the worst team in NBA history,” his home. He wants more banners, cham- coaches in the power conferences being McKillop jokes. Humility surfaces in pionship banners. great coaches,” says John Beilein, the strange ways, sometimes humorously. Basketball coaches around the nation highly successful University of Michigan Reluctantly accepting the fact that his have long known how talented McKillop coach. “Bob McKillop is equal or better playing career was over, he took a job is. But when a coach labors just out of the than any other coach that I know, and I’ve teaching history and coaching basketball national spotlight it sometimes takes a lit- coached against most of the best in the at Holy Trinity High in Long Island in “When coaches in Europe talk about the influence of American coaches in helping build up the international game of basketball, Bob McKillop is on a short list with guys like Dean Smith, Hubie Brown and Bob Knight. Because he has given them his valu- able time through the years, they figured out long ago what college basketball fans have discovered recently - Bob is a great coach.” Fran Fraschilla, ESPN Basketball Analyst tle longer for others to discover and rec- country in my 16 years in Division I.” 1972. After a sparkling 86-25 record as ognize his good works. Now the world Like many outstanding coaches, McKil- coach, in 1978 McKillop was offered assis- knows about Davidson basketball and its lop cloaks himself in mystery, lest he dare tant coaching positions at the University head coach. McKillop was named 2008 become predictable, a trait coaches aren’t of Pennsylvania and Davidson where National Coach of the Year by the Na- allowed. His resume tells an interesting Eddie Biedenbach had just been named tional Association of Basketball Coaches.