Remembering Billy Tubbs

 I can’t say I knew Billy Tubbs, the irascible, inimitable college basketball coach who won 641 games at Lamar, Oklahoma, TCU and Lamar again, who died on Sunday at age 85. But I remember him well.

Very well.

Among the memories:

In January 1997, Tubbs brought his TCU Horned Frogs to the Pit to play New Mexico, at the time a Western Athletic Conference rival. He refused to use Albuquerque’s mile-high altitude as an excuse for a loss that night. In fact, he refused to acknowledge the altitude.

“The game was played indoors,” he explained. 

Oh, OK. 

The following summer, TCU transfer power forward Damion Walker signed with New Mexico. Tubbs was furious, believing UNM had contacted Walker before his release from his scholarship at TCU — a violation, if true, of NCAA rules. Lobos coach Dave Bliss denied any such impropriety.

That January, at the end of a UNM blowout with the Lobos approaching the century mark, Tubbs called two timeouts in the final minutes. Both teams had their starting lineups in the game, despite the lopsided score, at the buzzer.

After the buzzer, Tubbs shook hands with Bliss. He extended his hand to UNM assistant Tony Benford — then, apparently blaming Benford for the Walker recruitment, forcibly flung Benford’s outstretched hand away.

“Bleep you!” Benford said — twice — before order and decorum were restored.

Afterward, Tubbs refused comment on the Benford incident, as well as the game. Nothing.

Benford, a former Hobbs Eagle and Texas Tech Red Raider, called the dust-up “a gentleman’s disagreement.” When pressed further, he explained he was upset because “Billy didn’t recruit me out of high school.”

That night, our stories filed, Journal beat writer Chris Tomasson and I headed for the old Bennigan’s on Louisiana, where we met Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporter Terrance Harris for a drink.

The Horned Frogs, it turned out, were staying next door at the Marriott. And so, into Bennigan’s walked Tubbs and his assistants. 

Nice guys that we were, Tomasson, Harris and I told our waiter we’d like to buy Tubbs and his assistants a round of drinks. The offer was gruffly refused. No, we told the poor waiter, we insist. Once again, more forcefully, Tubbs refused. 

Whoever that waiter was and wherever he is today, I apologize for all three of us.

Tubbs’ relationships with the media were often toxic. In July 1998, when the Walker story broke, Tomasson called his office for comment. 

“He declines to take your call,” Tubbs’ secretary told him. Harris told Tomasson he was getting the same response.

Finally, as proof that, no, you can’t find everything on the internet, I searched high and low on Monday for a video I recall of a skit that Tubbs and Jerry Tarkanian — I believe Tark was at Fresno State at the time — performed on Tark’s TV show as a takeoff on the Saturday Night Live  “Wayne’s World” sketches featuring Mike Myers and Dana Carvey. 

“Party on, Billy,” said Tarkanian. “Party on, Tark,” said Tubbs. 

Here’s hoping Tubbs and Tarkanian, who died in 2015, are partying on right now in the afterlife.