• The KillerFrogs

TCU Magazine: Billy Ball

Limp Lizard

Full Member
Anybody else here who was at that cyber-bar near the convention center when we met Billy and his assistants? I was wowed. I was expecially impressed by Billy and McClane (sp?). Baylor fans had been boasting that Billy wanted to go to Baylor but they turned him down. When questioned about this, Billy grinned, shook his head and said "Sheee-ut" :D
 

Paint It Purple

Active Member
Tubbs was very accessible to TCU fans, too. Thirty minutes before game time was his only "don't approach" time.
I know this is about Tubbs, but Killer told a story about approaching Digger Phelps before a neutral site game with Notre Dame. He introduced himself to Phelps, who obviously had no idea who Killingsworth was. Killer says, "I'm the TCU coach". Phelps could have cared less....perhaps it was his "don't approach time".
 

Frog Wild

Ticket Exchange Pass
His teams were fun to watch, and he was sure fun to listen to.
I was at a practice early in his tenure and he called for a Speed Drill. The guys run up and down the court, he blows his whistle and says "Fellas, this is called a speed drill ... you're supposed to be running full speed, and if that's full speed, we're in trouble."
 

OmniscienceFrog

Full Member
Anybody else here who was at that cyber-bar near the convention center when we met Billy and his assistants? I was wowed. I was expecially impressed by Billy and McClane (sp?). Baylor fans had been boasting that Billy wanted to go to Baylor but they turned him down. When questioned about this, Billy grinned, shook his head and said "Sheee-ut" :D
Yeah, I was there that night at the Rodeo Steakhouse when somebody asked him about the Baylor thing. He did say "sheee ut, Baylor can't afford me!".
 

SwissArmyFrog

Active Member
And it was because of Billy Tubbs that we also got The Ticket's 'Fake Billy Tubbs' - one of the all time greats, Chuck.

My wife loves many of the The Tickets' characters...but she absolutely hates Fake Billy Tubbs.

Whenever she says, "That is NOT funny!" I laugh even harder!
 

Limp Lizard

Full Member
Yeah, I was there that night at the Rodeo Steakhouse when somebody asked him about the Baylor thing. He did say "sheee ut, Baylor can't afford me!".
I was so impressed. What was your take on that evening?

At the same place on a different night, poor Wes trying to teach the commishioner of the WAC how to use a chat room. Unsuccessfully.
 

don

Active Member
I was so impressed. What was your take on that evening?

At the same place on a different night, poor Wes trying to teach the commishioner of the WAC how to use a chat room. Unsuccessfully.

Fun times. Tubbs crashed the server during the chat due to too much traffic.
 

OmniscienceFrog

Full Member
I was so impressed. What was your take on that evening?

At the same place on a different night, poor Wes trying to teach the commishioner of the WAC how to use a chat room. Unsuccessfully.
It was a great night. I remember that Steve McClain was there with him that night too.

Yeah, The Karl Benson fiasco.
 

Sangria Wine

Active Member
Billy Tubbs was the BEST. He is the reason TCU athletics was able to build into a national brand. He proved what was possible and the donors bought in and it spread across the whole department and then the whole campus. No Billy Tubbs…no TCU renaissance.

He and his family were always fantastic to be around. The way that Eric Hyman treated him was deplorable. And then EH’s attempt at killing off the baseball program…Lance Brown’s classless shove out the door after winning the fight with him to build a stadium and get serious about baseball…to this day I have absolutely no respect for EH. Being in the loop of the inner workings back then allowed me to see what he really was.

But alas…Billy Tubbs deserves a statue at DMC. A true legend and pioneer at TCU. Someday maybe they will get it back to where he had the program.
 

Salfrog

Tier 1
Billy Tubbs was the BEST. He is the reason TCU athletics was able to build into a national brand. He proved what was possible and the donors bought in and it spread across the whole department and then the whole campus. No Billy Tubbs…no TCU renaissance.

He and his family were always fantastic to be around. The way that Eric Hyman treated him was deplorable. And then EH’s attempt at killing off the baseball program…Lance Brown’s classless shove out the door after winning the fight with him to build a stadium and get serious about baseball…to this day I have absolutely no respect for EH. Being in the loop of the inner workings back then allowed me to see what he really was.

But alas…Billy Tubbs deserves a statue at DMC. A true legend and pioneer at TCU. Someday maybe they will get it back to where he had the program.
This so much. EH tore down the excitement & everything that BT had built. I never liked him when he was here.
 
This so much. EH tore down the excitement & everything that BT had built. I never liked him when he was here.
This, exactly this. Billy Ball had DMC rocking. It was fun to watch, and we had an identity as a high scoring fast paced team. I was hooked.

Billy leaving didn’t have to be the end of it, but the subsequent hires of Dougherty and Christian were killers. Dougherty ‘s disaster in casting his recruiting lot with fly by night prep school God’s Academy and the injury to Chudi Chinweze really set the program back. That and some some nepotism at the PG spot.

Christian was just a terrible culture fit. Northeast/MAC guy who had no business in Texas. Staff was former players from places like Chicago, where we were never going to compete for top talent.

Trent Johnson at least had an eye for talent bringing in some key pieces like Vlad and Kenrich Williams. If we didn’t finally get our chance to bring Jamie home he might still be coaching here.
 
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