Jim Richards is the former men's

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

Western Kentucky University Western Kentucky University (WKU) is a public university in Bowling Green, Kentucky, United States. It was founded by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1906, though its roots reach back a few decades earlier. It operates regional campuses in Glas ...

, coaching the team for seven seasons from 1971 to 1978. He was inducted into the Western Kentucky University Athletic Hall of Fame in 2005. Richards was born in rural

Adair County, Kentucky Adair County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 18,903. Its county seat and only municipality is Columbia. The county was founded in 1801 and named for John Adair, then Speaker of t ...

, and played basketball for one year at Adair County High School. He was recruited to play

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

at Western by Coach E. A. Diddle (better known as the basketball coach). Diddle got Richards into officiating high school basketball. After graduation, Richards was hired as head basketball coach at Auburn High School. He went from there to Glasgow High, where he coached the Scotties to a state championship in 1968. Richards returned to Western as an assistant the following year, when an opening occurred on John Oldham's staff after

Gene Rhodes Eugene Stephen Rhodes (September 2, 1927 – March 10, 2018) was an American basketball player and coach. Career Rhodes played college basketball at Western Kentucky University. While Rhodes was a player, WKU won the Ohio Valley Conference ch ...

left to coach the

Kentucky Colonels The Kentucky Colonels were an American professional basketball team based in Louisville, Kentucky. They competed in the American Basketball Association (ABA) from 1967 to 1976. The name is derived from the historic Kentucky Colonels. The Colo ...

of the

American Basketball Association The American Basketball Association (ABA) was a major professional basketball league that operated for nine seasons from 1967 to 1976. The upstart ABA operated in direct competition with the more established National Basketball Association thr ...

. When Oldham left the sidelines to become athletic director, Richards became head coach for the 1971–1972 season. His overall record at Western was 102–84. His Hilltopper teams won two regular season

Ohio Valley Conference The Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. It participates in Division I of the NCAA; the conference's football programs compete in partnership with ...

championships, plus two tournament championships. The Toppers made the

NCAA men's basketball tournament The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as March Madness, or The Big Dance, is a single-elimination tournament played in the United States to determine the men's college basketball national champion of the NCAA Division I, Di ...

twice, with an overall record of one win and two losses.Sports-Reference.com: Jim Richards
/ref> After stepping down as head basketball coach, Richards coached the men's

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

team. One of his recruits was

Kenny Perry James Kenneth Perry (born August 10, 1960) is an American professional golfer who currently plays on the PGA Tour Champions. He won 14 PGA Tour events and has won nine PGA Tour Champions events including four senior major championships: the 2 ...

from nearby

Franklin, Kentucky Franklin is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of Simpson County, Kentucky, United States. The county is located on the south central border of the state, and its population was 10,176 at the 2020 census. Kentucky Downs, formerl ...

. Perry went on to play on the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also known as the PGA Tour, the PGA Tour Champion ...

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Basketball coaches from Kentucky Western Kentucky Hilltoppers and Lady Toppers athletic directors Western Kentucky Hilltoppers baseball players Western Kentucky Hilltoppers basketball coaches College golf coaches in the United States High school basketball coaches in the United States People from Adair County, Kentucky {{US-basketball-coach-stub