Richard F. Byrd (born April 30, 1953) is a retired American
college basketball
College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...
coach who served as the head coach of the
Belmont Bruins men's basketball team from 1986-2019. On February 16, 2017, with the
Bruins win over
Eastern Kentucky
Eastern or Easterns may refer to:
Transportation
Airlines
*China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai
* Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways
*Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 192 ...
, Byrd marked his 750th career win, 658 with Belmont. He retired after the 2018-2019 season with 805 wins,
which ranks twelfth all-time among NCAA Division I men's basketball coaches.
Early life
Byrd grew up in
Knoxville, Tennessee
Knoxville is a city in Knox County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located on the Tennessee River and had a population of 190,740 at the 2020 United States census. It is the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division ...
where he would sit alongside his father, Ben Byrd, and watch him write articles on the
Tennessee men's basketball games as a kid. He then went to play basketball at a Florida junior college for a year, but decided to come back home to Knoxville and attend the
University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (or The University of Tennessee; UT; UT Knoxville; or colloquially UTK or Tennessee) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee, United St ...
, where he was asked to join the junior varsity team for the Volunteers his senior year. The next year, in order to start his coaching career, he became the student assistant to the varsity squad. The very next year Byrd also attempted to become a graduate assistant for the Vols.
Byrd then went to nearby
Division III school
Maryville as an assistant coach. After Maryville, Byrd moved to
Tennessee Tech as an assistant for a few seasons, before becoming head coach at Division II
Lincoln Memorial
The Lincoln Memorial is a List of national memorials of the United States, U.S. national memorial honoring Abraham Lincoln, the List of presidents of the United States, 16th president of the United States, located on the western end of the Nati ...
where he stayed for three seasons and finished with a 69–28 overall record.
Career at Belmont
In 1986, Byrd was hired by Belmont as head coach.
At the time of his retirement, Byrd was one of five active NCAA coaches to have 500 wins at one school. Byrd was also one of 11 active coaches to have more than 600 career wins. Byrd won his 700th game as a head coach on January 17, 2015, when
Belmont defeated
Austin Peay 89–83. Byrd is first among all active NCAA Division I men’s basketball head coaches (min. 10 years at school) when ranked by percentage of schools’ all-time wins; having accounted for over 59 percent of the total victories in Belmont history.
Only three Division I men's head coaches in the nation had been at their respective institutions longer than Byrd's 30 years of service at Belmont.
He led Belmont to eight
NCAA Tournaments in
2006
2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification.
Events
January
* January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute.
* January 12 – A stampede during t ...
,
2007
2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year.
Events
January
* January 1
**Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...
,
2008
2008 was designated as:
*International Year of Languages
*International Year of Planet Earth
*International Year of the Potato
*International Year of Sanitation
The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...
,
2011
The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...
,
2012
2012 was designated as:
*International Year of Cooperatives
*International Year of Sustainable Energy for All
Events January
*January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins.
* January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...
,
2013
2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years).
2013 was designated as:
*International Year of Water Cooperation
*International Year of Quinoa
Events
January
* January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...
,
2015
2015 was designated by the United Nations as:
* International Year of Light
* International Year of Soil __TOC__
Events
January
* January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...
and
2019
This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year.
Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...
. Under Byrd's guidance, the Bruins have won 239 games and posted a remarkable 179–43 (.806) record in conference games over the past 10 years.
Byrd, from 2011–2014, led the Bruins to be one of only six NCAA Division I men's basketball programs to win 26 or more games per season, joining the select company of Duke, Florida, Syracuse, VCU, and Wichita State.
On April 1, 2019, Byrd announced his retirement from Belmont after 33 years at the helm of the program.
[
]
Notable players
Byrd has coached many players that have gone on to have very accomplished careers after their Belmont careers, including J.J. Mann
John Stuart "J. J." Mann (born June 12, 1991) is an American basketball player. He played college basketball for Belmont University.
College career
He played college basketball for the Belmont Bruins. As a senior during the 2013–14 season, M ...
, the Ohio Valley Conference's Player of the Year, a first-team Academic All-American and the winningest player in Belmont history. He now plays for the German professional team Phoenix Hagen.
Byrd also coached Ian Clark, NBA shooting guard. Clark was Associated Press All-America Honorable Mention, Naismith and Lou Henson National Player of the Year candidate, Lefty Driesell Defensive All-America, Mid-Major All-America, OVC co-Player of the Year, First Team All-OVC, OVC Defensive Player of the Year, OVC All-Tournament Team, Tennessee Sports Writers Association (TSWA) Men's Basketball Player of the Year all, among many other awards, all under the direction of Byrd.
Byrd also coached Kerron Johnson who helped take the Belmont program to new heights, leading the Bruins to 102 victories, four regular season conference championships, three conference tournament championships and three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances. Moreover, Johnson helped Belmont earn national Top 25 poll votes three straight seasons and the program's best NCAA Tournament seed - No. 11 - in 2013.
Head coaching record
See also
* List of college men's basketball coaches with 600 wins
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Byrd, Rick
1953 births
Living people
Basketball coaches from Tennessee
Belmont Bruins men's basketball coaches
College men's basketball head coaches in the United States
Lincoln Memorial Railsplitters men's basketball coaches
Maryville Scots men's basketball coaches
Sportspeople from Knoxville, Tennessee
Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles men's basketball coaches
University of Tennessee alumni