Family, friends, fans, former players help Tom Barr celebrate his Grizzly Athletics Hall of Fame induction
Family members, long-time friends, Grizzly fans and former Grizzly Basketball players turned out in force to help former Missouri State University-West Plains men's basketball head coach Tom Barr celebrate his induction into the Grizzly Athletics Hall of Fame.
The induction ceremony took place during halftime activities of the Jan. 18 Grizzly Basketball home game against Three Rivers College of Poplar Bluff. Barr was an assistant coach at Three Rivers before joining the Grizzlies.
A large contingent of Grizzly Booster Club members, Barr's family members and former players gathered on the court as Russ Gant, a long-time Grizzly Booster Club member and Hall of Fame selection committee member, formally inducted Barr.
Barr, the first head coach of the Grizzly Basketball program, was tasked with building the program from scratch in 1993. Using the skills and knowledge he had developed for nine seasons as an assistant to Gene Bess at Three Rivers, Barr crafted a complete program that was competitive its very first season. That first team of all freshmen posted an 18-13 record and gave the program's new fans a taste of what the future would hold.
Over his 11 seasons, Barr used a philosophy of discipline, hard work and team play to guide the Grizzlies to an overall 256-98 record and two NJCAA Region 16 Championships.
On an individual level, Barr developed nine NJCAA All-Americans, two NJCAA Distinguished Academic All-Americans, 17 All-Region 16 honorees and 31 players who transferred to NCAA Division I programs.
Right person for the job
In presenting Barr for induction, Gant said Barr was the right person to head the basketball program at the beginning. "His work ethic was unbelievable. He not only coached, he helped recruit, he helped fund-raise, he was a tremendous promoter in the community. He understood the community buy-in was extremely important. He was the perfect guy – the perfect hire – for that job," Gant said.
Barr said the commitment of community leaders to the program made the position attractive. I felt like they wanted to have an outstanding program," he said. "They had a nice place to play because the civic center had just opened, and the commitment I sensed from the people I talked to when I came over here, that they would do what they had to do as far as resources to make a go of it, I felt really confident in that."
Even so, building a program from scratch wasn't easy. Housing options at the time for student athletes were limited, and the area's lack of cultural diversity was daunting for some recruits. Despite the obstacles, Gant said, Barr built a competitive program that played some of the best teams in junior college basketball and earned national rankings.
Barr said several factors contributed to the team's quick success – the culture of hard work and discipline that was developed from the beginning and the support of his assistant coaches and long-time administrative assistant.
"I had really good assistants – Coach Tinsley who was instrumental in getting it started on the right foot, and Anthony Beane, David James and Robert Guster. They did a great job bringing in good players. All four of them were really, really good assistants, and all left here with coaching opportunities at D1 schools. You're not going to have a good program if you don't have good assistants," Barr said.
"Linda Cates, my administrative assistant for nine years, did a great job keeping us organized and helping maintain the day-to-day operations of our program," he added.
Praise from former players
Many of Barr's former players give credit to him for their personal success.
"As a player, I came in as a no-name walk-on, and I left there as an All-American," said Jerome Jackson, who played for the Grizzlies from 1995-1997 and was a Grizzly Athletics Hall of Fame Inductee in 2004. "It was all because he believed in me and showed me how to be the best I could be as a basketball player. As a person, he was the most important mentor that I had ever come across at that point in my life. The life lessons I learned from him go well beyond the basketball court. I came to him as a boy, I left him as a man."
For Guster, who also played for the Grizzlies from 1995-1997 and served as Barr's assistant for the last five years of his tenure with the team, his former coach continues to be a mentor. "To this day, I still call upon him for ideas, strategies and advice. Any time there is a decision to be made, he can expect a call," said Guster, who now serves as an assistant with the Texas State University men's basketball program.
"Coach Barr's character was of the highest level, and he instilled in me to have character like that," said Jason Robbins, one of Barr's first local recruits who played for the Grizzlies from 1994-1996. "He helped me understand how hard I should work in everything I do. He not only made me a better player, but a better man, a better father, husband, employee, citizen and friend."
More than team records or awards, it's hearing about the success of his players off the court that Barr's most proud of. "Every player who stayed two years with us got his two-year degree," he noted. "So many of these players went on to play basketball and get their four-year degree. You see so many of them who are successful now. The wins and losses, that's great, but the fact that so many of these young men came here and needed a sense of direction and we were able to provide that for them, that's the most important thing for me personally. That's what's neat to see."
A reception for Barr was held in the civic center's Dogwood Rooms immediately following the game.