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Gary Blair, a two-time national finalist for the prestigious Naismith Coach of the Year Award, has brought instant respect to the Texas A&M women's basketball program ever since his appointment in 2003. One of the winningest active Division I coaches in the women's game today, Blair led the Aggies to one of the most memorable runs in school history during the 2007-08 campaign. A&M made its first-ever appearance in the NCAA Elite Eight with a Sweet 16 victory over Duke and a close loss to eventual national champion Tennessee in the Oklahoma City Regional Final. The Aggies earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament after winning its first-ever postseason Big 12 Conference Championship in Kansas City to go next to the previous year's regular-season championship. A&M went on to compile the most victories in school history with a 29-8 overall record that included a program-best 12-game winning streak. By year's end, the Aggies finished a school-best No. 8 in the final Associated Press and USA TODAY/ESPN Coaches Top 25 Polls to put them among the nation's elite in women's college basketball for the second-straight season. Seniors Morenike Atunrase and A'Quonesia Franklin closed out their storied four-year A&M careers by being selected in the 2008 WNBA Draft by the San Antonio Silver Stars and Sacramento Monarchs respectively. The 2007 Big 12 Coach of the Year claimed his 500th career coaching victory against Iowa State on Feb. 20, 2008, to become the 36th all-time Division I coach to reach the milestone in NCAA history. Blair also holds the distinction of being one of only five coaches in NCAA history to take three schools to the NCAA Tournament and is the winningest women's basketball coach in school history by percentage (.638) and ranks among the top 30 all-time winningest active NCAA Division I women's basketball coaches. In 2007, Blair led the Aggies to their first-ever Big 12 championship crown with a program-best 13-3 conference record and an undefeated 16-0 record at Reed Arena. Blair was previously named the National Coach of the Year by the Women's Basketball News Service in 2006, following the team's stellar Big 12 showing and first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 1996. He accomplished it with a team made up of only 73 percent of first-and second-year players in the program. In just his second season, the Aggies advanced to the postseason for the first time since 1996 and attendance continued to increase. Then in 2006, Blair led the Aggies to their first Associated Press Top 25 Poll ranking in 10 years and an NCAA Tournament berth. The Aggies tallied the third-most wins in school history at 23-9 and matched their most victories in conference play ever with an 11-5 mark. It was the most wins since the inception of the Big 12. Blair also guided the Aggies to the second-best two-year turnaround in Big 12 history for a team with a sub .500 record from the previous year with +7 wins. The record propelled the team from a preseason seventh-place selection in the Big 12, to a third-place finish in the league. It was the best conference finish for Blair since his Stephen F. Austin days. Other firsts included the Aggies reaching the semifinals of the Phillips 66 Big 12 Women's Championship in 2006. Blair, 63, has guided his teams to the NCAA Sweet 16 on six occasions and has won 13 opening-round games in 14 trips. He has also reached postseason play in 19 of his 23 years as a head coach and compiled 17 20-win campaigns in his extensive career. He points to the leadership of A&M Director of Athletics Bill Byrne as a selling point. "There would be no way I would be coming to A&M without the leadership and commitment of Bill Byrne," Blair said. "My relationship with Bill is unlike anything else I've ever seen. He cares about you as a person first and a basketball coach second." Blair has put together 22 winning seasons in 23 years of coaching with an impressive .698 overall winning percentage. When Blair returned the Aggies to the AP Top 25 in 2006, he became the fourth active coach and eighth all-time to guide three different schools to national rankings. Blair and his teams have made 190 appearances in the AP Top 25 Poll, to rank among the top 25 all-time and No. 15 among active coaches. He continues to elevate Texas A&M into one of the nation's elite programs after just five seasons in Aggieland where he has compiled a 102-58 record. "Coach Blair has led our women's basketball program to the heights we knew he would reach upon his hiring five years ago," Byrne said. "Our first-ever NCAA Elite Eight appearance in April exceeded expectations we could have only imagined before the hiring of Coach Blair and his staff. He is a great ambassador of the women's game who continues to produce winners in the classroom and on the court. Coach Blair is a proven winner himself and I see our program's success continuing for years to come." A National Coach of the Year honoree by Basketball Times and the Women's Basketball News Service in 1995, Blair has also been named Converse Coach of the Year for District VI five times. In the summer of 2008, the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents approved a salary increase and contract extension for Blair. His new contract will now pay him $800,000 annually through May 31, 2012. "It is such an honor to coach at Texas A&M and work with young people," Blair said. "Thank you to Bill Byrne, our administration and the University System for allowing us to continue to compete at the highest level. Very few programs around the country have the full support of their University President, Board of Regents, Athletic Director and administration which makes A&M a very special place." In 10 seasons at Arkansas, Blair became the winningest coach in school history as he built a 198-120 record with the Lady Razorbacks. In his final season in 2002-03, Arkansas reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament and finished ranked 24th nationally. During his first season in Fayetteville, Ark., he turned the Lady Razorbacks around from a two-year losing skid with a 15-14 record. Then, he molded a team loaded with youth - five freshmen and four sophomores - into a 23-7 NCAA Second Round team. While coaching Arkansas to back-to-back Southeastern Conference Tournament semifinal finishes in 2001 and 2002, his 1997-98 team made history. He took a sixth-place team that was unranked and seeded ninth to the NCAA Final Four - each one a first in hoops history. Prior to taking over the helm at Arkansas, Blair led Stephen F. Austin to a 210-43 record over eight seasons. He won seven-straight conference championships and made six NCAA Tournament appearances. Blair's SFA teams were ranked in the final AP Top 25 Polls, during his last six seasons in Nacogdoches, Texas. Starting with his second season as a college coach in 1986-87, Blair recorded seven seasons with 25+ winning records. That translated into increased home attendance for SFA as it ranked in the top 12 among NCAA Division I attendance leaders. Prior to his stint at SFA, Blair served as an assistant coach at Louisiana Tech. During those five seasons, La. Tech won two national championships in four Final Four appearances. A member of the Texas High School Basketball Hall of Fame, Blair was a groundbreaking coach at Dallas' South Oak Cliff High School. In seven seasons there, he set a state record with five consecutive state tournament appearances and a stellar 239-18 record. His teams won three state Class 4A titles in 1977, '78 and '80, and finished as runner-up by a mere two points in 1979. Blair made nine-straight final four appearances with five at South Oak Cliff and four at Louisiana Tech. His ability to work with athletes from the high school level through postgraduate is proven. Blair spent the summer of 1996 in Taiwan as the assistant coach for the U.S. Jones Cup team. The 1996 team not only won the gold medal, it became the first in U.S. history to go undefeated at the Jones Cup tournament. Every one of the players from the Jones Cup team that Blair worked with are currently stars in the WNBA and four were members of the gold medal U.S. Olympic Team in 2000 and on the team in 2004. Several of Blair's former assistant coaches have become head coaches on the high school, collegiate and WNBA level. The list includes former A&M head coach Candi Harvey, who was the head coach for the WNBA's San Antonio Silver Stars before taking the helm at Mansfield Timberview High School, Tom Collen who is the head coach at Arkansas and Nell Fortner, former U.S. Olympic coach and former head coach of the WNBA's Indiana Fever who is now at Auburn. Also, former assistant, Sue Donohoe, is currently the vice president for NCAA Division I women's basketball in Indianapolis. One of the most active and involved coaches in the Bryan-College Station community, Blair is a frequent and charismatic speaker at the local Rotary Club as well as other civic and student groups throughout the year. He also hosts the annual Gary Blair Celebrity Golf Classic that benefits Special Olympics Texas. A marketing and public relations guru, Blair has increased awareness about his program and attendance at Reed Arena has increased 279 percent due to his one-on-one approach. A 1963 graduate of Dallas' Bryan Adams High School, Blair was an all-city baseball player. After a tour in the U.S. Marine Corps, he earned his bachelor's degree in health and physical education with a minor in journalism from Texas Tech in 1972. He completed his master's degree in education in 1974 and also played a season of baseball for the Red Raiders. Blair's wife, Dr. Nan Smith-Blair, is the director of nursing at the University of Arkansas. The couple has two children, Paige (26) and Matt (22), and one grandson, Logan Carter (5). THE BLAIR FILE COACHING HONORS ▪ 2008 Stephen F. Austin Athletics Hall of Fame Inductee ▪ 2007 Big 12 Conference Coach of the Year ▪ 2007 Naismith Coach of the Year Finalist ▪ 2007 Texas Association of Basketball Coaches Coach of the Year ▪ 2006 Women's Basketball News Service National Coach of the Year ▪ 2006 Texas Association of Basketball Coaches Coach of the Year ▪ 2003 Naismith Coach of the Year Finalist ▪ 2002 Texas High School Basketball Hall of Famer ▪ 1996 U.S. Jones Cup Team Assistant Coach ▪ 1995 Basketball Times National Coach of the Year ▪ 1995 Women's Basketball News Service National Coach of the Year ▪ Five-Time District VI Converse Coach of the Year COACH BLAIR INSIDE THE NUMBERS ▪ 1 NCAA Final Four Appearances (1998) ▪ 2 NCAA Elite Eight Appearances (1998 and 2008) ▪ 1 WNIT Championship (1999) ▪ 14 NCAA Tournament Appearances ▪ 6 NCAA Sweet 16 Appearances ▪ 17 20-Win Seasons ▪ 19 Postseason Appearances ▪ 22 Winning Seasons In 23 Years |
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