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Thread: UL Coach (1957-73) Beryl Shipley

  1. UL Basketball UL Coach (1957-73) Beryl Shipley

    Research:

    LOUISIANA La. - Beryl Shipley, who won almost 70 percent of his games and won more contests than any basketball coach in University of Louisiana history, is the focal point of this weekend's Beryl Shipley Reunion.

    The former coach is joined by former assistant coaches, players and managers in celebrating the Shipley Era (1957-73) at the school.

    The weekend, which tipped off with a casual social Friday evening at Acadian Village, will continue at 10 a.m. today with an appearance at the Walk of Honor at the UL quadrangle. At 10:30, Shipley will be on hand for a fan appreciation session at Earl K. Long Gym on campus.

    It was Shipley's early success at Long Gym that prompted the move to Blackham Coliseum as the Cajuns moved into NCAA Division I play.

    The weekend will be capped by a 6 p.m. dinner tonight at the Lafayette Hilton ballroom, with proceeds from the reunion helping to fund the Beryl Shipley Mended Heart Scholarship.

    Shipley's teams won 296 games and lost 129, a .696 winning percentage. More impressive was the school's record in the NCAA's top level of competition, a 74-13 mark from 1970-73 which included three appearances in the NCAA Tournament.

    The 1970-71 team finished 25-4 and made the NCAA College Division National Tournament at Evansville, Ind. The Cajuns lost to Evansville 93-74 before topping Kentucky Wesleyan 105-83 in a consolation game.

    In 1971-72, UL was 25-4 in its first year of University Division action, falling to Louisville 88-84 and defeating Texas 100-70 in the NCAA Tournament.

    Louisiana ripped Houston 102-89 in the 1973 NCAA Tournament, before falling to Kansas State 66-63 and South Carolina 90-85.

    In all, seven teams posted 20-win seasons under Shipley, a member of the Louisiana Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame.

    The Shipley Era was also marked by the emergence of star players, such as Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame member Dwight "Bo" Lamar, who twice led the nation in scoring (36.0 points per game in 1970-71 in College Division and 36.3 as a junior in 1971-72 in University Division), scored a UL-record 3,493 points and averaged 31.2 points in his Cajun career.

    Other stars included Marvin Winkler (2,128 points, 1966-70), Jerry Flake (2,058; 1965-69), Roy Ebron (1,683 points and 1,064 rebounds from 1970-73), Tim Thompson (1,587; 1957-61) and Dean Church (1,546; 1961-65).

    Shipley resigned and entered private business in 1973 after NCAA sanctions prompted a two-year dissolution of the Cajun program.



    ADVERTISER
    Bruce Brown
    Can we get the man in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame already?

    Enough with the grudges.

    Shipley Era Reunion


  2. #2

    Default Beryl C. Shipley

    Really nice read...


    Beryl C. Shipley
    Inducted Into Coach's Hall of Fame
    By Tom Shipley
    Birmingham, Michigan Class of 1942

    See Web Page: http://www.coachshipley.com/beta/coach.php

    Beryl C. Shipley, a Dobyns-Bennett High School graduate, Class of 1944, was inducted into the Louisiana Association of Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame on July 24, 1986. The previous year, on July 25, 1985, Coach Shipley had been named, "Mr. Louisiana Basketball." Jonas Breaux, Staff Sports Writer for The Daily Advertiser, Lafayette, Louisiana, wrote, "Former USL basketball Coach Beryl Shipley was credited with helping vault Louisiana basketball into the 20th century Thursday night, as the long-time Ragin' Cajun mentor was named 'Mr. Louisiana Basketball' by the Louisiana Association of Basketball Coaches (LABC) at their 10th annual Hall of Fame banquet held at the Holidome. 'Beryl was the first coach in our state to really go out of Louisiana to recruit and to do something positive about upgrading his schedule,' said LABC Master of Ceremonies Lenny Fant of Northeast, one of Shipley's former coaching foes. 'Shipley brought USL into the national limelight in the late 1960s.'"

    "In those early days (1957/58), recruiting was done from a station wagon," wrote Greg Lopez, Staff Columnist for the Daily Iberian newspaper, "and if Beryl threw a mattress in the back and slept on it three nights a week, he could get by on $10 per diem." In Beryl's first year at Southwestern, game attendance ranged from 500 to 750 generally, but on big nights, as many as 1000 to 2,000 would show up. In those days SLI played home games in the old Blackham Coliseum, unless some more important event had been scheduled. Bob Henderson, a sports writer for Lafayette's major newspaper, wrote, retrospectively in 1973, that more important activities were considered to be "a flower show, a rodeo, a crawfish boil, a travel lecture, or a dog show. When one of these events conflicted with basketball, Shipley and his crew had to move over on campus to the tiny men's gym." In those early years, obviously, basketball was not considered to be very high in the scheme of things for the Institute.

    The Record
    In his first year, the 1957-58 season, with a win/loss record of 16-11, Beryl was recognized as the Gulf Coast Conference's Coach of the Year; in his second year, 1958/59, with a win/loss record of 15-9, he was again recognized as Coach of the Year. During the 13 seasons from 1957/58 to 1970/71, playing in the Gulf States Conference, his teams won five Gulf States Conference Championships and were runners up on six other occasions. He was named the Conference's Coach of the Year on four occasions. In the 1969/70 season he was recognized as the "winningest coach" in the Gulf States history and had become only the third coach in the 22-year history of the Conference to win 100 or more conference games. Under his direction, Southwestern won two NAIA District 27 championships and advanced to the national finals in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) College Division championships in 1971, finishing third. Each year, from 1967 through 1971, USL's team was ranked in the College Division's top 20 in the nation.

    And as the basketball team continued its winning ways, the attendance in Lafayette increased. By the 1964/1965 season, there was no longer the possibility that basketball games would be shunted over to the Men's Gym. The Coliseum was filled to capacity for every game. And in the late '60s, early '70s, standing room only of some 9000 rabid fans filled the Coliseum, and the crowd left standing in line, unable to get in,
    outnumbered that which had showed up for the games during his first season. The station wagon with the mattress in the back was now long gone, and basketball had become a top-flight activity, avidly followed by USL students, alumni, and most of Louisiana.

    In 1971/72 his program was accepted into the NCAA University ranks, in the Southland Conference. His team won the Southland Conference title in USL's first year as a Major College and finished eighth in the nation, with a 24-4 record. The Ragin' Cajuns' team was invited to the NCAA Major College Tournament where it defeated Marshall in a play-off game at New Mexico State and advanced to the Midwest Championships. It was defeated by Louisville, 88-84. USL was the first team to represent Louisiana in the NCAA tournament in 14 years.

    Bob Henderson, The Daily Advertizer of Lafayette wrote, "For his efforts in 1971/72, (Beryl) was chosen Coach of the Year for the state of Louisiana and the Southland Conference. The city of Lafayette held a day in his honor and topped it off with a huge formal reception at the Lafayette Civic Center. The fans of Southwestern basketball were paying tribute to a man, not for that year's accomplishments, but for 16-years of achievements that he had brought to USL."

    On February 11, 1972, Red Bailes, Knoxville (Tennessee) News Sentinel, wrote: "There's a new name in the major college basketball polls this season — Southwestern Louisiana. The Ragin' Cajuns are No. 13 in The Associated Press rankings and are tied for 11th with Florida State in the UPI voting. (No Southeastern Conference team is in The AP's top 20. Kentucky is 14th in the UPI).

    "That's 'moving' for a team's first year in the major college division. The man that's moving the Lafayette, La., team is an East Tennessean — Beryl Shipley. A Kingsport native, Coach Shipley finished his high school basketballcareeratDobyns-Bennett High in 1944. His coach was the late Snooks Aitken….

    "The Ragin' Cajuns lost their season-opener, at Eastern Kentucky, but rebounded to win at Western Kentucky on the same road-trip. They now have a 17 to 2 mark, the other loss being to Los Angeles State, also on the road. Shipley's team defeated the University of Houston, 98-89, for its biggest victory (Tennessee lost to Houston). In 15 seasons (with eight games to go this year), USL has won 263 games and lost 122 under Shipley."

    "… His team constantly ranked high in the small college national polls — but that wasn't enough. Shipley wanted to play the big boys. 'There is a great deal of difference in the two divisions,' said Shipley. 'I think it means a lot as far as pride of our team is concerned, knowing that they're going out there against the big boys. Also, if the players you're trying to recruit know you're university division, it gives you a better shot at them, because when you're in the [small] college division they know they're not going to get an opportunity to play against the

    UCLA's and the Marquette's. We've at least got a shot at these people now — if you can come up with the team that can earn the right to go.'"

    The following year, 1972/73, he won the Southland Conference title again, with a perfect 12-0 record. Both of the wire service's polls for Major Colleges ranked USL seventh in the nation, with a 24-5 record, and the Ragin' Cajuns advanced to the semi-finals of the Midwest Regional in Houston, Texas, before being upset by Kansas State.

    (That was to be his last year as basketball coach for USL. He finished his coaching career with an outstanding win-loss record at USL of 297-127.)

    The Deep South of the Sixties

    Coach Shipley picked an unfortunate time to enter the basketball scene in the South. This was a period of intense racial strife. The integration movement was well underway, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was now the law of the land. During 1964, over 200 northern college students traveled to Mississippi to participate in "Freedom Summer"; three students were murdered for helping black resident's register to vote. In 1965, a peaceful demonstration in Selma, Alabama was broken up by brutal action from the white police force and local residents. One young black man was shot and killed. Martin Luther King came to Selma to attend the funeral and organized a massive march from Selma to Montgomery. It was stopped by Alabama's Governor Wallace; on his orders, state troopers and civilian vigilantes waylaid the marchers with toxic tear gas and billy clubs. The brutal treatment, captured on national television,caused uproar in the nation. Shortly after, Martin Luther King, with 3000 people, made the march from Selma to Montgomery that had been previously denied. He was joined by tens of thousands of supporters. In 1965, riots in Watts, California, preceded similar disTurbineces in major cities of the nation. In 1966, the Department of Health, Education & Welfare specified specific desegregation goals for schools, threatening a cut off of federal aid to schools if the goals were not realized.

    Southern schools had been, in most part, quietly resisting. And in Louisiana, the resistance was conducted by the Louisiana State Board of Education. Its policies, referred to as "unwritten laws" dictated that no Louisiana school's athletic team was to incorporate black athletes and that their all-white teams were not to compete against any team that included black players. In 1965 Coach Shipley bucked the State Board by competing in a tournament against a team including black players and in 1966, brought in the first black athletes for his team.

    In 1965, Coach Shipley, with the aid of student demonstrations, forced the school administration to give permission for his all-white team to play against teams with black athletes in an important tournament held in Kansas City. This brought about the death of one unwritten rule under which Deep South schools had been operating. Then, in 1966 he ended the second rule, which prevented black athletes from participation in athletics, by signing three of them for USL's basketball squad. These two events brought wrathful attention from all quarters of the State of Louisiana that lasted into the early '70s. And they led to his resignation as coach, announced at a 10:00 AM press conference, held on May 16, 1973.

    The racial turmoil and political climate existing in Louisiana during those times were instrumental in cutting short the coaching career of an individual who had demonstrated exceptional talent. And the politics of Louisiana prevented the underlying facts from being bared then, and continue to this day.

    But life is funny. Had Beryl managed to survive the political onslaught and stayed at USL, the evidence indicates that he would have been grievously wounded financially. Instead, he moved into the oil industry, had a wonderful career in it, and has retired comfortably. And he basks in the affection of the people of Lafayette, Louisiana.

    Beryl was recruited as basketball coach by John Robert Bell, a life-long friend and graduate of Kingsport, Tenn., high school, who had been hired in 1955 as athletic director and football coach. Beryl came to USL from Starkville, Mississippi, where he had been head basketball coach at Starkville High School for five years. His teams had posted a 111-26 record under his guidance. While at Starkville, he acquired his masters in Education at Mississippi State. Prior to Starkville, he spent one year at Morgan City, Mississippi, where he was the head basketball (19-7), football, and baseball coach and taught five social studies classes. He is a health and physical education graduate of Delta State College, in Mississippi, where he was a two-year starter at guard. He attended Hinds Junior College on a basketball scholarship where he also was a two-year starter at guard. Beryl was born and raised in Kingsport, Tennessee, and graduated from Dobyns-Bennett High School in 1944. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II.

     


    http://www.dobyns-bennett.com/halloffame/Shipley_B/


  3. UL Basketball 1973: EXILE ON MAIN STREET ( Beryl Shipley )

    SHIPLEY STILL TRYING TO FIND DOOR TO LOUISIANA HALL
    Robin Hood or Jessie James? Beryl Shipley looks different angles.

    Shipley was either a coaching whiz and social pioneer, coaching the Univeristy of Southwestern Louisiana into the basketball elite, breaking the "color line" at the same time, or he was a scoundrel who caused USL to suffer the harshest penalties ever meted out by the NCAA.

    Shipley's final six Ragin' Cajun teams all were ranked in final Top 20s. He was conference Coach of the Year six times in two leagues, and USL won almost 70 percent of its games (296-129, which translated into seven conference championships and six runner-up) in 16 years under Shipley.

    You'd almost think those are Hall of Fame credentials.

    But the only way Shipley can get into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame is if he buys a ticket.

    Shipley has been on the Hall ballot for the better part of a decade and has yet to garner enough votes from the state's sports wrriters to get in.

    The reason is clearly the NCAA probations that hit USL in 1968 and 1973. The 53 violations in 1973, including 32 involving the basketball coaching staff, put the entire USL athletic program on probation.

    A decade before the term "death penalty" became part of NCAA jargon, a shutdown of the Cajun basketball program was ordered.

    Only Kentucky, in the early 1950s, has ever endured a similar basketball sentence.

    The NCAA as a matter of policy does not discus specifics about any of its investigations, but an enforcement officer familiar with USL at the time said, "This was the biggest penalty ever handed out, and there was a reason for it."

    Shipley's staff was charged with grade-fixing, giving money and loans without charging interest, providing cars and clothes to USL players, providing transportation home, and gas and maintenance for their cars.

    The cash payments were of varying amounts, ranging from $5 to $185 a week.

    "Hell, some of those kids needed clothes," said Shipley, now 65 and a Lafayette oil executive. "They needed to live like other students. They needed linen, and they needed toothbrushes. Yes, they got something. And I'd say we got by cheaper than anybody else in the top 10."

    Less easily rationalized is the grand-tampering, which Shipley said was done by well-meaning academic "friends," though the NCAA said in its charges that the USL basketball staff was involved in arrangements for "fraudulent testing and certification."

    Neutral observers on the scene at the time hold to a theory that Shipley's problems began in 1965 when he defied the state's segregation laws, which forbade "white" teams from playing in tournaments where they may have to play againt black athletes, by taking his Gulf States champion Cajuns to the NAIA tournament in Kansas City, Mo.

    A year later, he recruited the first black players (Marvin Winkler, Leslie Scott and Elvin Ivory) at a Louisiana state college.

    "The other GSC schools wanted to take a little more time and agreed to get black players together," said Austin Wilson, the Louisiana Associated Press sports writer. "As I recall, Shipley said, 'I don't agree to this.'"

    Ed Tunstall, the Louisiana AP bureau chief at the time, said, "Shipley simply saw players he knew could help him and ticked everybody off by getting them." Not only were the other coaches angry, but the State board of Trustees, which runs Louisiana's secondary coleges, refused to aprove the grants-in-aid for the black players.

    With Shipley's blessing, a black business group in Lafayette raffled a car, and the proceeds paid for the grants.

    "When the NCAA first came around," Shipley recalled, "I filled them in on that, why we had players who were not on scholarship. And that turned out to be one of the first charges they hit us with."

    Neither USL nor the NCAA has copies of the 1968 case on file to verify Shipley's claim.

    "But the State Board of Trustees did freeze Shipley's salary at $15,900 for the five years after the first black were recruited.

    "I did think they were trying to send a message," Shipley said.

    Dr. Ray Authement, now the president of USL, noted that to that point, Shipley had an impeccable personal record but after that became "sort of obsessed with getting the players he wanted."

    Shipley said after he talked to the NCAA in 1967 about the lack of athletic grants for his black players, "It became a brushfire. It just kept going. It never stopped."

    Today, Shipley contended the biggest mistake he made was not getting a big-time lawyer. A young lawyer named Bob Wright and former state senator Edgar Mouton worked for Shipley's interest as volunteers. John Allen Bernard was retained for USL. "I guess I was a volunteer," Bernard said. "I've never been paid."

    They kept the NCAA at bay in the couts for more than a year, fighting the NCAA sanctions.

    Shipley's attorneys won in state court but lost 4-3 in the Court of Appeals. The turn of one appeals vote could have mirrored the recent case of UNLV Coach Jerry Tarkanian, whose attorneys conferred with Shipley's when they fought the NCAA.

    "The problem we had was there was nobody left to fight for USL," Shipley said. In the wake of the scandal, the president resigned, the athletic director resigned, the football coach resigned and Shipley resigned.

    "They just wanted to get it over with," Shipley said of the new Cajun regime.

    Richard Chappius, a Lafayette lawyer who represented the NCAA, said USL was only fighting procedurally to keep the case going. "The NCAA had USL dead to rights."

    Authement said Shipley's credentials for the state Hall of Fame have to be looked at from an historical perspective. "He was one of the first Southern coaches to recruit blacks. He had many problems diretly because of that. There were tansgressions, but there also were mitigating factors."

    Benny Hollis, the athletic director at Northeast Louisiana Univeristy, was a member of the committee that voted Shipley into the state Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame several years ago.

    Hollis, who played and coached against Shipley's teams, agrued passionately that the Hall of Fame would be incomplete without Shipley.

    "Beryl Shipley did a lot more on the plus side than on the minus side," Hollis said. "As a man who made a living coaching basketball, take it from me, he was a great coach. He got a lot of average players and made them beter players."

    Interestingly, one of those players Shipley developed, Dwight "Bo" Lamar, is enshrined in the Louisiana Hall of Fame.

    There is one other matter to weigh. Integrity was never a discussion when the only other coach whose basketball program was found corrupt enough for the NCAA to shut down was inducted into the national Basketball Hall of Fame.

    That, of course, was Adolph Rupp.
    Times-Picayune
    February 4, 1991
    Marty Mule

  4. Default

    Beryl Shipley
    at Louisiana

    YearWL
    1957-581611
    1958-591410
    1959-60208
    1960-61185
    1961-62178
    1962-631213
    1963-641310
    1964-652010
    1965-66178
    1966-672011
    1967-68195
    1968-69207
    1969-701610
    1970-71254
    1971-72254
    1972-73245
    Total296129

    Beryl Shipley was conference coach of the year six times, winning seventy percent of his games in 16 seasons at the University of Louisiana.


  5. #5

    Default

    Richard Chappius is a goofball TAF member. LSU should at least try to hide their small man down mentality. They must think enough time has past and people will forget it was an LSU lawyer bent on sending UL packing.


  6. #6

    Default Re: Times-Picayune story 1991

    Originally posted by NewsCopy
    Richard Chappius, a Lafayette lawyer . . .
    Interesting touch.

  7. #7

    Default

    You know, I`d be real interested to see what kind of connections if any, that Richard Chappius has with LSU. Based on his comments, and the fact that he was working for the NCAA, and based on Chuck`s comments, it sounds like something could be there. I just know that if I ever found out that he did have a small-man-down-mentality sort of connection with LSU, that would put a real sour taste in my mouth.

    Geaux UL Ragin Cajuns!

    p.s.- I have a feeling that Coach Cyp`s gonna make Coach Shipley proud


  8. #8

    UL Basketball Thoughts on Coach Beryl Shipley

    I joined this site for several reasons, but this was one of the biggest reasons. I've known Coach Ship my entire life and our families are very close. In fact, he attended quite a few of my games growing up and always had solid advice. I obviously have a biased opinion of him and I wasn't around when he was coaching at USL. He gave me a copy of his book and I just recently stopped by his house to get it signed. I plan on starting the book sometime later this week. I've heard bits and pieces about his story, and I'm hoping to learn a lot more through "Slam Dunked". I know he put together some great teams and was just wondering if some of ya'll would share your opinions (both good and bad) of the former coach. Thanks.


  9. #9

    Default Re: Thoughts on Coach Beryl Shipley

    I did not remember all of the things that happened to cause him to resign and the book tells the story. I did not necessarily like the book. I thought it was confusing to read and not really well told. Ron Gomez is an accomplished author and I thought something was "holding him back". I can't say I would recommend reading the book. It caused me to wonder about the truth or the twisted truth. OR the reason Coach Ship didn't do something sooner. Maybe it would have been better if it had been longer. I had a lot of unanswered questions. Just my two cents.


  10. #10

    Default Re: Thoughts on Coach Beryl Shipley

    Quote Originally Posted by LuLu View Post
    _ I did not remember all of the things that happened to cause him to resign and the book tells the story. I did not necessarily like the book. I thought it was confusing to read and not really well told. Ron Gomez is an accomplished author and I thought something was "holding him back". I can't say I would recommend reading the book. It caused me to wonder about the truth or the twisted truth. OR the reason Coach Ship didn't do something sooner. Maybe it would have been better if it had been longer. I had a lot of unanswered questions. Just my two cents. _
    Thanks. Sounds like my experience after reading "It never rains in Tiger Stadium" by John Ed Bradley. Given the personal connection with Coach Ship, it's a must read in my case. If I have some of the same questions, maybe I will ask them if they aren't too personal. Thanks for the input. From what I understand, he's kind of like UL's version of Dale Brown as far as winning is concerned.

  11. #11

    Default Re: Thoughts on Coach Beryl Shipley

    Quote Originally Posted by basketballjone View Post
    _ Beryl called me the other day... He was wanted me to go coach at this school... I told him i was good where i was, and thanks... Just something about him, when he talks you listen...

    GOOD GUY TO KNOW _
    No doubt, I love listening to his hoops stories. Brad, didn't you play with Brandon? I first met him at an LSU camp, and he ended up moving two streets over from my mom's street. Good guy, haven't seen him in years. Is he playing overseas? I also know Javon pretty well, but he's a few years ahead of you.

  12. #12

    UL Basketball Re: Thoughts on Coach Beryl Shipley

    Quote Originally Posted by bballholic View Post
    _ I joined this site for several reasons, but this was one of the biggest reasons. I've known Coach Ship my entire life and our families are very close. In fact, he attended quite a few of my games growing up and always had solid advice. I obviously have a biased opinion of him and I wasn't around when he was coaching at USL. He gave me a copy of his book and I just recently stopped by his house to get it signed. I plan on starting the book sometime later this week. I've heard bits and pieces about his story, and I'm hoping to learn a lot more through "Slam Dunked". I know he put together some great teams and was just wondering if some of ya'll would share your opinions (both good and bad) of the former coach. Thanks. _

    I think the book explains pretty well why we (UL Athletics) have never achieved the success we thought we could/should have since then. He was certainly a fine coach and I am sorry his career was cut short by bigotry, jealosy, et al.

    I started at UL (USL) in 1974 and that year (maybe in '73) the school started "Lagniappe Day". The one in '74 was held in the Student Union where they had 5 cent beer and played basketball highlights on a side wall screen. I sure wish there was a highlight DVD available from that time period!

  13. #13

    Default Re: Thoughts on Coach Beryl Shipley

    Quote Originally Posted by bballholic View Post
    _ I joined this site for several reasons, but this was one of the biggest reasons. I've known Coach Ship my entire life and our families are very close. In fact, he attended quite a few of my games growing up and always had solid advice. I obviously have a biased opinion of him and I wasn't around when he was coaching at USL. He gave me a copy of his book and I just recently stopped by his house to get it signed. I plan on starting the book sometime later this week. I've heard bits and pieces about his story, and I'm hoping to learn a lot more through "Slam Dunked". I know he put together some great teams and was just wondering if some of ya'll would share your opinions (both good and bad) of the former coach. Thanks. _
    I liked the book a lot. It gets a little repetive or slow in the middle as he addresses all of the charges-so there may be a point where you skip a bit of it-but it was a good read. Have to admit part of it being a good read for me was remembering going to a lot of the games as a kid. My folks knew Coach over the years as well-I grew up on the next block over from his house.

  14. Default Re: Thoughts on Coach Beryl Shipley

    I enjoyed the book.

    After getting reverse jammed the NCAA silence has been golden.


    igeaux.mobi


  15. #15

    Default Re: Thoughts on Coach Beryl Shipley

    Quote Originally Posted by bballholic View Post
    _ I joined this site for several reasons, but this was one of the biggest reasons. I've known Coach Ship my entire life and our families are very close. In fact, he attended quite a few of my games growing up and always had solid advice. I obviously have a biased opinion of him and I wasn't around when he was coaching at USL. He gave me a copy of his book and I just recently stopped by his house to get it signed. I plan on starting the book sometime later this week. I've heard bits and pieces about his story, and I'm hoping to learn a lot more through "Slam Dunked". I know he put together some great teams and was just wondering if some of ya'll would share your opinions (both good and bad) of the former coach. Thanks. _
    Coach Shipley was an outstanding coach who was way ahead of his times here in Louisiana. I started at USL in Jan. 1973, the last semester of the Shipley Era (after transferring from LSU). The ball game atmosphere was electric! The team was exciting to watch. I wish we could have that caliber of team again. The book is an uneven read. It has a lot of fascinating parts, but as someone else said, it is slow in some parts and tends to be repetitive. As a Ragin' Cajun fan for over 35 years, I couldn't put it down. The portion of the book devoted to the NCAA charges and the USL responses was generally tedious, but there were some interesting pieces.

    It is unbelievable that Shipley is not in the LA State Hall of Fame. That is just wrong. If for no other reason, his breaking the color line should get him in. But his won-loss record is so good that it is ridiculous for him to remain out of the HOF. I hope that is corrected in his lifetime. This book is a must-read for EVERY Ragin' Cajun fan and should be read by all basketball fans in the state. It does NOT paint a very good picture of many people, including the state athletics board (at that time), board of regents (at that time), the USL administrations (at that time), Raymond Blanco, and, most especially, Stanley Galloway.

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