The University of Mississippi Athletics
Weltlich and His Teams Brought Winning to Ole Miss Basketball
11/6/2024 | Men's Basketball
When Ole Miss athletics director John Vaught hired Bob Weltlich as the men's head basketball coach, everything changed. It signaled a major commitment to the sport.
Vaught acknowledged the Rebels had found the right person to lead the program on April 2, 1976, the day Weltlich was announced to the media and to Ole Miss students, alumni, and fans.
"We have accomplished our goal," a quote from Vaught, the former head football coach, reads in the 1976-77 Ole Miss men's basketball media guide. "We feel in Bob Weltlich we are getting the finest young coach in America. I have never seen anyone come so highly recommended."
Long known for football and baseball success nationally, Ole Miss had not reached that level in men's basketball, although with some very talented players through the years and former coaches who were certainly basketball knowledgeable.
Then arrived the youthful, confident 31-year-old Weltlich, fresh off a stint at Indiana where he was an assistant coach on his childhood friend Bob Knight's staff. The 1975-76 Hoosiers were 32-0 and are still the last NCAA men's basketball champion with a perfect record. The season before that, Indiana had lost only one game, falling short of a national title.
Bob Weltlich knew what it took to win when he arrived. The winning took a while, but the program was decidedly different from the start. Even the uniforms in those first few seasons looked like the Hoosiers' hoops attire, with the vertical striped warmup pants and Ole Miss in block letters - as opposed to Indiana - across the front of the actual game jersey.
Arguably no team in the country played harder than Weltlich's. He would accept nothing less.
After three years of building, with not quite enough wins to break even each season, the Rebels finally broke through. After the 1979-80 regular season, Ole Miss was selected to the National Invitation Tournament. The NIT bid was the first postseason tournament ever for Ole Miss men's basketball.
In a dramatic 76-74 first-round victory over Grambling, Rebel star Carlos Clark hit the winning jump shot as the game ended. Ole Miss fans and students almost yelled the roof right off C.M. "Tad" Smith Coliseum. Although the Rebels lost a 58-56 contest at Minnesota in round two, it was a new day, a new era, for Ole Miss basketball.
The following season, 1980-81, the Rebels again made the postseason, but this time it was the NCAA Tournament. An Ole Miss squad took a .500 record to Birmingham, Ala., and won three straight - over Tennessee, Vanderbilt, and Georgia - to claim the program's first Southeastern Conference men's basketball tournament crown with accompanying NCAA berth. Ole Miss lost to the Kansas Jayhawks 69-66 in the first round of the Midwest Regional played in Wichita.
In 1981-82, Ole Miss again made the NIT, and a highlight during the season was a 67-65 home win against top ten Kentucky on a January night when few could get to Oxford, or even to the Coliseum, as snow and ice blanketed north Mississippi. A rowdy crowd in a half-filled Tad Pad, most of them students who could get to the game, helped lift the Rebels past the Wildcats.
After a win in the NIT over Clemson and a loss to Virginia Tech, Weltlich left Ole Miss for Texas. But in those six seasons, he and his staff and players had significantly changed college basketball at Ole Miss.
There were many outstanding players during those six seasons. Weltlich's first recruit to Ole Miss, John Stroud, became the second leading all-time scorer in Southeastern Conference men's basketball history by the time he graduated, trailing only Pete Maravich, the former LSU star. Only two players even today are officially recognized by the SEC as scoring more points in men's basketball than Stroud. From nearby West Union High School, only 20 minutes from the Ole Miss campus, the 6-foot-7 Stroud scored 2,328 points in four seasons with the Rebels.
Elston Turner arrived as a player right out of Volunteer country. The Knoxville product became a household name in the SEC as Ole Miss fans and students yelled "EEEEEEEE!!!" every time he shot the basketball. A playing and coaching career in the pro ranks followed for Turner.
Sean Tuohy, from Newman High School in New Orleans who played four seasons for the Rebels, remains the all-time assists leader in Southeastern Conference men's basketball with 830.
Weltlich's last three teams started a run of eight wins in a row against Mississippi State that carried over into the first season when Lee Hunt became head coach. "Eight Straight Over State" was a slogan repeated often during that time.
The memories remain, and the banners hanging in the Sandy and John Black Pavilion are proof. The stories from his players, from Ole Miss students at the time, and from fans who supported the program in record numbers all continue to this day.
Bob Weltlich, Ohio State alum and former Indiana assistant coach, with a national championship pedigree and a tough, disciplined approach to the game, showed Ole Miss people just how much fun a winning basketball program can be.
Vaught acknowledged the Rebels had found the right person to lead the program on April 2, 1976, the day Weltlich was announced to the media and to Ole Miss students, alumni, and fans.
"We have accomplished our goal," a quote from Vaught, the former head football coach, reads in the 1976-77 Ole Miss men's basketball media guide. "We feel in Bob Weltlich we are getting the finest young coach in America. I have never seen anyone come so highly recommended."
Long known for football and baseball success nationally, Ole Miss had not reached that level in men's basketball, although with some very talented players through the years and former coaches who were certainly basketball knowledgeable.
Then arrived the youthful, confident 31-year-old Weltlich, fresh off a stint at Indiana where he was an assistant coach on his childhood friend Bob Knight's staff. The 1975-76 Hoosiers were 32-0 and are still the last NCAA men's basketball champion with a perfect record. The season before that, Indiana had lost only one game, falling short of a national title.
Bob Weltlich knew what it took to win when he arrived. The winning took a while, but the program was decidedly different from the start. Even the uniforms in those first few seasons looked like the Hoosiers' hoops attire, with the vertical striped warmup pants and Ole Miss in block letters - as opposed to Indiana - across the front of the actual game jersey.
Arguably no team in the country played harder than Weltlich's. He would accept nothing less.
After three years of building, with not quite enough wins to break even each season, the Rebels finally broke through. After the 1979-80 regular season, Ole Miss was selected to the National Invitation Tournament. The NIT bid was the first postseason tournament ever for Ole Miss men's basketball.
In a dramatic 76-74 first-round victory over Grambling, Rebel star Carlos Clark hit the winning jump shot as the game ended. Ole Miss fans and students almost yelled the roof right off C.M. "Tad" Smith Coliseum. Although the Rebels lost a 58-56 contest at Minnesota in round two, it was a new day, a new era, for Ole Miss basketball.
The following season, 1980-81, the Rebels again made the postseason, but this time it was the NCAA Tournament. An Ole Miss squad took a .500 record to Birmingham, Ala., and won three straight - over Tennessee, Vanderbilt, and Georgia - to claim the program's first Southeastern Conference men's basketball tournament crown with accompanying NCAA berth. Ole Miss lost to the Kansas Jayhawks 69-66 in the first round of the Midwest Regional played in Wichita.
In 1981-82, Ole Miss again made the NIT, and a highlight during the season was a 67-65 home win against top ten Kentucky on a January night when few could get to Oxford, or even to the Coliseum, as snow and ice blanketed north Mississippi. A rowdy crowd in a half-filled Tad Pad, most of them students who could get to the game, helped lift the Rebels past the Wildcats.
After a win in the NIT over Clemson and a loss to Virginia Tech, Weltlich left Ole Miss for Texas. But in those six seasons, he and his staff and players had significantly changed college basketball at Ole Miss.
There were many outstanding players during those six seasons. Weltlich's first recruit to Ole Miss, John Stroud, became the second leading all-time scorer in Southeastern Conference men's basketball history by the time he graduated, trailing only Pete Maravich, the former LSU star. Only two players even today are officially recognized by the SEC as scoring more points in men's basketball than Stroud. From nearby West Union High School, only 20 minutes from the Ole Miss campus, the 6-foot-7 Stroud scored 2,328 points in four seasons with the Rebels.
Elston Turner arrived as a player right out of Volunteer country. The Knoxville product became a household name in the SEC as Ole Miss fans and students yelled "EEEEEEEE!!!" every time he shot the basketball. A playing and coaching career in the pro ranks followed for Turner.
Sean Tuohy, from Newman High School in New Orleans who played four seasons for the Rebels, remains the all-time assists leader in Southeastern Conference men's basketball with 830.
Weltlich's last three teams started a run of eight wins in a row against Mississippi State that carried over into the first season when Lee Hunt became head coach. "Eight Straight Over State" was a slogan repeated often during that time.
The memories remain, and the banners hanging in the Sandy and John Black Pavilion are proof. The stories from his players, from Ole Miss students at the time, and from fans who supported the program in record numbers all continue to this day.
Bob Weltlich, Ohio State alum and former Indiana assistant coach, with a national championship pedigree and a tough, disciplined approach to the game, showed Ole Miss people just how much fun a winning basketball program can be.
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