RANGER -- On this rainy Friday night, in a speck-on-the-map town between Fort Worth and Abilene, Billy Clyde Gillispie coached his first college basketball game since March 7, 2012.
Roughly 100 fans and exactly one sportswriter witnessed it.
For $5, which included entry to the women's game, they saw intense-as-ever Gillispie prod and strategize Ranger College to a 27-point victory over Cedar Valley College.
Without context, this snapshot would seem to be of a once star coach's crash-landing. From making $2.7 million annually at Kentucky to $108,000 as a community college coach and athletic director. From 23,000 fans and pyrotechnics at his first Kentucky practice eight Octobers ago to, well, this.
But to Gillispie, 56, this high school-size gym on this tattered 90-year-old campus in this shrinking 2,454-citizen town is not a life or career thud.
It's home.
This is where he played basketball and baseball from 1978 to 1980, 50 miles southwest of his hometown of Graford, population 494. It's where his aspirations crystallized and his career path took direction.
News broke in April that Ranger is where Gillispie had chosen to resurface, in a basketball sense, after tumultuously brief tenures at Kentucky (2007-09) and Texas Tech (2011-12).
He's rejected interview requests from across the country, but 45 minutes after his Ranger debut he emerged from the locker room with a smile, a handshake and a friendly five-minute conversation sprinkled with ecstatic pronouncements.
"This is the best job I've ever had."
"This is the last job I'll ever have."
"I've never been happier."
He said returning to Ranger has been exhilarating and rewarding because, here, he can provide hope and opportunity and make a tangible difference on campus.
He said students, faculty and administrators go out of their way to thank him, adding that it's nice to feel genuinely appreciated.
He said he would not have come without assurances that things would be done the right way. He noted that, already, the basketball locker rooms and campus dorms are being refurbished.
So why hasn't Gillispie given any in-depth interviews? He said his focus and energy need to be on Ranger; thus he has no time or interest in retracing the past, including what he's been doing the last three years.
After mulling for a few seconds, Gillispie said, "Let's talk next week."
Tumult at Tech
If in fact Ranger is the last job he'll ever have, it's possible the limelight will never again find Gillispie -- certainly not to the glaring extent of his previous three jobs: Texas A&M, Kentucky and Texas Tech.
The last time he made major news was when he resigned at Tech on Sept. 20, 2012, six months after finishing 8-23 overall and 1-17 in Big 12 play in his only season after replacing Pat Knight.
The months leading to his resignation included a secondary NCAA violation for exceeding practice limits, six players transferring and two extended hospital stays by Gillispie, the latter in Minnesota's Mayo Clinic, where he was treated for stress, high blood pressure, headaches and kidney problems.
Since then, the only other time he was briefly in the news was last May, when he and several other coaches testified in Athens, Ga., in a fraud case against former Georgia football coach Jim Donnan, who was accused of perpetuating a Ponzi scheme but found not guilty on all 41 counts.
It marked the second time in three years that Gillispie, along with numerous other coaches, had reportedly been misled and victimized in investment company collapses, although Gillispie brought gallows humor to the witness stand in Georgia when asked his profession.
"I'm not currently doing anything right now," he said.
But for anyone wondering whether Gillispie returned to coaching out of financial need, all indications say otherwise.
Ranger College President Bill Campion said there were five months of discussions before Gillispie agreed to come. And that $108,000 salary?
"He's already put more of his money into the college than that," Campion said. "I think he's been very successful in life. I don't know. He plays things pretty close to the vest with me."
And the refurbished locker rooms and dorms about which Gillispie gushed? Campion said Gillispie personally covered much of the bill.
Campion said Gillispie has made several recruiting trips, in and outside of Texas, but hasn't submitted any expense reports seeking reimbursement.
Asked whether he truly believes Gillispie has invested more than $108,000 into the school, Campion responded, "I'd say yes, yes, yes.
"He is an intensely caring fellow," Campion added. "He is a very good man who has a rough, tough exterior, but underneath that is a heart of gold."
Campion, 74, is in his seventh year as Ranger's president and his fifth decade as a community college administrator.
When Campion arrived, Ranger had fewer than 700 students spread among its campuses in Ranger, Brownwood, Stephenville and Olney.
In 2011, Ranger, Odessa, Brazosport and Phillips were community colleges targeted for closure when the Texas House Appropriations Committee initially proposed a $5 billion cut in public school funding, but they were saved by a Senate budget revision.
Ranger's enrollment has grown to nearly 2,500. While its satellite campuses are newer, the original is one of Texas' oldest two-year colleges. Three-tenths of a mile from campus is the restored McCleskey No. 1 oil well that gushed on Oct. 17, 1917, after which Ranger's population swelled to 30,000.
"Our curb appeal is not the greatest here in Ranger, but Billy's already done a lot of things to improve the appeal," Campion said, adding that he's never heard Gillispie say a negative word about Texas Tech or Kentucky or lament not having major college resources.
"I guess we all have to learn that bigger is not better," Campion said.
Playing days at Ranger
Campion coached basketball in the 1960s and 1970s and later refereed games around the state, including some of Ranger's with Gillispie in the backcourt.
Gillispie came to Ranger to play baseball, specifically catcher, but was coaxed into playing basketball by coach Ron Butler. As a freshman, Billy joined Butler's son, Ron Jr., in the starting backcourt.
Ron Sr. was a fixture at Ranger from 1964 to 2000. Along with serving as men's basketball coach and athletic director, he started the women's team and coached it for 16 seasons, winning the 1971 national title.
When Ranger's gym was renamed Ron Butler Gymnasium in 2010, Gillispie returned for the ceremony, bringing his mother, Winifred "Wimpy" Gillispie.
Nine months earlier, Billy had been fired after two seasons and a 40-27 record at Kentucky. Butler attended that season's Southeastern Conference tournament in Tampa. At halftime of Kentucky's second-round loss to LSU, "I go to the bathroom and everyone's talking about firing Billy Clyde," Butler said.
After rejoining the sea of blue-clad Kentucky fans in the stands, Butler made the mistake of telling the woman next to him that he coached Gillispie.
"Well, you didn't teach him a damn thing," she responded.
Butler, who is on Ranger's board of directors, said he was elated when Gillispie showed interest in returning to Ranger as coach and AD. Butler said Gillispie also was weighing several Division I assistant coaching offers and an offer to be a head coach in a European pro league.
"Having been at the highest level you can get, that surprised me that he'd want to come back to junior college," said Butler, 82. "But his love for basketball exceeds anyone's that I've ever known, and I know he loves this place.
"I think the reason he stayed out of coaching as long as he did was because he lost some family members. He wanted to be there for the rest of the family."
Family crises
Wimpy was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2009. Billy took her to cancer treatment centers in Houston and Tampa.
She worked at Morrows Grocery in Graford for 30 years and continued to live in the same shotgun house in which she raised Billy and his four sisters, resisting Billy's repeated attempts to buy her a bigger one.
Wimpy told The News in 2007 that she continued to work because she loved her customers and because it kept her from smoking too much. She was saddened when, on Dec. 18, 2010, doctors told her she could no longer work because her immune system was too weak.
She died in her home less than three weeks later, on Jan. 7, 2011.
"She didn't view work as work," said one of Billy's sisters, Jerry Hoffman. "I think that's something probably everyone in our family has. We don't look at the negative side of work. We look at it as an opportunity."
Jerry followed Billy into coaching. For more than two decades, she coached basketball at Robinson, Crockett and Coppell. She now coaches volleyball at Mart, where her husband, Kevin, is the head football coach.
Two months before Billy was forced out at Texas Tech, his sister Kay Ragle's 29-year-old son, Jess, drowned at Possum Kingdom Lake on July 17, 2012.
On March 12, 2013, Kay was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. According to Jerry, Kay and her husband, Louis, became Billy's primary focus.
"It was really difficult for all of us involved, but I think it was particularly difficult for him," she said. "He internalizes things and tries to be the strong person in the family. He took on a lot of responsibility."
Kay died on Sept. 9, 2014, at Scott & White Hospital in Temple. She was 57. Jerry said she knows Billy and Kay spoke frequently in the final months, but she never asked what they discussed.
"That's not my business," she said. "But I do know that she felt extremely close to him at the end part of her life. I know that what he did was really important for her, and in turn it was important for everybody else in the family."
Difference maker
Jerry said she believes Billy remained out of coaching as long as he did was because he wanted to be sure it was the right time -- and opportunity -- to pour himself into the job.
Ranger, Jerry said, is a chance for her brother "to make a huge difference, not only in basketball, but on that campus."
Ranger's season-opening win over Lancaster-based Cedar Valley College occurred on Oct. 30.
Three days later, Gillispie phoned to say that, after thinking it over, he decided it's too soon for a sit-down interview.
"Maybe if we win some games and get this thing going, there will be something to write about," he said.
Since then, Ranger has improved to 6-0, but, for now, other voices and snippets from the season opener will have to suffice.
Gillispie, who had become noticeably thin during his 17 months in Lubbock, appeared to be at least 20 pounds heavier.
Instead of crouching on the sideline, as he often used to do, he mostly sat on a chair, leaning so far forward that the back legs kept lifting.
He made five substitutions in the game's first five minutes, giving, uh, constructive criticism to each exiting player.
"You know what? He coaches the same as when I watched him at Tech, A&M and Kentucky," Butler said. "Couldn't tell any difference."
Playing in front of a smattering of fans didn't seem to bother Gillispie. Afterward, he said he appreciated those who came.
"We'll get better," he kept telling well-wishers.
On his way out of the gym, Gillispie introduced his niece, Shelby, to the reporter. According to Jerry, Billy was instrumental in persuading Shelby to enroll at Ranger. She is the daughter of Billy's sister Deana Meredith, of Keller.
Shelby, according to Jerry, is in the Ranger choir and a member of the recently resurrected cheerleading squad.
"It's been a wonderful thing for her," Jerry said. "She is flourishing. She's living the college life."
Now Jerry has extra reason to come to a Ranger game, although seeing Billy back on the sideline is reason enough.
"I'm incredibly proud and excited that he's back in coaching," she said, her voice cracking, "but sad that my mom and Kay aren't here to watch him. Because they were his two biggest fans."
Twitter: @Townbrad
Billy Gillispie timeline
Nov. 7, 1959: Born in Abilene
1978-80: Plays basketball and baseball at Ranger College
1980-81: Student assistant under Bob Derryberry at Sam Houston State
1982-85: Graduate assistant under Derryberry at Southwest Texas State
1985-94: After coaching at Killeen, Copperas Cove, Canyon and Ellison high schools, becomes an assistant at South Plains (Texas) Junior College
1994-97: Baylor assistant
1997-2000: Tulsa assistant
2000-02: Illinois assistant
2002-04: UT-El Paso head coach
2004-07: Texas A&M head coach
2007-09: Kentucky head coach
Aug. 27, 2009: Arrested in Lawrenceburg, Ky., for driving under the influence. Pleaded guilty, fined $1,028.
September 2009: Began three-month stint at the John Lucas After Care Program in Houston.
March 20, 2011: Hired as Texas Tech head coach.
July 2011: Sports Illustrated reports that Gillispie lost $2.3 million and other coaches lost varying amounts in a Ponzi scheme orchestrated by Houston-based AAU coach and investor David Salinas before he committed suicide.
January 2012: Gillispie and assistant coach Bubba Jennings reprimanded by Tech for exceeding the 20-hour practice limit.
Summer 2012: Six players transfer from Texas Tech.
Aug. 31, 2012: On the day reports surface that several players met with Tech AD Kirby Hocutt over concerns with how Gillispie is treating them, Gillispie is hospitalized in Lubbock with what he called "stroke-like symptoms."
Sept. 11, 2012: Gillispie checks in to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
Sept. 20, 2012: Gillispie resigns Texas Tech job, citing health issues.
May 12, 2014: Gillispie is one of several coaches who testify in trial of former Georgia football coach Jim Donnan, who is later found not guilty of all 41 charges related to an alleged Ponzi scheme. Gillispie says he initially lost $1.7 million, but recouped about $1 million.
April 2015: Gillispie hired as basketball coach and AD at Ranger College.
Twitter: @Townbrad
