On Episode 10 of Season 5, we visited with legendary basketball coach Thomas Billups.
Billups is a native of Louisville, MS and grew up the youngest of 14 children in Winston County, insuring that the only way up was hard work, and then more hard work. Billups was involved in every sport you could imagine, but the main focus was football, baseball, and of course basketball.
His first coaching job saw him excel at Vicksburg High school as an assistant and then eventually as head coach of the Gators’ junior high program, where he led Vicksburg to four 8th grade Little Six crowns and teo 9th grade Little Six crowns. Then it was on to Blackburn Middle School in Jackson where he again thrived, leading them to two city championships in three appearances.
In 1991, Thomas began his coaching stint that cemented his name on any high school athletics Mount Rushmore in Mississippi. Billups became coach of the Lanier Bulldogs, where he built a national high school basketball powerhouse on Maple Street, leading them to 8 state championships in 13 appearances. He also led Lanier to the Grand Slam title in 2017, and amassed over 600 wins at Lanier.
Billups left Lanier and spent some brief time at Oak Grove High School before landing the head coaching position in 2014 at Tougaloo College. Billups won two championships at Tougaloo before stepping back into an assistant coach role in 2022, which he holds at present. One of the best to ever pace the sideline in a basketball gym, with his signature scowl and furrowed stare, you’ll see a different side of the fiery Thomas Billups in this exclusive one-on-one.
See a preview of our sit down with Thomas Billups: Revisited, right here. And be sure to go ahead and hit SUBSCRIBE while you’re here, and share with your family and friends. Thank you for watching!