Gary Blair
Gary Claude Blair (born August 10, 1945) is a retired women's basketball head coach. He coached for 37 years closing with Texas A&M Aggies women's basketball, who he coached from 2003 until his retirement in 2022. In his 37 years as a collegiate head coach, Blair only suffered two losing seasons, and has reached postseason play 28 times, including 23 NCAA Tournament appearances and Final Four appearances in 1998 with Arkansas and 2011 with Texas A&M. He led the Aggies to the NCAA national championship in 2011. He is listed in the top 35 of the all-time winningest NCAA Division I women's basketball coaches, and he is one of the few coaches to guide three different schools to national rankings and NCAA Tournament berths. Blair was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013 and the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2023.
| Biographical details | |||||||||||||||
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| Born | August 10, 1945 Dallas, Texas, U.S. | ||||||||||||||
| Playing career | |||||||||||||||
| Baseball | |||||||||||||||
| 1964 | Texas Tech | ||||||||||||||
| Position(s) | CF | ||||||||||||||
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |||||||||||||||
| 1973–1980 | South Oak Cliff HS | ||||||||||||||
| 1980–1985 | Louisiana Tech (asst.) | ||||||||||||||
| 1985–1993 | Stephen F. Austin | ||||||||||||||
| 1993–2003 | Arkansas | ||||||||||||||
| 2003–2022 | Texas A&M | ||||||||||||||
| Head coaching record | |||||||||||||||
| Overall | 852–348 (.710) | ||||||||||||||
| Accomplishments and honors | |||||||||||||||
| Championships | |||||||||||||||
| NCAA Division I (2011) 2× NCAA Regional—Final Four (1998, 2011) SEC regular season (2021) 2× Big 12 Tournament (2008, 2010) SEC tournament (2013) Big 12 regular season (2007) WNIT (1999) 7× Southland regular season (1987–1993) 6× Southland Tournament (1988–1993) 3× Texas Class 4A High School (1977, 1978, 1980) | |||||||||||||||
| Women's Basketball Hall of Fame | |||||||||||||||
Medal record
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