ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, January 1, 1996 TAG: 9601020102
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B2 EDITION: HOLIDAY
COLUMN: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: NEW ORLEANS
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
The list already included a Dean, the General, the Bear, the Shark, Lefty, Lou-Do.
Now, it has ``The Sheriff.''
Bill Foster got a cake to go with his 500th basketball coaching victory Sunday, and like his team usually is, he was pretty defensive about it.
``Thank goodness it's over,'' he said, referring to both Virginia Tech's 62-46 triumph over Wright State and the hoopla that was part of Foster becoming the 16th active Division I coach with 500 wins.
If Foster felt out of place, he wasn't alone. The Hokies moved their home game to Lakefront Arena because their fans were in town for the Sugar Bowl.
If the postgame ceremony was an arresting development to Foster, well, then his little-known nickname fits.
When Foster was hired by Tech five years ago, coming out of TV analyst land to resume a career he missed, he really hadn't played much golf. The first few times some fellow athletic staffers hit the links with Foster, they couldn't help but notice his putting style.
He plays left-handed and he putts the ball hard, often past the cup. And when he does, in his honest-to-goodness homespun way, he says, ``Bring 'im back Sheriff, I know his name.''
Foster's longtime coaching friend and Tech vintage assistant, Bobby Hussey, said his boss' nickname fits another way, too.
``I guess you've never ridden in a car with him, have you?'' Hussey asked. ``He's always in a hurry. He's a person who doesn't waste time at anything he does.
``He's a great person and a great basketball coach and a great friend. A great driver, he's not.''
If there's anything that burns more in Foster than competitiveness, it must be his stomach. Several times last season, he had to leave the floor during games because he became sick.
After his 500th win, he said his innards ``have been burning like hot coals since Nov.27. And it's all right here,'' he said, pointing to his temple. ``I'm a worrier. My dad was a worrier.''
If he has a hole in his stomach after 28-plus years as a college head coach, Foster also has a hole in his ego. Unlike many - no, most - of the 40 all-time Division I coaches to precede him to 500, Foster doesn't need or want everyone telling him how important he is.
``He's embarrassed by all of this,'' Foster's wife, Linda, said at courtside as her husband stood outside the Tech locker room in a sweat-soaked shirt. ``He's just a very humble person.''
Hussey said Foster doesn't consider 500 a big deal because he sees a wider world than one 94 by 50 feet, made of hardwood.
``I think Bill sees a very big picture in life,'' said Hussey, who has been Foster's buddy since 1973. ``He's just not single-focused on basketball or on himself.
``I think coaches, and I count myself in this, often have a tendency to maybe focus on not much else besides basketball. Bill is more interested in dealing with people as complete persons. He doesn't put pressure on anyone except himself.''
He's Florida-born, South Carolina-bred and Tennessee-educated. He regenerated his basketball engine three times with off seasons before building or rebuilding programs.
When he's not coaching basketball, he's probably reading, or playing golf, or hiking, or traveling with his wife, or visiting with his two daughters. But when he's on the sideline, he's into it.
He gyrates enough to double for John Travolta in ``Saturday Night Fever.'' The static cling in his socks isn't the only thing electric about his coaching ability.
If being the center of attention was atypical for Foster, there was one point in the rout of the Raiders that surely wasn't.
In reality, the game was over. Tech led by 20 with under six minutes left. The Hokies started admiring an Ace Custis slam. On the sideline, Foster was yelling, waving his team back on defense.
On the eve of his special day, Foster spent time recalling some of the early influences on a head coaching career that began at Shorter College in Georgia in 1962.
One of the men from whom he learned much about his defensive beliefs was Ed Jucker, who coached Cincinnati to two NCAA championships and a runner-up finish from 1961-63.
Foster's words jogged a memory. I spent part of my youth watching Jucker's teams on TV and in person. For a couple of years, I've been trying to figure out where Tech's defensive style and tenacity was rooted.
What's most amazing about Foster's career is that he's coached in only one NCAA Tournament, with his 1980 Clemson team. Then, it fits, because Foster would be the first to appreciate someone accomplishing something without playing on a big stage.
Foster has so many memories, but that isn't to say he has a lot of memorabilia, or that he knows where to find it.
``Last week, one of our sons-in-law was looking in a closet at our home for something,'' Linda said. ``He found a basketball with a date on it, and he said, `What happened January something, some year.'
``We guessed all kinds of things, but we didn't guess it was the ball from his 400th win [at Miami]. Bill's never made a big deal of that type of thing.''
When he got to 400, he never thought he'd get 100 more. When Tech hired Foster over the other finalist, then-Kansas assistant Jerry Green (now Oregon's head coach), Foster became a sideline Lazarus at 54.
At least Sunday, Foster knew were the ball from his 500th victory was. Tech trainer Jimmy Lawrence was toting it under his arm. Which leaves Foster only 376 victories behind the all-time leader, Adolph Rupp.
``That Adolph,'' Foster said, ``he must really have had an iron stomach.''
LENGTH: Long : 107 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: chart - 500-Win Club STAFFby CNB