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Episode 71
Bobbie Day was everything thing one could wish for in a coach and everything one would not wish for in a coach.
She was a disciplinarian, lazer focused, but fair-minded. Day relentlessly pushed her basketball teams to their limits, preparing them for every situation they would face in competition and life.
On recruiting visits she mesmerized
prospects and parents with her drive, communications skills, and her commitment to, “Make your girl into a woman you will be proud of!”
On the other hand, Bobbie Day could be unpredictable, volatile, and demanding to the point of being maniacal. No one was exempt from her sudden mood swings or fits of rage, be it a player, staff or faculty member, and especially not referees, of whom Day held a special disdain.
Day’s split personality was forged in the basketball furnace of legendary Pat Purser, Bobbie’s indomitable, charismatic, coach at Knoxville’s Summit College.
Bobbie constantly butted heads with the fiery Coach Purser her first collegiate season, but soon found that was a losing proposition and that her veteran coach was not going to bend an iota.
Under Coach Pat’s tutelage, Bobbie learned the nuances of all facets of the game, including management of officials on and off the court.
No condescending college president or cocky head referee were a match for the likes of Pat Purser’s steely will, sharp tongue, and penetrating stare.
As she yielded to her coach’s reins, Bobbie began to excel as a player and team leader, ultimately earning All-American status her senior year.
A debilitating ACL injury at an Olympic tryout camp prematurely ended Bobbie Day’s dream to play professionally. She quickly accepted the opportunity to join Coach Purser’s staff as a graduate assistant coach.
Day was destined to be a head coach. Her whole life had pointed her in that direction. After five years under Coach Purser’s tutelage, Bobbie’s time arrived.
Her high basketball IQ, coupled with the years of wisdom gained as Coach Purser’s understudy, made Bobbie Day an increasingly viable candidate for colleges looking to fill head coach vacancies.
Ultimately, Blue Ridge University won the Bobbie Day sweepstakes.
From day one Coach Bobbie Day did not disappoint. In fact, she far exceeded the expectations of the Blue Ridge Panthers’ student body and alumni fan base, all of whom had grown accustomed to being perennial cellar dwellers of the Piedmont Conference.
In each of her first three seasons, Day’s teams captured the Piedmont conference title, while advancing, each year, deep into the playoffs.
Starting positions on Coach Day’s were never given or a given. Players had to earn the right to play, regardless if they were a seasoned, solid performing senior or a highly touted, incoming freshman.
If a player did not leave it all on the floor at practice, Coach Day made sure that player left it all on the bench, game time.
Day molded her teams to be an extension of herself. And make her stamp she did, season after season.
Day’s teams matched her intensity, commitment, unquenchable fire.
Matching the persona of their coach, the Panthers learned how to stalk, corner, and snuff out the life out of their opponents while Coach Day prowled the court side looking for a referee to devour.
Coach Day’s confrontations with game officials become legend.
Her signature response to a bad calls, “Kiss my Grits!”, was embraced by Blue Ridge fandom. More often than not, the study body would scream out “Kiss my Grits!” before she could, which did not sit well with referees.
The mutual disdain between coach and referees reached a boiling point in the Conference title matching Blue Ridge and Sky Valley State.
Quick whistles and flagrant foul calls, primarily against Blue Ridge, slowed the game to a snail’s pace, stunting the Panthers up tempo offense.
By the fourth quarter, Bobbie Day was seething, her fiery stare fixated on the referee crew.
A blatantly horrendous call, late in the fourth quarter, sent Coach Day charging the court.
With the crowd chanting “Kiss My Grits! Kiss My Grits! Kiss My Grits!”, Day grabbed the ball from the official standing under the goal.
The referee immediately ejected her from game. Fuming, Bobbie heaved the ball skyward.
The ball hit the rim with such force that the collapsible goal fell with a gruesome thud.
The glancing, fatal blow to Coach Bobbie Day’s head left the stunned arena in deafening silence.
A month after Coach Day’s funeral,
affable Athletic Director, Fred Davidson, hired a new coach for the Panthers with a reputation of being consistently mild-mannered.
The next season the Panthers began another long streak - as perennial cellar dwellers.
