Jamie Dixon -- Killer Frog

srr50 with another blast from the past. You’ve got a million of these little nuggets in that old Austin head of yours, don’t you.

Speaking of Weltlich, that’s a whole nother story, but did you notice he is anonymously mentioned by Michael Lewis in Blind Side? He’s the asshole former coach of the Michael Oher adoption dad who played at Ole Miss. For a while he tried to pimp a novel about crooked refs. Wonder what he’s up to now.

As a Ft. Worth native I remember attending this game with my Dad and my older bro as a 7 yr old. We had 2 season tickets b/w the 3 of us and for some reason they always let that fact slide at the turnstyle. That was the only game where I had to share the seat with my bro as it was a packed house and I still remember that was the most hostile I had seen a TCU crowd. I also remember my brother punching me becasue I started crying when Texas lost.

Dixon was hard not to like as young kid. He was 100% effort at all times, was hard nosed, and could shoot the lights out when he got hot. I root for him still as Pitt’s head coach, but not tonight of course.

If I remember correctly, his younger sister was a basketball coach at a military school and was a rising star in the ranks, much beloved by her team and University. She either had a tragic accident or sudden tragic medical event which killed her.

Jamie was devastated by the event as were his parents. I’m recalling a 60 Minutes or some other similar show that Dixon was the centerpiece for. His reactions and the manner in which he handled that and the other aspects of his life and career made me a fan of his and Pittsburgh basketball by extension.

Anyone recall that?

Wow. Knew none of this. It’s fun to have a historian emeritus on the blog.

’wulf — Maggie Dixon was the head coach at West Point whenshe died of heart problems at the age of 28. It was sudden and it devasted Jamie.

Scip: Since this is a family-friendly blog. I left out some of the juicier parts of the post-game. Perhaps I will share those at the BC Christmas party.

Yeah no shit. I didn’t even know Dixon went to TCU.

I think you need to post the juicier bits. Unless it involves Weltlich, a pony, and a pre-op tranny.

“srr50 with another blast from the past. You’ve got a million of these little nuggets in that old Austin head of yours, don’t you.”

Barking Carnival’s own personal microfiche.

Is Srr really 78 yrs old? wow, good stuff, BC is lucky to have a historian on staff.

That shot was bullshit by the way, the Horns hacked the shit out of him twice and it was obvious they were trying to. Some good ol old school swc home cookin…No idea he went to tcu..

More context on the beginning of the end for Weltlich:

Texas went into the last two games of that SWC season leading the league at 12-2 record. It lost to TCU on the Dixon heave, and then lost by a point to Tech in Austin and wound up in a three-way tie with TCU and Tech for the conference title. Tech won the tournament and got the only NCAA bid. If Texas had won either game, it probably would have gotten an at-large bid… but it didn’t.
 
It turned out to be the best team he coached at UT. It probably wouldn’t have mattered if he’d gotten that NCAA trip, but it sure didn’t help at the end of ’88.

Scip: How did you know?

Little side note on Jamie’s recruitment. TCU had already landed the guard they wanted out of a high school from Southern California, they tried to talk Dixon from coming, but he was sure he come could to Ft. Worth and contribute.

That other guard did play the lionshare of the minutes their freshmen season, but missed his girlfriend and returned home to play at Cal-irvine. Jamie busted his ass when he was getting minutes, got stronger, improved, his game and play on what is most likely one of TCU’s best basketball teams ever.

The interesting part is that Jamie and that other freshman guard followed similar career paths, but on different levels. He has done a great job at Pitt and many Horn fans are familiar with the other guard as it is Kevin Durant’s current coach, Scott Brooks.

I remember watching that game in the drab Jester West TV lounge. The loss to Tech was equally brutal… that team really deserved to win the outright SWC title and go to the NCAAs. Who else was on that team… Patrick Fairs? Alex Broadway? Memories. Thanks again, SRR.

trkhorn: thanks, and yes, Patrick Fairs and Alex Broadway were on that team, as was Raynard Davis. Bob Weltlich actually did what was asked of him in recruiting — get good kids who were good basketball players — like the players on this team along with Travis Mays, Lance Blanks, Joey Wright, etc.

The only trouble was he treated them like shit when they got here and broke them down until they no longer cared about playing for him.

Thanks for the memories. I grew up in FW watching that TCU team with Dixon and Carven Holcombe.

I remember that game well. That stung for a long, long time. It’s almost up there with ’Spike’s still safe’.

Davey – I thought you were about to head off into George Turner territory Why do I think that reference isn’t too obscure for you? (For the record, an Abe Lemons’ prize recruit who may have had the sickest hops of anyone to come through the program ever. Transferred to UCI for reasons I can’t remember and later drafted by the Mavs.

My cousin played in some all-star games with Maggie Dixon and later coached against her. What a tremendous loss.

Weltlich’s issue in my mind is that he strived mightily to be a carbon of his mentor, Bobby Knight. The problem was he took away all of the wrong lessons for the most part. Just randomly being an asshole to your players and the media with no real point is rather meaningless.

Black Scholes,

Ahh yes, George Turner the playground legend from Hitchcock. Story goes that George could be seen late at night dribbling a basketball as he walked on the shoulder of I-45 South returning from playing at Fonde.

I was in high school when George was at Texas, but I do remember the first game I saw him play in. UT was playing University of San Francisco with their own legend San Quentin Dailey. Abe puts George in the game who proceeds to back down his defender until he uncoils a turn-around from about a step inside the 28 foot mark. He missed the shot, but did have the wrist cocked up in the air for a good 2-3 seconds after the shot hit iron.

Interestingly enough, George didn’t play much for the rest of that game.

George Turner 00? Backcourt mate of Fred Davis, a kid from out of state who recruited himself?

I miss Abe’s wacky diamonds in the rough.

Juice – you’ve got me stumped. I don’t recall Fred Davis.

Abe’s teams had the most eclectic group of players, who often came together with a collective set of skills that somehow fit together. Guards who couldn’t shoot from outside but who could drive the baseline all game, forwards who had who couldn’t jump more than an inch or two but who could shoot and position for the most unlikely of rebounds, a small forward who went 6’4" but could just flat play and still shows up on any legit list of all-time UT players … could go on forever. He had a lot of players who would have a hard time getting picked for the A run at Gregory if they had just walked in cold. A great era in it’s own funky way.