VDN renames coaching award in honor of Coach Billups

The Vicksburg Daily News has officially named its Junior High Coach of the Year Award in honor of Thomas Billups, who served as a coach in Vicksburg for many years. The award will now be known as the Thomas Billups Junior High Coach of the Year Award.

Coach Thomas Billups: Photo by Richard Miller

Early Years

Billups was raised on a farm in Louisville, Mississippi, where he attended Camile Street High School. He played baseball, football, and basketball where his high school football coach Harold Hudson had the biggest influence on him. He eventually went on to attend East Central CC.

During his time at East Central Community College, Billups was the only black quarterback on the team and he eventually earned the starting position. Under his leadership, ECCC had a winning season. Not just a talented football player, Billups was also a standout in baseball, setting a single-game strikeout record of 19. Eventually, Billups left ECCC to attend Jackson State University where he played football for only one season.

Looking ahead toward graduation, Billups was called to student-teach at Canton, a school that was without a ninth-grade basketball coach. Billups led them to a winning season that year and graduated from JSU shortly afterward.

Coaching

Billups and his wife, Sandra, moved to Cleveland, Ohio just shortly after graduation. Six months later, Billups learned of an opening in Vicksburg where he was interviewed and hired.

Billups started off as an assistant basketball and assistant football coach before being promoted to Head Football Coach at Vicksburg Junior High Coach. A short time later he became the Head Junior High and Ninth Grade Basketball Coach where he won four Little Six Championships and two Ninth Grade Little Six Championships.

After a new varsity coach was hired, Billups took up the role of assistant coach at the high school and won a state championship in 1980. He continued to serve as an assistant coach for 12 years, during which time the VHS head coaching position became vacant twice, but he was not selected for the job either time.

Time for a change

“They just looked over me and kept hiring people from Alcorn, but I was from Jackson State so after 12 years I saw they weren’t going make a change I left and went to Blackburn Junior High in Jackson,” Billups said.

At Blackburn, Billups was the Head Football Coach and Head Ninth Grade Basketball Coach where the football team played in two city championships and the basketball team won  three straight basketball championships.

At the end of his third year at Blackburn, Billups received a phone call from Lanier High School’s Principal after his former players at Blackburn recommended him for the high school position. “I didn’t get the job by myself, those kids got me that job,” Billups testified. I got the job and I had three studs.”

In 1991, Billups took was in his first year as Head Coach where he led the Bulldogs to a 26-6 record. The program only won seven games the year prior.

A dynasty begins

In his second year with the same group of athletes he coached in junior high, Lanier won the state title as they finished with a 30-3 record.

Before his arrival at Lanier, Murrah was the big basketball school in Jackson but Billups quickly turned the Bulldogs into a powerhouse as they knocked off the Mustangs by 28 points during the 1992 Christmas Tournament. Lanier had a reputation for being located in one of the worst neighborhoods in Jackson, but Billups stood tall and made it clear that no one was to misbehave in his presence. “I told them that if you come over here and start a fight, you can’t come back and I meant that,” he said.

As Lanier quickly became a household name, Billups took the Bulldogs to multiple state championship appearances, winning most of them and even having one of his players be drafted out of high school into the NBA (Monta Ellis). Overall, Billups gave Lanier eight state championships, one Grand Slam state championship, 13 state championship appearances, 14 District Championships, and 10 North State Championships, and Lanier was ranked as high as No.2 in the nation.

“Those were the best 22 years of my life and I had the best fans, parents, and booster club anybody could ask for,” said Billups.

Vicksburg looked good, but…

In 2011 after spending 20 years at Lanier, Billups decided that he gave the school all he could and wanted to challenge himself by going to a struggling team. Warren Central High School was the program that set out to hire Billups that year. “I felt I gave them (Lanier) all I could and I wanted to see how good I really was,” he said. 

Billups interviewed and got the job but when it was time to sign the contract there were problems that presented themselves. “They told me they heard I had problems with referees and I told them that I’ll say something to every one of them that I feel is cheating my kids,” he said. “I asked them did they want a real basketball coach or someone who’s going to do what you say do. I left and went back to Lanier.”

Lanier welcomed Billups back with open arms where he stayed for a few more years until problems occurred in 2013.

617-130

“They hired a new Superintendent and he tried to pull me down and told me what I can’t do,” Billups said. “They saw where they couldn’t control me.” Billups, who was retired from the classroom, was soon without a job after JPS decided that they weren’t bringing back part-time teachers.

As Billups sat with a 617-130 head coaching record, he decided that he wasn’t done coaching. Despite those credentials, local universities such as Alcorn, Jackson State, and Mississippi Valley never took a chance on Billups. During that period Billups was the Clarion-Ledger’s State Coach of the Year three times and Metro Coach of the Year six times.

In 2013, Oak Grove High School offered Billups the position of Head Coach, which he accepted. He led the Warriors to a 12-14 season during his one-year tenure. Later, Billups was offered a head coaching position at Tougaloo College in Jackson, which he accepted with delight.

Tougaloo

Before his arrival at Tougaloo, they were a struggling program that only won 10 games the year prior. Billups spent eight seasons as Head Coach he boasted a 127-85 record was named the GCAC Coach of the Year in 2018 and won multiple conference championships. His final season was in 2021-2022 where Tougaloo went 21-9 and won the GCAC regular season and conference championship.

In 2022, Billups stepped down and turned things over to his assistant coach Eric Strothers. Billups remains as an assistant coach to this day on Tougaloo’s staff.

“…give me flowers before I die”

Billups was thrilled to be honored with this award which will keep his name honored in the City of Vicksburg. “I always tell people to give me my flowers before I die,” he said.

Although Billups left his mark in Vicksburg, Jackson, and Oak Grove, all great memories led back to his time at Lanier. “God put me there for a reason, and if I had to do it all over again, I would do it at Lanier High School.”