ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 2, 1997 TAG: 9703030095
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
BILL FOSTER WILL leave a lot of memories on the basketball court at Cassell Coliseum when he coaches his last regular-season home game today for Tech.
Around noon today, Bill Foster will walk out the front door of his Blacksburg condominium, climb into his maroon Lincoln Continental, and begin the short drive to Cassell Coliseum.
It's an easy hop Foster has made thousands of times since becoming the Virginia Tech men's basketball coach six years ago.
Today's trip, however, will be much harder. No layup this time, Bill Foster.
``I'm sure it's going to be a little tougher trip,'' said Foster's wife, Linda, who has been riding shotgun on this coaching caravan since the summer of 1958.
Maybe Linda Foster should pack an extra box of tissues for this excursion.
``It's going to be a hard day,'' she said. ``I'm sure it's going to be emotional. Real emotional.''
Goodbye to Cassell
William Carey Foster likely will coach a college basketball game at Cassell for the final time today when the Hokies meet 14th-ranked Xavier at 2 p.m.
Foster, 60, has known this day was coming since September, when he announced he was retiring at the end of the season.
After building and rebuilding programs at five schools - Shorter (Ga.) College, North Carolina-Charlotte, Clemson, Miami and Tech - during the past 34 years, Foster finally has decided to ditch his bulldozer. His days in the basketball construction business are almost over.
For a man who has coached 854 college games - his 531 victories rank 32nd all-time on the NCAA Division I list - walking away isn't going to be as simple as arranging an early-morning tee time at Blacksburg Country Club.
To think, Foster thought the par-4, dogleg 12th at BCC was tough.
``It all kind of starts getting to you now,'' Foster said this past week. ``Up to the last few days, I really haven't thought much about it. It sort of all started sinking in when we put in plans for Senior Day'' on Feb.23 against Duquesne.
``To think about it gets you a little emotional. My last game in Cassell and all that. I'm sure there will be some tears shed.''
Bet the ranch on it. They may need some extra mops before they get done today at Cassell.
``There won't be a dry eye in the house,'' predicted Chris Ferguson, a Tech assistant coach. ``Man, talk about emotional. I get sort of choked up just thinking about it.
``Bill's an emotional sort, and everybody at Tech loves the guy. No one deserves any better than him. What a class act. I hate to see him go.''
Timing is right
It's time, Bill Foster says. It's time to move on, take the shoes off, kick back and relax.
``Truthfully,'' Linda Foster said, ``I think he's going to be relieved when it's over.''
So will his stomach. The past three seasons, Foster never has hidden the fact that his ``container'' wasn't exactly built for the rigors and pressures of big-time coaching.
``My dad was a worrier and I'm a worrier,'' Foster said. ``I never have headaches, I have stomach problems. But I feel great now. I had a good checkup in the summer and a short one three weeks ago, and all systems are go.''
So Foster is going to run that green light ``to the hills'' while he still can enjoy things.
``I've got three grandchildren I didn't have five years ago and I think it's time I get to hold them a little more,'' Foster said. ``Plus, Linda and I love to travel. We've been all over the world, but we've never been to, say, Australia and New Zealand. Now that I won't be tied down, we can go over there and spend four or five weeks, just do as we please. You can't do that when you're coaching and working full-time somewhere.
``That's why I don't want to get tied down while we're still healthy enough to get up and gallop around a little bit.''
The Fosters, who through some good investments were set financially before ever setting foot in Blacksburg, will move into a new mountain home in Blowing Rock, N.C. Their new digs, which are within easy driving distance of their two daughters' families, will be completed by Oct.1.
``We've got a great view,'' Bill Foster said. ``You can see three or four holes of a golf course, and I always liked the idea of living on a golf course. I lived on one in Florida, but I didn't play golf. Down there, I can be just one of the boys, so to speak.
``Hey, after awhile you might as well kick back a little. As somebody once told me, `It ain't a dress rehearsal. You're just going through here one time, so you'd better enjoy it.'''
Linda Foster seconded that motion. She is looking forward to playing more golf with her husband.
``We've only played together about 10 times,'' she said. ``He helps me a lot. He can really tell me how to putt.''
Retirement No. 2
This isn't the first time Bill Foster has retired from coaching. In 1990, after five seasons at Miami, where he jump-started a program that had been dormant for 13 years, Foster waved the white towel.
Retirement No.1 was good. For a while.
``That first four or five months was unbelievably fun because I had just taken up golf, taking a lesson every Monday,'' Foster said. ``We were living in the mountains in the summer, and most of your friends were kind of laid-back, taking time off.
``Then, all of a sudden it was September and all those people went back to work. By that time I had played all the golf and read all the books I could.
``We had no grandchildren then. It was just Linda and I. And after four or five months of seeing me every day, she had sort of had enough, to be honest with you.
``That's a hell of an adjustment for a wife. Suddenly, I go from being gone a lot to being there every day. It's almost like you get in their way.''
Linda Foster admitted as much.
``It's different,'' she said. ``One of my friends told me she went through this with her husband. She said you'll have to sit down and talk about it for a long time.
``She said they talked and finally he said, `Do you just want me to work forever?' She said, `I just sat there for a minute and I wanted to say yes.'''
Linda Foster shouldn't worry about Bill being under her feet all the time. He's already making plans to do some part-time work related to the game. Ideally, he would like to do some television - he spent a season as a game analyst for Raycom Sports between exiting Miami and coming to Tech - and assorted coaching clinics.
``I'm not one to sit on the porch and rock,'' he said. ``Besides, Linda will probably divorce me if I stay home all the time. When you stop taking on all challenges, life gets a little dull.''
Virginia athletic director Terry Holland, who coached against Foster in the ACC and remains a close friend, can't see his buddy sitting much.
``Bill is a very antsy guy, a guy who doesn't like to sit still very long,'' Holland said. ``He's not the kind of guy who's going to take kindly to retirement. So he'll be doing something, I'm sure.''
Ferguson noted: ``I think the first six months are going to be tough for him, because he's always wanting something to do. He always wants to keep on the go. Now he's going to have all this free time and I think it's going to take him awhile to adjust.''
Rest assured the Fosters' new home will be equipped with a satellite dish, which will keep him tuned in to what's happening. When they're not traveling, the television channel changer will be cooking during the winter in Blowing Rock.
``I think I'll be flicking for games on TV more when I'm not coaching,'' he said. ``Sometimes you've got to get away from that when you're coaching. I watched that Wake-[N.C.] State game the other day and the last five minutes was so gut-wrenching it was almost like I was on the bench.''
Linda will be watching, too.
``The year he wasn't coaching [1990-91], I think I watched twice as many games as he did,'' she said. ``They still make him nervous. He has a hard time with it. But it doesn't bother me when it's not us.''
Foster, who said he has turned down offers to coach ``four or five high-profile'' programs while at Tech, contended there won't be any more sideline comebacks.
``No Mulligans this time. Done used all my Mulligans,'' he said.
Holland isn't so sure.
``Maybe he'll be back,'' Holland said. ``I told him I don't know where you'll turn up next, but I know you'll probably come back from somewhere else and beat us again.''
Will miss the kids
Bill Foster won't miss traveling to such Atlantic 10 Conference outposts as Olean, N.Y., and South Kingstown, R.I. He won't miss being stuck at Roanoke Regional Airport during weather delays. And he won't miss referees.
He will miss his players, however.
``Bill and his players are so close,'' said Bobby Hussey, the current Tech assistant who has been appointed to try to fill Foster's big shoes. ``Bill is such a caring guy. He is genuinely concerned about his kids. It's all like family to him.''
Foster said his greatest memories of the game that's been so good to him won't be of a particular game. They will be of his players.
``Those kids and their development as people are what it's all about,'' Foster said. ``It's fun watching kids excel.''
Needless to say, Foster's players won't soon forget him.
``I would do anything for that man,'' said Larry Nance, who starred for Foster at Clemson and went on to a solid career in the NBA.
Nance, a scout for the Cleveland Cavaliers, showed up for Tech's game at Wake Forest on Jan.28 and hopes to be in Blacksburg today for his old coach's send-off.
Foster loves to talk about Nance, who helped lead the coach's 1979-80 Clemson team to the final eight in the NCAA Tournament.
``It was amazing to see Larry when he walked into our locker room at Wake,'' Foster said. ``He's a sharp, very articulate, very successful young man with great values. I see that and all I can remember is how shy he was as a freshman at Clemson. Boy, he's come a long way.''
Ace Custis, the senior who has been the focal point of Foster's turnaround of Tech's once-moribund program, said he hates to think about leaving his coach.
``I'm going to miss him,'' Custis said. ``He's a great man. He's done so much for me. When I came here as a freshman, I didn't know what was going on. He helped guide and mold me into the player and person that I am today.''
To his players, Foster isn't just a coach. He's a friend.
``Coach Foster is the best,'' said David Jackson, a senior forward. ``He's not only a coach, but he's a guy you can go sit down and talk to if you've got a problem. He's not some highfalutin guy you can't talk to.
``It's easy to respect the man. He does everything the right way. I want to get into coaching one day, and believe me, I'm going to use a lot of the stuff I learned from Coach Foster. You sure can't go wrong doing that.''
Revival at Tech
Perhaps no person will miss Foster more than Dave Braine. Tech's athletic director was roasted in 1991 by some media for hiring a retired 54-year-old coach who had no reason to work hard.
``Dave took a lot of heat when he brought me in,'' Foster said. ``Some writers said a guy my age wouldn't have the energy needed to turn this thing around.''
How wrong the critics were. After a couple of 10-18 seasons with former coach Frankie Allen's recruits, Foster's Hokies were 18-10 in 1993-94. Playing with basically seven players, Tech went 25-10 in '94-95, winning the NIT championship. Last season, the Hokies were 23-6 and earned their first NCAA Tournament bid in 10 seasons.
``It's been a good run here,'' Foster said. ``For me to be able to bail Dave off the hot seat is a good feeling.''
Braine said watching Foster walk away from Tech will be one of the toughest things he's ever done.
``It's been a dream, it really has,'' Braine said. ``Since he's been here we've never had one disagreement over anything. Ask him to do something and he always does it. He never came in this office asking for a raise, to increase his budget or do this or do that.
``I will miss Bill Foster, personally and professionally. If you are lucky, one time in your life you have the opportunity to work with somebody like Bill Foster, because he was put on this earth to teach others how to live.''
Braine said Foster can be credited with restoring respectability to Tech's program.
``Forget the wins,'' Braine said. ``He did it his way, with dignity, class and integrity.''
Asked his formula for success, Foster said there's no magic.
``The key to the whole thing is surrounding yourself with good people,'' he said. ``You give everybody a voice and let 'em do their thing. And if you don't recruit problems, I've found out you don't have many.''
See y'all later
Bill Foster's last official day on the job at Virginia Tech will be April 1, his birthday.
While he wishes his final Tech club would have had a better season - the Hokies are 14-14 with today's game and next week's A-10 tournament left - he will leave town knowing he did the best he could.
``I think a change for the program will be good,'' Foster said. ``There are no second thoughts about it. It's time.
``I'm glad I hung around this season. I knew this season was going to be kind of a struggle. If I'd bailed out and they'd lost this many games, they'd have been on Bobby. That's just human nature. Everybody gets a better start next year.''
Including Foster.
``Coaching has been a long ride, but a nice ride,'' he said. ``When I took that job at Shorter College, I never dreamed I'd go all the places I have or I'd last this long.''
Of all the stops along the way, Blacksburg was as special as any.
``I sort of hate getting on the horse and riding out of this place,'' Foster said. ``I've always been kind of a small-town guy, and Linda loves the mountains. I don't know if there could have been a better fit for us.''
Or for Tech.
LENGTH: Long : 256 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. ALAN KIM STAFF Tech coach Bill Foster's wife, Lindaby CNB(right), says: ``Truthfully, I think he's going to be relieved when
it's over.'' color
2. GENE DALTON STAFF Bill Foster (center) hasn't always seen eye to
eye with refs, and that hasn't helped his stomach.
3. chart - Bill Foster's Coaching Record. color with color photo.
STAFF KEYWORDS: PROFILE MGR