Former Basketball Coach Billy Gillespie Has Kidney Transplant

Former Texas Tech basketball head coach Billy Gillespie underwent a kidney transplant Tuesday giving him a new lease on life.

There is no doubt that one of the most disappointing figures in recent Texas Tech history, regardless of sport, is former basketball coach Billy Gillespie. But now, Red Raider fans, and fans from around the country have a new reason to pull for the controversial former coach.

Tuesday, Gillespie (58) received a kidney transplant from Ericka Downey (33), the wife of a college basketball coach with a connection to Gillespie.

The procedure came nearly five months after Gillespie went public with his need for the life-saving procedure. In December Gillespie made known his urgent need for a kidney donor in what was a last-ditch effort to save his life.

Downey, whose husband is the coach at Northeastern State University in Oklahoma, had never met Gillespie until late last month. But when she learned that Gillespie, an acquaintance of her husband since the 1990’s, was in need of a donor, she volunteered to be tested to see if she was match.

Now, she has given Gillespie a second…or third chance at redemption depending on how you look at it. Unfortunately, this has not been Gillespie’s first health scare and the beginnings of his physical ailments care be traced to his final days at Texas Tech.

He arrived in Lubbock in 2011 with great fanfare after being tabbed the man that was supposed to resurrect the program following the dark years of the Pat Knight run. However, an 8-23 first season was compounded by accusations of player mistreatment (which included forcing injured players to practice and exceeding the practice time allowed by the NCAA) which led to a mass exodus of over 30 people associated with the program during his brief tenure at Texas Tech.

Interestingly, one of those people to leave the program at that time was an assistant coach named Chris Beard who had been on the staff of both Bob and Pat Knight.

When Gillespie and Texas Tech parted ways, the notoriously intense coach was treated at the Mayo clinic for high blood pressure. The details surrounding the situation were murky and led many to wonder if Gillespie was facing more serious issues than just high blood pressure.

His erratic and unethical behavior while at Texas Tech was troubling considering his past struggles with alcohol which included a 2009 DUI arrest in Kentucky.

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After three years away from the game, Gillespie returned to his alma mater, Ranger Junior College in 2015 where he was head coach for one season until his health forced him to retire from coaching. In a disappointing but not surprising twist, Ranger was determined to have used ineligible players during the 2015-16 season causing a forfeit of all of Gillespie’s wins from the previous season further tarnishing his reputation.

Needless to say, Gillespie did not endear himself to the Texas Tech faithful. He had an opportunity to make Red Raider basketball relevant for the first time since the end of the Bob Knight run but instead he set the program back almost a decade.

His resignation (whether it was voluntary or forced by the school is up for debate) from Texas Tech came in September of 2012, less than two months from the start of the basketball season. As a result, Texas Tech did not have time to find a capable replacement and had to let interim coach Chris Walker run the team for a season leading to a ninth-place finish in the Big 12.

It would not be until 2016 before Tech returned to relevance in college basketball reaching the NCAA Tournament in Tubby Smith’s third season on the job. It marked Tech’s first trip to the “Big Dance” in nine years, a drought that can be heavily attributed to the Gillespie debacle.

From the 2010-11 season to the 2013-14 season, Texas Tech had a different head coach every season leaving the program in shambles. Fortunately, that period of misery is over and now it looks that Gillespie’s own person hell could also be coming to an end.

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Everyone has their demons and Billy Gillespie is no exception. He made plenty of mistakes while at Texas Tech but regardless, Red Raider fans are squarely behind their former coach and pulling for a full and speedy recovery.

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