LR celebrates NC Sports Hall of Fame induction for Rick Barnes ’77

Fans of NCAA Division I basketball know the name Rick Barnes ’77, even if they don’t know he got his start in college hoops playing at Lenoir-Rhyne. His long career has been defined by the same work ethic and camaraderie he showed on the court at LR, and with his induction into the 2023 class of the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame on April 21, Bear Nation celebrates with Coach Barnes.

Mike Gaskins ’78, who would join the team with Barnes in the 1976-77 season summed up Barnes’s time at LR and everything that has come since. “Rick Barnes was born to coach,” he said. “He was the hardest working player I ever played with — first in the gym and last to leave.”

The distinguished career

The North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame induction is just the latest distinction in a career filled with them. Over the last 36 years, Barnes has served as head coach at George Mason University, Providence College, Clemson University, the University of Texas, and he is still going strong leading the University of Tennessee Volunteers.

He has taken his teams to 27 NCAA Tournaments, with eight Sweet 16 appearances (including 2023), three Elite Eights and one Final Four in 2003. His career total of 779 wins, so far, places him among the most successful coaches in the game — but it all started in Shuford Gymnasium.

Hal White ’74 followed Barnes’s high school career before they became teammates in the 1973-74 season. “Rick played for Hickory High, and in the early ’70s, the high school played all their games at Shuford. That’s where our team and coaches saw Rick play and knew we wanted him to be a Bear.  He was a student of the game with a great work ethic then, and he is still doing that today.”

The undergraduate years

Another teammate who noticed Barnes’s early performance was John Lentz ’74, who set records both as a player and as the coach who led LR men’s basketball for 29 years to a record number of wins on the court that now bears his name. Lentz invited Barnes to start training with him when Lentz was a freshman at LR and Barnes was a sophomore in high school.

“I’ve known Rick since he was 17 years old, and we’ve stayed friends all this time. Rick’s mom used to introduce me as her adopted son,” said Lentz. When Barnes enrolled at LR, Lentz invited Barnes to share his two-bedroom head resident’s apartment in Morgan Hall. The two survived a hair-raising ride in Barnes’s Volkswagen Beetle when the brakes stopped working on the downhill slope between Morgan and Highway 127 — just one of many adventures over the years.

Attentive fans may notice the two friends also shared a jersey number. Lentz explained, “I wore number 20 because it was my brother’s number, and after I left, Rick wore number 20. I’d like to pat myself on the back and say that was because we were friends, but who knows?”

Whether the shared number was a coincidence or not, Barnes clearly followed in Lentz’s footsteps as a mentor and leader for his team.

“My favorite story about Rick happened during a game in 1976, our junior year,” shared Randy Abernathy ’77, who remains a good friend to his teammate of four years. “We had a time out, and Coach Hodges was talking to the team. Rick came over to me and said kind of low, ‘Randy, we need to be playing the zone!’ He was already coaching then!”

Always a Bear

Mike Gibson ’77 shared another story that illustrated how Barnes’s loyalty to his fellow Bears didn’t end at graduation. “Rick and I tried out for the LR team together when we were seniors in High School. He was very dedicated to the game. When he was coaching at Clemson, he came to speak at our Gaston Sportsman’s Club dinner. We all brought our kids, who were about 10 to 12 years old. He gave them a 10-minute pep talk and took as many pics as we wanted. He was still the same old Rick and gave his time to the kids.”

Another friend since Barnes’s high school playing days, Andy Anderson ’73 commented on the character of the big-name coach who can also take time to support friends and offer pep talks to their children. “I have known Rick Barnes since our playing days at Lenoir Rhyne in the ’70s. While he is the most tenacious competitor I know, and most know him as the highly successful University of Tennessee basketball coach and Naismith Award winner, they may not be aware that he is even a better husband, father and friend.”

New friendships have formed over the years since graduation, thanks to Barnes’s continued involvement with his alma mater. One of those friends is Roger Maxey ’71, who said, “Rick and I became friends through my involvement in his speaking engagements with the Bears Club. Over the years we have grown close because of our shared love of college basketball, family, LR and our faith. Rick Barnes is one of the finest men I have ever known.”

Barnes was inducted into the Lenoir-Rhyne Sports Hall of Fame in 2002. He joins five other LR alumni and hall-of-famers in the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame — Clarence Stasavich ’35, Frank Barger ’44, Fred McCall ’48, Marion Kirby ’61 and Neill McGeachy ’65.

To mark the state hall of fame induction, Kim Pate, vice president of athletics, said, “We are blessed to call one of the best in the collegiate coaching ranks our own. Rick Barnes has truly made LR and the Hickory community proud in all that he has accomplished. Rick is an incredible leader, mentor and coach who truly pours into his players with a genuine passion to see them become the best version of themselves. He’s a special coach and an even better person.”