It was when visiting North Texas Athletic Director Rick Villarreal that I became aware of the passing of Blakeley. There were a lot of his staff outside his office with sad faces and Villarreal told me about what had hit them. Villarreal and his staff were extremely busy rearranging their schedules to honor Blakeley.

Blakeley was born, June 13^th, 1934 in Wills Point, Van Zandt County but not as Bill Blakeley but as Billie Buie Blakeley.

He played forward for Abilene Christian for two years.

On March 18, 1975 former North Texas Athletic Director Hayden Fry picked Blakeley to lead the Eagle basketball program. He was at the helm until 1983. On his hiring the flamboyant and free spirited coach informed the media if any opposing teams were to beat North Texas they would have to score 90 points per game. He got his team to back that up because they scored over 96 points a game which was the second highest in the nation.

His teams would score points. Four of the top scorers in North Texas history come from his era. Kenny Lyons is at the top of the list with 2,291 career points. Fred Mitchell 4^th with 1,538 points, Melvin Davis holds the #9 spot with 1,306 points and #15 is Jon Manning with 1,090 points.

Blakeley led his team to an overall 135-85 record for a .612 winning percentage putting him forth on the North Texas all-time winning list. It took his teams six years to record 100 wins which is the fastest to that mark of any North Texas coach.

He took over a team that won just six games the year before and turned them into an immediate winner recording three straight twenty game winning seasons 22-4, 21-6 and 22-6.

In North Texas history they have only been ranked once in the top 20. On February 3^rd, 1976 Blakeley's team was ranked #20 in the nation and held the position for two weeks.

No matter what people thought of him, he could coach and he gave the credit to his team for the winning. When receiving his Coach of the Year by the Texas Sportswriters Association he stated “It's quite an honor; but it's an honor that was won by the men on the North Texas basketball team. They're the ones who had the successful season. I never scored a point all season. They never even let me shoot a free throw ... I'd trade it for a bid to the NCAA Playoffs.” It hurt him his teams did not get an NCAA bid.

His personal honors included being elected to the Texas Sportswriters Association “College Coach of the Year for Winter Sports. He was elected to the Abilene Christian University “Sports Hall-Of_Fame” and in 2002 was elected to the University of North Texas Hall of Fame.

Blakeley left coaching in 1984 and was named President of Talent Sports International as a certified sports agent where he represented professional sports figures like “The Mailman” Karl Malone; 5' 7” Anthony Webb known as Spud Webb; Joe Dumars; Will Perdue; Akeem Olajwon; Mookie Blaylock, Randy White; Oliver Miller and others.