Record details
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Basketball and a legendary coach changed my life for good!
Growing up in Lafayette, Indiana, where Hoosiers are as passionate about basketball as Texans are about football, meant that dribbling and shooting was like learning to walk and talk. In grade school, we won the city championship, and in high school, we won state finals. Picked as one of Indiana’s 10 best players, I got to be part of the Indiana All-Star team that played against Kentucky.
By my junior year, I had 50 letters of intent from colleges across the country. Nobody in my family had attended college and I was determined to seize my chance but had no idea of how to decide on a college. After meeting with Floyd Wagstaff (who was an irresistible force of nature!) my parents and I decided on Tyler Junior College. TJC and Coach Wag were just what I needed, so much so that I stayed at TJC a second year, and would gladly have stayed for four!
Coach Wag and TJC had a profound and positive impact on my character and my life. The philanthropic work I do today through the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is a result of my love for the farm and ranch industry, which grew after I purchased my first horse from Coach Wag.
He taught much more than basketball. Watching Coach Wag go out of his way to help people, I learned to be a giver. After being introduced to a new student who had nothing, Coach armed me with money and instructions to take him shopping for clothes and tennis shoes.
Coach was passionate about winning but he valued character and integrity even more. Instead of resting the night before we were scheduled to play at the ‘66 national tournament, two of our best players made poor choices, which resulted in their arrests. Coach thought they should be off the team for letting down the rest of the guys who were home in bed getting ready for the trip. However, he left that decision up to us. We voted in favor of Coach Wag, which left us two players short, but we all pulled together and became known as “The Iron Eight.”
It was an outstanding lesson in discipline and character, unity and respect. To be successful, a team has to unify and work toward the same goals, whether it’s a sports team or an office team or a family.
Since graduating years ago, TJC has continued to play out in my business life. After being a high school teacher and coach, I made a seamless transition to the industrial manufacturing industry, in part because of a strong recommendation by Coach Wag.
In 1983, I decided to sell my Pasadena-based electrical supply company. When I contacted the president of another firm to see if he was interested in acquiring the business, he recognized my name as his “favorite player” from TJC. Not only did he buy my company, he convinced me to work for him during the next 2 years.
These days, I try to give back, and one of my favorite causes is helping young people receive opportunities to get a college education. As a member of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, I am honored to serve on a committee that helps kids obtain scholarship money. I also am proud to be a member and past President of The Houston Chapter of the TJC Alumni Association, which helps young people get the kinds of opportunities I had to go to college.
I’ve been very blessed with a good life and a chance to help others, which all can be traced to lessons and lasting relationships from TJC. Though I live in Katy, Texas, there will always be a special place in my heart for Tyler because of the many wonderful memories of how great coaches, teachers and staff at TJC helped shape boys and girls without direction into men and women with principles and a greater purpose in life.
- Biography
- TJC Hero and Friend Terry Stillabower was a 2013 inductee into the Tyler Junior College Sports Circle of Honor. He and his wife Mayon live in Katy, Texas. Their blended family includes 7 children and 16 grandchildren. As part of TJC’s legendary “Iron 8”, Stillabower learned life and character lessons he credits for his many successes after TJC. Still active in the electrical energy engineering industry, Terry is the business development manager for LW Survey, which is responsible for surveying pipelines, transmission lines and substations. He is past president of The Houston Chapter of the TJC Alumni Association, and member of the Calf Scramble Committee for the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo.