A Quick Five With Wright State’s First Basketball Coach
by Bill Kintner
DAYTON, Ohio – Back when Wright State had existed just six years as an institution of higher learning and just three years as an independent university, John Ross was given the job of creating a basketball program. It took a little more than just finding and recruiting some players: with no on-campus gym he was forced to find a place to practice and play games.
Ross coached for five years, compiling a record of 60-54.
That first year, 1970-71, he managed to guide the team to a 7-17 record. The next year he improved to 9-14. That was with playing most of the games on the road. Finally, by the third year he had the Raiders on the winning track to stay. The last three years his team’s records were 17-5, 17-4 and 15-10.
After leaving Wright State Ross did a stint as an assistant coach at Stetson University in Florida. Ross then came back as an assistant coach for Ralph Underhill in the late eighties.
He is now retired and living in Central Florida, where he has basketball season tickets at Stetson. Every year he comes back to the Dayton area where he catches games at several colleges and high schools. I caught up with him while he was attending a recent Wright State game.
Bill Kintner: So what have you been doing with yourself these days.
John Ross: (chuckle) I go to a lot of basketball games. I worked at Stetson University in Florida after I left Wright State. I am in my later years and I just don’t do too much. I still enjoy basketball and I go to a lot of games.
BK: What schools do you follow?
JR: I have season ticket at Stetson University and I go to some junior college games. Junior college games are big in Florida. I also go to the state high school tournament. I come up here every year and take in some Ohio basketball. I try to get to Wilmington College, a couple high school games and of course, Wright State.
BK: How has the game changed since you last coached in Division I?
JR: It is faster today. I am not sure the players are drilled in fundamentals like we used to do. It seems like so many of the players are not used to having someone in their face when they are getting a shot off. They go out in the shoot-around or pre-games and it is a different tempo from once the game starts. They don’t shoot quickly enough.
BK: What was it like in the early days of Wright State basketball?
JR: We had to practice where we could. We practiced at the old fairgrounds one year. We practiced at Stebbins High School one year and then we started playing some games at Stebbins.
BK: Did you ever envision that Wright State’s program would get to as big as it is right now?
JR: Yes I did. I didn’t think I would ever see it. I knew that if they would ever commit themselves, an administration that would commit themselves with the budget and that’s what it takes, budget It takes a budget to in order to hire personnel and then to get out a recruit. Recruiting was very difficult and I think that is one of the problems today. This is a very difficult area to recruit in. You have Ohio State, Dayton, Xavier, Cincinnati and a lot of the schools in the Mid-American Conference. They have many more alumni in the area than Wright State.
BK: You were the coach at Wright State, left and then you came back. Tell me about that?
JR: I was down south coaching at a couple different schools down there over the years. Then my mother got sick and we had to put here in a nursing home and I thought this is where I belong, up here. I would go up and watch Ralph Underhill’s (Raider coach) practices. He asked me one day to help at practice. So I became a coach and started helping him.
BK: What was your biggest accomplishment at Wright State?
JR: I would say just getting the program started. We didn’t have a gym, heck, we didn’t have anything. I think after the third year we got scholarship money and that was probably the biggest thing that we needed to get going. I worked continually to try to build a schedule. It was difficult because nobody wanted to play us. They would have us come there, but they didn’t want to come play in a high school gym. Recruiting was tough. We got some good kids, some hard-nosed kids. I don’t think they’ve ever have been given their credit.
BK: Thanks Coach Ross.
JR: I enjoyed it.
