Bill Richards does not have an office; he has a walk in trophy case. On the back wall of his office hang a collection of plaques for various coaching awards and Mid-American Conference honors. Above his desk, filling two bookshelves, are MAC trophies, just a selection of his collection. On the remaining wall space are posters from every team he has coached and photos honoring moments in his legendary career.
Richards recently added to his collection, clinching his 18th MAC title outright against Northern Illinois on Saturday. In his time at Ball State, Richards has also amassed 10 coach of the year awards and five NCAA tournament berths.
This weekend, Richards can add one more stat to his resume. Two victories away from the 2005 MAC tournament championship, he sits at 498 career wins.
THE START OF A CAREER
Richards was a three-year letterwinner at Western Michigan and a MAC champion in singles and doubles. After graduating from WMU with a bachelor of science degree, Richards went to Bowling Green, where in one year as a graduate assistant he earned a master's degree.
Richards spent a year at Portage High School as head tennis coach, then discovered the Ball State job was open.
When Bill Richards came to Ball State in 1972, the school was in talks to join the MAC. President John Pruis was president, and Athletics Director Ray Louthen were also graduates of Western Michigan. John Reno, chairman of the School of Physical Education and Athletics at the time, was working very closely with people at Western Michigan as Ball State moved toward MAC membership.
"I think it was all those ties with my background at Western Michigan and the people at Ball State who had those ties to people at Western Michigan [that got me the job]," Richards said.
Richards was just 23 years old when he took the Ball State job.
"I was very lucky that Ball State was willing to take a chance on someone that young and relatively inexperienced at that time," he said.
At the time, the university was still shaking off its small, teachers-college image.
"We weren't still called Ball State Teachers College, but that was was the image Ball State had," he said. "You didn't think of Ball State as a professional school. You didn't think of Ball State with business, with pre-med, with architecture, with all the outstanding academic programs we now have."
Richards started his first season at Ball State in Spring 1973, when he guided the Cards to a 9-9 record. In his second season, he improved to 12-6.
In 1975, their first year in the MAC, the Cardinals went 13-8 overall and 6-2 in the conference but tied for sixth in the tournament.
At the time, the tournament was flighted, meaning that there were solo competitions for each title. Each flight consisted of one player from each school competing against each other in a tournament-style play. Points were awarded based on where players finished in each of the nine flights.
The Cardinals fought against most MAC schools for the next few years, finishing as high as second in 1980.
In 1983, however, they proved themselves in the regular season, tying with Miami and Western Michigan, as each team had one loss.
"The actual conference championship at that time was based only on the season-ending tournament, and we didn't have a very good tournament," Richards said. "We finished fourth."
The next season, there would be no bad tournament.
BUILDING A DYNASTY
In 1984, the Cardinals won their first MAC title. Leading the way were Tom Coulton and Mark Woldmore, who won Flight No. 1 Doubles.
"In '84, we did go undefeated and then squeaked out the tournament championship by one or two points over Western Michigan," Richards said. "It was big to get that first one. And I certainly had no idea we were going to be the dominant team of the '80s and '90s. I didn't know what was going to lie ahead of us at that time.
Among the other members of that first title team was Gene Orlando, a future Ball State Athletics Hall of Fame member and current coach at Michigan. He is BSU's ninth-winningest singles player all time.
"All we were talking about was winning the MAC championship," Orlando said. "One thing that stuck with me was, before the tournament, he showed us an MAC championship ring, because none of us had ever seen one before.
"I thought that he was the king. He gave me the opportunity to go to Ball State. He took a no-name player and gave me a chance and developed me into a solid college player. I think that's where most of the early success came from."
Ball State won the next 12 MAC titles and quickly became a tennis powerhouse. In 1987, the duos of Eric Nixon/Todd Hershey and Orlando/Marty Reist played their way into the NCAA Championships.
The next season, Hershey and Nixon became the first members of BSU's tennis programs to become nationally ranked -- as high as No. 12 during the season and No. 18 at the season's end.
In 1990, Ball State dominated the conference, going undefeated (a feat the team has accomplished 16 times) with a 15-6 overall record. It ranked as high as 20th in the nation and won all but two flights in the league tournament.
"I remember that year beating Kentucky at Kentucky when they were ranked No. 10 in the nation," Richards said. "Beating Minnesota at Minnesota when they had a 47-match home winning streak, which we broke."
The following season, the Cardinals won all the flights in the MAC Tournament and ranked as high as 25th in the nation. Yet only Scott Campbell and Dan Kronauge qualified as individuals, while Ball State was not one of 16 squads invited.
"We had arguably the best team in Ball State history, and a team No. 25 in the nation didn't get to go to the tournament," Richards said. "Our players now have to realize how fortunate they are now that they get to play for a spot in the NCAA tournament. We had some absolutely great teams not get to play in the NCAA tournament."
In Fall 1991, one of the greatest moments in Ball State athletics occurred. On Oct. 20, Kronauge and Paul Kruse won the doubles title at the ITCA/Volvo Fall Championships, earning them the No. 1 national ranking, which they held for most of the season.
In 1994 and 1995, Ball State earned at-large bids to the NCAA Regionals.
Over the next 10 years, Ball State won five MAC titles and never finished lower than second until last season, when it lost in the second round.
"He's had a sustained level of success year after year after year," former player and current Marquette coach said. "Over the years, men's tennis has changed, yet he still finds a way. He's always developed those guys, and if they had a down year, they're right back there next year.
"When you play a BSU team, you have to put six guys out there who want to play, because they're going to be out there for a while, because those [BSU] guys keep battling."
ANOTHER MILESTONE
After last season's disappointment, Ball State recovered this season, maintaining the four goals Richards has held through the years: amass a winning record against the Big Ten, win the MAC regular season championship, win the MAC tournament and win a match in the NCAAs.
Ball State has already accomplished two goals, and is moving on to complete two more. The Cardinals earned a bye in the first round, and will likely face Northern Illinois, the team that eliminated them in 2004.
Assuming the Cardinals do not get upset by the Huskies again, Richards will be going for another MAC tournament title -- and win No. 500.
"I don't think much about what my accomplishments have been individually," Richards said. "I've coached for 30-some years and intend to continue to coach for several more."
Although Richards has spent his entire college coaching career at Ball State, he has had offers from other programs.
Following his first MAC title in 1984, and as Ball State started beating Big Ten programs, he drew the interest of other colleges and almost took the job at Indiana. In 1988, Minnesota offered, but again he turned it down.
"Ball State -- the administrators at that time were very, very supportive of me and our program, and they did a few things for me professionally to keep me here," Richards said.
Then, a couple seasons back, Rice University was interested in Richards. Having family in the region made the job more appealing than most. But after that down as well, Richards decided that he would finish his career at BSU.
"I've never even looked at another job and will not," Richards said. "We're definitely going to finish it out here."
Richards has led one of Ball State's most successful athletics programs for 33 years now and has no plans on stopping anytime soon. In addition to his wife's support, he credits the program's family atmosphere and close ties with many alumni as the main reasons for his success. Several alumni help Richards find players to recruit.
"It sounds kind of corny, but it's always been a family type of a program," he said. "Family from the way our relationship is as a team and the alumni and the relationship with my family.
"I stay very close with all those guys. We've got a very close alumni base and a lot of those guys will be at Kalamazoo for the tournament this weekend."
Rodecap said that Richards is highly respected in the coaching industry.
"His alumni base there is amazing," he said. I would be willing to say that there aren't more than three or four guys that aren't in pretty close contact with him, and that's pretty unbelievable."
Now, with two matches looming for a chance to not only add to his accolades, but earn the school's sixth tournament berth.
"This team -- it's all about them," Richards said. "Coaches have long tenure of opportunity to do special things. Athletes have a very short window of opportunity."
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