By JASON PUGH, Northwestern State Sports Information Director
NATCHITOCHES – Tynes Hildebrand had an eye for talent – whether it was on the basketball court or for molding college athletic administrators. There’s no more prominent figure in the latter group today than Greg Sankey, the Southeastern Conference commissioner, who cut his administrative teeth as an intern under Hildebrand at Northwestern State.
Hildebrand, the longtime cornerstone of the Demons’ athletic department, passed away Sunday at the age of 93, leaving a legacy of coaching victories on the court and a professional network of administrators that tops out at the highest level of Division I competition.
Hildebrand coached Northwestern State’s men’s basketball team to 191 victories in 16 seasons. His work as Northwestern State’s director of athletics for 13 years, however, stands of equal or greater importance.
Just a couple months ago came the final accolade in Hildebrand’s decorated career – the Louisiana Association of Basketball Coaches’ Don Landry Award, given for only the fourth time in three decades to recognize distinguished service and significant contributions to the game.
That award followed induction into Northwestern’s N-Club Hall of Fame in 1985, the Southland Conference Hall of Honor in 1999, the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame as the 2014 Dave Dixon Louisiana Sports Leadership Award winner and Northwestern State’s Long Purple Line Alumni Hall of Distinction in 2022.
Detailed preparation defined Hildebrand’s tenure on the sidelines and in the top spot in NSU’s athletic department. It did the same when it came to his home.
“He was meticulous about his yard,” said Pat Nolen Pierson, a Pitkin native who became a Lady Demon basketball standout and later an ultra-successful head coach. “He didn’t have a lot of outside hobbies, but his yard was manicured to perfection. We teased him that not one blade of grass was out of place and not one was longer than the other.”
Shortly after her playing days ended – just two years later – Pierson became the head women’s basketball coach, taking over for the 1978-79 season. She benefited from Hildebrand’s ability and willingness to mentor younger coaches and, later, burgeoning administrators.
“He was a wonderful mentor,” she said. “He always was very willing to share. If he had some different kind of offense or defense, he was happy to go over it with me. He never made me feel like he didn’t have time to answer my questions. Early in my career, I didn’t have an assistant coach and I had a conflict with practice. He came and practiced my team for me. He was that giving to let go of his busy schedule. The girls laughed because he wouldn’t give them as many water breaks, but I always appreciated him doing that.”
Pierson also coached under Hildebrand’s watch when he became athletic director in 1983.
“It didn’t surprise me at all,” she said of Hildebrand going into athletic administration. “Even as a coach, he paid a lot of attention to detail. Administrators have to do that – dot the Is and cross the Ts. It was an easy transition based on his work ethic and personality.”
Those two traits – and a well-placed phone call from his wife, Julia – helped serve Hildebrand in his post-NSU career.
Following his retirement from NSU in 1996, Hildebrand began the third act of his collegiate athletics career, working with the Southland Conference as a men’s basketball officials observer – a position that came when his wife called then-Southland Commissioner Sankey, one of the “graduates” of Hildebrand’s internship program at Northwestern.
“Julia was the one who called me,” said Sankey, now one of the top power brokers in college athletics. “She told me, ‘You’ve got to find something for him to do.’ I didn’t have a lot of resources then, but we brought him on to help support our basketball officiating program. He got after it and eventually established himself nationally. It probably didn’t generate as much notoriety locally, but his work ethic and his attention to detail provided a valuable resource for officiating coordinators.”
Hildebrand’s quick climb up the officiating rung surprised no one.
Although his collection of infamous on-court disputes with referees may have seemed incongruous to Hildebrand becoming an officiating observer, those qualities served him well in his new role – one that saw him become one of the NCAA’s inaugural four regional officiating supervisors, helping choose officials for all rounds of March Madness from 2006 through 2014.
“Our deepest condolences are with his family,” NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball Dan Gavitt said. “Coach Hildebrand was beloved by all of those who worked with him at the NCAA. He brought such credibility to our officials program by virtue of his hard work and attention to detail. Whenever anyone questioned his credentials having come from a coaching background, he dug in and earned their trust with his work ethic and attention to detail. I think the coaches knew he had been in their shoes and had their best interests in mind while helping evaluate our officials.”
Much like the way Hildebrand climbed the ladder of his newfound profession, Sankey did so, working his way from Hildebrand’s internship program to the summit of the SEC. His relationship with Hildebrand opened the door for not only Sankey but many others to get their start in college athletics.
“When he started the program, there weren’t many people on the administrative side,” Sankey said. “I commend him for the creativity to go outside the boundaries of the state to find talented people and provide an opportunity. It was a two-way street – there was an opportunity provided and there was work to be done. When I went down to Natchitoches in late spring of ‘89 for a visit, the recitation of where people had come from surprised me. I was hearing Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania to Natchitoches, and he’d been able to use it as a launching pad to start careers.”
Sankey extolled the benefits of Hildebrand’s internship program that set the neophytes up for industry success once their time in the program was complete.
While the tangible benefits of the internship program continue to show themselves, it was something Hildebrand did repeatedly that stuck with Sankey and spoke to the essence of who Hildebrand was as a leader.
“You’d see him driving his gray Nissan pickup truck – often the wrong way down the one-way street in front of the fieldhouse – and you’d see the truck stop,” Sankey said. “He’d jump out, pick up a piece of paper or a piece of trash and throw it away. It showed even for him, there wasn’t anything too small to pay attention to.”
