Poplar Bluff, MO – After a half-century of at the helm of the Three Rivers men's basketball program, Gene Bess has called it a career.

Bess came to Three Rivers in 1969 after a 12-year stint in the high school coaching ranks. After taking over head coaching duties two years later, Bess has since amassed a collegiate basketball-best 1,300 wins in his 50 years in charge of the Raiders' men's team. That's 143 more victories than Duke's Mike Krzyzewski and a whopping 373 more than the next leading all-time NJCAA men's coach, the late Bob Kirk, formerly of Allegany Maryland, who finished his career with a 927-158 record in 33 seasons. The most recent milestone for Bess came in the 2020 regular season finale on the court named in his honor.

PHOTOS: Gene Bess Through the Years

Bess twice won national titles in his time in Poplar Bluff along with two national runner-up finishes. The first national title came in the first decade of his collegiate coaching career when his 1979 team ended a memorable and dramatic run by cutting down the nets in Hutchinson. After edging Westchester in the first round 68-64, the Raiders proceeded to knock off Coffeyville 110-81 to advance to the semifinals. Playing for a spot in the national title game, the Raiders needed to survive two overtimes against Western Texas, a team then coached by Naismith Hall of Fame inductee Nolan Richardson. With the scoreline 105-103 with 13 seconds to play, the Raiders' Thurlon Weaver converted a basket on an intentional foul – adding two subsequent free throws – to make the final 109-103.

The marathon game appeared as though it might take its toll on the Raiders' title chances. "I've never seen a team so tired," described Bess in Michael L. Johnson's The JUCO Classic published in 1987. "We went to shoot around 12 o'clock [Saturday]. Those kids would come up and say, 'we can't even shoot a jump shot."

However, Three Rivers would show that they were built for the extended games the following day when the program won its first-ever championship with a come from behind overtime win over Mercer County.

Trailing 26-16 at halftime after a 28 percent shooting performance, the Raiders' offense awoke in the second half. Marvin McCrary's shot with 2:28 remaining in regulation tied the game 45 a piece. The teams would exchange a trio of buckets on the next three possessions and it took Thurlon Weaver's shot in the closing 10 seconds to send the game to overtime. Both teams traded several leads in the opening minutes of the extra period before the Raiders found themselves leading 60-58 with 13 seconds left. Mercer County's Jeff Rocke was fouled in the ensuing scramble with just one second remaining in the contest. Rocke hit the first shot before the second was missed to give Three Rivers the 1979 title.

Although it would take barely more than another decade before Bess would win another title, a lot had changed. By the time the Raiders reached another championship in 1992, the three-point line had been introduced years earlier and the NJCAA men's basketball field of teams had expanded with the addition of Division II and III championship competition. Nonetheless, Bess again had the Raiders in a position for another dramatic championship victory.

Following one of Bess's most memorable games as coach: a 76-74 semifinal victory over Southern Idaho on Friday in which the Raiders overcame a 21-point halftime deficit, it would take another set of heroics by a Three Rivers' player to lift the trophy on Saturday.

Trailing by two points to Butler with 27 seconds remaining, Anthony Beane – the eventual recipient of the Bud Obee Outstanding Small Player Award – fired in a three-pointer to put the Raiders up 78-77. Prior to the shot, Beane had been just one-of-ten shooting on the day.

A pair of consecutive defensive stands secured the victory for the Raiders in closing seconds who finished 35-3 on the season and collected the program's second championship trophy. 

"This one was much sweeter," said Bess following the win. "I think I may have taken the first one for granted."

The Raiders would make two more trips to the championship final under Bess; a 78-74 loss to tournament host Hutchinson in 1994 followed by an 85-80 overtime loss to Howard in the final of the 2010 edition of the tournament. That Howard team featured future NJCAA Men's Basketball Hall of Famer and current Texas Tech Associate Head Coach Mark Adams along with current NBA player for the Miami Heat, Jae Crowder.

"Simply stated, Coach Gene Bess was a great coach and an even better person," said Adams. "It was an honor for me to be on the same floor with a coaching legend in Coach Bess in the 2010 National Championship game."  

Bess had long considered retiring. As early as the 1992 championship run and as more recent as the 2010 runner-up finish.

Knee problems in the most recent seasons self-admittedly hampered the coach's energy he could contribute to his players.

"I've been realizing the time was near for me to go," said Bess to Scott Borkgren of the Poplar Bluff Daily American Republic. "I felt like I was just as effective, but I didn't have the energy level to do what I need to do to excel as a coach – the time has come."

GENE BESS NOTES:

• Only six programs (Vincennes, Moberly Area, Southern Idaho, Hutchinson, San Jacinto-Central, and Southeastern) have made more national tournament appearances than Bess himself.
• From 1978-84, Bess's teams recorded a 83-game home court winning streak.
• Bess recorded 16 30-plus win seasons during his time in Poplar Bluff.
• Bess has coached numerous players that have gone on to play professionally. Most notably, each national championship run had a future NBA player.
  • Marvin McCrary was on the 1979 national championship team and continued on to play at Missouri before being selected with the 108th pick in the 1982 NBA Draft. 
  • Latrell Sprewell, who still holds multiple school scoring records at Three Rivers, played at Alabama following the Raiders' 1990 title. Sprewell was selected in the first round of the 1992 NBA Draft with the 24th overall selection

His son Brian Bess, an assistant in the program for the previous 27 years, will take over the program. His father's legacy, one in which that included a new all-time wins record for every victory Bess recorded since 2001, will be a tough one to follow.

"I think it's time for him to get control and go for it," Gene Bess said of his son. "I think he'll do a great job."

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