Hall of Fame coach Bill Hays remembered - The Spokesman Review
It was the night before another basketball game between coaching legends, friend and rivals – Bill Hays of St. John and Gene Smith of Reardan. Smith recalled the story Wednesday less than two after Hays passed away. Smith told his players to take the night off from practice and go get flat tops. He wanted his players to be better groomed than Hays’ kids. “I was taping some of the guys (ankles) at the end of the bench during the (junior varsity) game and Bill came in and we talked a bit,” Smith recalled. The memory was from a game played in the 1970s, Smith said, when longer hair had become popular and Hays and Smith had relaxed on their flat top policy. Hays’ teams usually played Smith’s teams twice during the regular season – usually in a season opener and later in the year. “Back then, Bill and I both were staying with old traditional squared haircuts,” Smith said. Smith and his wife visited Hays and his wife last month when Smith learned his friend was ill. After retiring from teaching in 1989, Hays moved to Bonners Ferry where he had farmed and raised Angus cattle since 1961. “I knew he wasn’t well and we thought we’d better go see him,” Smith said. Smith remembers Hays using a two-platoon system with his team. Most years, he played as many as 10 in a game, Smith said. Source: www.spokesman.com
