An estimated crowd of 1,100 entered E.A. Diddle Arena Monday night to welcome Ray Harper, the 14th head coach in WKU’s illustrious men’s basketball history, at a pep rally and press conference.
Ray Harper (right) was introduced Feb. 20 as Hilltopper basketball coach. (WKU photo by Bryan Lemon)
After entering the arena to the WKU fight song following individual introductions of the team, Harper was flanked on the stage by WKU President Dr. Gary Ransdell and WKU Director of Athletics Ross Bjork. The trio made their opening statements and then entertained questions from the local and regional media.
Also in attendance were legendary Hilltopper head coaches Jim Richards and John Oldham, as well as former players David Beckner, Darel Carrier, Harel Carrier, Kyle Chapman, Bobby Rascoe and Ty Rogers, among others.
“This is my home, and this is your university,” Harper said. “I am proud to be here tonight and to just be a small part of it. We are going to return this program to its championship stature – a place that it so richly deserves, and a place that it has been before, and a place that we are going back to. The difference is that once we get there, we are not going anywhere. The thing about winning is that when you get to the top of the mountain, and I have been to the top, people will try to push you off. But you just get tougher, and you understand what it took to get there.”
“We did not script this out with any special-crafted theory in mind, except doing what was best for our players and for WKU Basketball,” Bjork explained. “That was it. Nothing more, and nothing less. We measured Coach Harper against many top coaches, and he simply won the day. Hiring Ray Harper is the best decision for our university at our time, in our place and in our moment.”
“We observed our fans,” Ransdell said of the decision-making process. “We observed the energy, the sustained energy. We observed the dedication. We saw this arena become full again. We saw our students breathe energy into the program that we had not seen for years. We saw our players playing with a focus, with a dedication and a skill that we have not seen before. So we knew that this was a decision that needed to be made. Ross called Saturday night and said ‘let’s do it now,’ and I said ‘alright, let’s go.’ So we planned everything you saw yesterday and are seeing today. I cannot be more proud that this decision has been made. I am going to be in this job for awhile longer, and I look forward to sharing the rest of my time at this university with one men’s basketball coach – Ray Harper.”
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