WKU Hilltoppers: Is This the Golden Era of WKU Athletics?
Let’s just come out and say it: When has WKU sports been better?
Let’s just come out and say it: When has WKU sports been better?
Western Kentucky is steeped in significant tradition in many of its sports. Known mainly as a basketball school, WKU boasts two hoops programs well inside the Top 20 in all-time wins. But the Toppers are not just a typical Kentucky basketball school.
WKU boasts good, and continuously growing, tradition in football, winning a 1-AA National Championship in 2002 and 13 total conference championships, two of which occurred during the past three years. WKU was a Division II power decades ago.
Under Travis Hudson, Lady Topper Volleyball has established itself as a perennial Top 25 program and consistently makes noise in the NCAA Tournament.
Perhaps scraping way too deep to make a point, Hilltopper Track and Field continues to be a mid-major power and WKU Golf and WKU Tennis have all shown significant progress.
When you think about the great eras of WKU athletics, maybe we look back at some of the E.A. Diddle years in the 1940s and 1950s. Perhaps the mid-1960s through the mid-70s, when WKU football and basketball were nationally prominent.
There were some really good years in the early to mid-1990s.
Recently, 2000–03 was excellent for WKU. Men’s and women’s basketball were at their best in recent memory, and football won the 2002 1-AA National Championship. Perhaps 2008 and 2009 are in the running. Football made the transition to the FBS (although it went a combined 2–22 in those years), men’s basketball won three NCAA Tournament games, and women’s basketball made its first NCAA appearance in five years.
Perhaps arguments could be made for each of those eras. However, peruse the recent memories, and I happily invite anyone to match the past decade, the past five years, or anywhere in between.
The last decade has been impressive, but since joining Conference USA, WKU has:
Won two football conference championships
Three women’s basketball championships
Lady Topper Volleyball has earned its only two NCAA Tournament victories since 2012
Softball has won two NCAA Tournament games
Men’s basketball has signed two five star players in the past two recruiting cycles, along with two four stars and multiple former four star athletes. WKU Men’s Basketball is perhaps as talent-loaded as ever.
Across all sports, WKU has more than twice the conference championships of the second place school for total championships since joining C-USA.
So again, I challenge you: When has it been better to be a fan of Western Kentucky?
Let’s break it down
1900s
1948–1956: The height of the E.A. Diddle era. With Western Kentucky State College making the NIT six of seven years from 1948–1956, every true college basketball fan knew who Western Kentucky was. Jack Clayton coached the football Tops from 1948–1956, winning over 60 percent of his games. Future WKU legendary coach Jimmy Feix was also quarterback from 1949 to 1952, leading the Tops to a 24–12–2 record while under center. Women’s basketball did not exist consistently until the mid-1970s.
1965–1975: The Golden Era of WKU basketball and the best pre-2000 memories in football history. Anyone who knows WKU basketball history with any depth knows 1971 was the year in Topper history. The program’s only Final Four was a culmination of a decade of success, and the ride from a collection of remarkable Kentucky boys who nearly made it all the way. Clem Haskins was before those great Jim McDaniels teams, as well.
On the football side, Nick Denes and Jimmy Feix together ushered in the best time during the pre-Division 1-AA era in WKU Football’s history. WKU finished as Division II runner up in 1973 and 1975, and Denes and Feix combined to win over 60 percent of their games during their tenures. Even Topper baseball, a program with fairly average tradition, was good during this period, finishing no worse than fourth in the OVC in any year during this decade.
Surely, this era makes the best all-around argument before the turn of the century.
1985–1995: Unquestionably the largest blight on this era, the Topper football team nearly disbanded. The disastrous Dave Roberts era ended in 1988, posting the first overall losing record during a coaching tenure for the first time in 60 years. Jack Harbaugh took over, but the program never took off again until Hilltopper legend Willie Taggart came to the Hill in 1996. However, WKU football would not exist today without a 5–4 margin in a Board of Regents vote to keep the program in April of 1992.
This is a basketball era dear to my parents’ hearts. Hilltopper basketball stars Darnell Mee, Kannard Johnson and Tellis Frank repeatedly come out of my father’s mouth. Hilltopper basketball saw five NCAA Tournaments from 1986 to 1995, including the first Sweet 16 since 1978, reaching the round of 16 in 1993.
Unquestionably, Lady Topper hoops’ greatest era was during this time. All three of the NCAA Final Fours were during this era. In fact, the first ever NCAA Tournament bid resulted in a Final Four in 1985. No other decade in women’s basketball compares to this period of time.
2000s
The late 1990s were fairly uneventful for WKU. Willie T was basically the highlight, but everything else was pretty average. Things turned around at the start of the new millennium.
2000–2003: Virtually everything at WKU was good at some point during these few years. The obvious hallmark of this era was the football team’s Division 1-AA National Championship in 2002. Football was at least pretty good each of these years and generally was a national championship contender. Several NFL players came from this era as well, a rarity for a Division 1-AA/FCS school.
Basketball was great from 2000–03, winning three straight Sun Belt titles. Lady Topper basketball was also very successful during this time period, making two NCAA Tournaments in 2000 and 2003. Heck, throw in Lady Topper volleyball in there, winning the regular season title each year and making the NCAA Tournament in 2002.
2007–09: The 2007–08 men’s basketball season was about as magical as it has been at WKU since the mid-1990s. WKU ran all the way to the Sweet 16 and sniffed an upset of Kevin Love and UCLA before fading in the final game of the year. They then backed up the glory with a trip to the Round of 32. Meanwhile, the Lady Tops made the tournament for the first time in five years in 2008, the final year of all-time leading scorer Krystal Kelly’s career.
WKU football, although it wasn’t incredibly successful during this period (besides an astounding 7–5 record in its first year of transition and an upset of MTSU), made the transition from 1-AA to 1-A during this time period, a momentous occasion for the school as a whole. A huge blight would be the 0–12 season in 2009. Still a great — albeit painful — time for the football program.
In addition, WKU baseball was without question in its finest hour, making the NCAA Tournament two years in a row for the only time in school history. They were also at Ole Miss with an inning and a tie-breaking run away from a trip to the NCAA Super Regional in 2009. This was certainly a 2.5 year period of extreme prosperity for WKU Athletics.
2011–13: This deserves a quick mention, although in my opinion, this was not the greatest era of all-time. However, men’s basketball made the NCAA tournament on two miraculous runs, igniting the fan base and selling out for the first time in years. Homemade DVD’s and hastily printed T-shirts were made!!! Football was good, winning at least seven games each year and making the first FBS bowl game in school history. Bobby Petrino also made waves, choosing Western of all places to display his improved morals (#wink). The Lady Toppers were horrible before 2012–13, when Michelle Clark-Heard took over the program. Volleyball earned its first ever victory in the NCAA Tournament in 2012. This era doesn’t make the final cut, because there was no seismic event to account for. Just a solid and overachieving era.
2014-Present: First of all, every sport (besides baseball) has made program history of late. First, volleyball and track and field are always great. But it’s worth mentioning significant national level volleyball wins have happened during this era, drawing nationally ranked Power 5 schools to Diddle Arena on an annual basis and it isn’t out of the question that the Lady Tops will find themselves beating Top 25 competition, and finding themselves among their ranks. Even the softball team got in the act a few years ago, nearly winning the Athens regional in the NCAA Tournament in 2015 (why isn’t there a Miranda Kramer statue anywhere, yet?).
The football team is absolutely seeing its greatest time in history. Last year was obviously a disappointment, but two conference championships, three bowl wins in a row, school records galore, and multiple draft picks certainly make up for one down year. Everyone has known Western Kentucky as the high-flying, hair-raising Group of Five bowl bid contender for the past few years.
The Lady Toppers have won four of their past five eligible conference championships (one Sun Belt, three Conference USA). The Lady Tops are yet to break through in the Big Dance, but several close calls have made it the obvious next step for the program heading into the Greg Collins era. The Lady Tops are setting regular season records for wins, and Michelle Clark-Heard brought the program back into the limelight and really left the place better than she found it.
Finally, men’s basketball. The first part of the past few years was frankly depressing. Even the first year (2016–17) of the Stansbury era was a train wreck, losing to UTSA in the first round of the Conference USA Tournament. However, after that first horrifying campaign, what a difference a year made!
WKU lands and signs five star and consensus Top 15 prospect Mitchell Robinson, marking the first time anybody higher than a three star recruit actually landed on campus in basketball. He gets weirded out by terrible advice and leaves, and we’re thinking, “Oh god. This season is going to be a disaster and this team will be a train wreck.”
Guess what happens? Amazingly enough, Stansbury had a great team without Robinson. Not even to mention, for half the season, only eight players were eligible. The Tops win two of three in the Bahamas, win the most games since 2007–08, and make the NIT Final Four (for the first time since 1953–1954) despite having three true forwards and a maximum of ten men available in a loaded Conference USA against the toughest schedule in the conference.
Perhaps more than the season’s result, the most remarkable part about this team was their unity and palpable love for each other. It was beyond magical, and frankly my favorite sports team of any kind that I’ve ever witnessed. Can I gush anymore about how amazing they were despite it all? Eight players playing like a borderline Top 25 team, one returning scholarship player, two huge pieces ineligible for half the season, two major departures before the season began, finishing third in a Conference USA that was massively improved, scoring in the 100s on a regular basis, five players averaging double figures, the greatest freshman season of all-time, dunks, unselfishness, the run in the NIT (winning two games on the road), Justin Johnson proposing and scoring a million in five minutes, multiple sellouts, and so much more.
Now, on top of that, everyone who could be back is back, and the Tops add another four star and another five star, along with a starter from an SEC school and a local transfer that should make waves. Perhaps last year’s roster was the most loaded to ever take the court, but if this year’s team stays together and puts out there who should be there, the entire country should watch out. Without question, Topper fans can’t wait for this coming school year all across campus.
So Which Era Comes Out on Top?
I believe four eras are legitimate contenders for being the greatest times ever on the Hill: 1965–1975, 1985–1995, 2007–09, and 2014-present.
Please, feel free to debate this, but in my opinion, 1965–1975 was too sporadic of an era. The moments are there, but none of it was happening all at once. Basketball was very good for most of the era, and then was stripped of the Final Four and struggled for years afterwards. Football was good, but also had some rough times.
1985–1995 was a great era for both basketball teams, especially Lady Topper basketball. Nothing comes close to this time for the Lady Toppers, but the men had some years of significant struggle in between the good times. I think the deciding factor for me is the football team. The football team was abysmal for most of this time, including barely keeping the program in 1992. If we’re talking best combined basketball era, here is your winner. But we’re talking overall athletic success.
2007–09 was an incredible two years. This era had the most recent NCAA Tournament run, both basketball teams were good, and baseball and volleyball were incredible. But besides this not being a long enough era of sustained success, the huge blight was the football program. Yes, there was a year of over-achievement, but the other two seasons were bitterly disappointing and set the program back several years before finally reaching national prominence in…..
2014–Present
Our official winner has to be the present era. We can debate about this for sure, especially with the recent budget cuts, but in my opinion, every single sport but one has done something extraordinary during this time. School records, tournament runs, and national prominence are commonplace right now.
In no other time during WKU’s illustrious athletic history has men’s basketball, women’s basketball, football, volleyball, and track and field all been legitimate threats to not only make the postseason but to win once they get there. Please tell me one program that is in disaster mode. Find me one program that we can point at and say, “They have no shot to win.” We can poke holes in every other era, but this one is the least porous, and it is absolutely the most exciting time in my lifetime.