Tate, Hamrick named men's basketball assistant coaches For immediate release July 27, 1999 Former Abilene Christian University head men's basketball coach Willard Tate, who led the Wildcats to their best-ever record in the 1979-80 season, has been named an assistant coach under new head coach Mike Martin. Joining Martin and Tate in the Wildcat bench will be Stephen Hamrick, who has been promoted from graduate assistant to assistant coach. Martin, who led the Wildcats to a 123-99 record from 1980-88, was hired two weeks ago to succeed Shanon Hays, who took an assistant coaching position at Texas Tech. Tate, 63, led the Wildcats to a 27-5 mark and a berth in the NAIA national tournament semifinals in 1980. That ACU team set a school record for wins and winning percentage (.844) in a season. Tate's overall mark in seven years as the head coach at ACU was 119-79. His .601 winning percentage is third-best in school history. His teams won two Lone Star Conference titles and he coached three NAIA all-Americans. When he resigned in March 1980, Tate devoted his time to directing a new program at ACU for students whose records indicated they might have had a difficult time adjusting to college academic work. Since then he has become an associate professor in the Department of Communication at ACU. He is a special lecturer in ACU's "Life Learning Skills" program, designed to help students improve their self-image, basic academic skills and study habits. Prior to coming to ACU, Tate spent 13 years as athletic director and head basketball coach at Alabama Christian College in Montgomery, Ala., building the program from nothing to a national junior college power. The last four years - when ACC had its own gym and scholarship program - Tate compiled a 72-31 record. His last team at Alabama Christian in 1972-73 was 25-4 and ranked 16th in the nation. Tate has been the minister for the Hamby Church of Christ for several years and was inducted into the ACU Sports Hall of Fame in 1997. "Coach Tate brings everything to the table for us," Martin said. "He's a great communicator, obviously, and he has a world of basketball knowledge. I'm thankful he'll be there with us." Hamrick has been the graduate assistant coach at ACU the last two seasons. He joined the ACU coaching staff in 1997 after a one-year stint as a graduate assistant at West Texas A&M. Hamrick graduated from Eastern New Mexico in December 1996 after a career that saw him set LSC career record for 3-point field goals made and attempted 325 of 811). The three-time second team all-LSC guard finished his career with 1,210 points, which ranks 13th on ENMU's all-time scoring list. He also broke the Greyhound record for career 3-pointers during his junior year. He was also named to the all-LSC academic team and was a member of the Dean's List at ENMU. He was a first team Class 4A all-state selection as a senior at Canyon High School, where he played for his father Dan. "Stephen is a great young coach," Martin said. "I've got a lot of respect for his work ethic and his enthusiasm. He's going to make a great head coach in the future." MEN'S:  Baseball | Basketball | Cross Country | Football | Golf | Tennis | Track and Field WOMEN'S:  Basketball | Cross Country | Softball | Tennis | Track and Field | Volleyball ACU Sports Home | Lone Star Conference | NCAA Last update: July 27, 1999 This page is maintained by Jeremy Parish, parishj@nicanor.acu.edu. Questions concerning this information to Brent Rhodes, rhodesb@nicanor.acu.edu http://www.acu.edu/sports/news/990727-tate.html