Floyd Burdette spent time at a lot of different schools and left his mark on all of them. He played college basketball at Murray State, where he led his team in scoring and was an all-conference selection every single year. After graduating he attended Oklahoma A&M as a player and coach while getting his master’s degree in physical education. He became head coach at Alabama in 1946 and later spent almost 2 decades as coach at Tennessee at Martin from 1952-1971. Coach Burdette passed away in 1995 but HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Floyd’s son Joel about his father playing for Henry Iba and coaching Bob Kurland. Today would have been Floyd’s 107th birthday so we take this time to remember his life/legacy.
Your father was nicknamed “Red”: who gave him the nickname and how did he like it? It came from his color: most people referred to him as either “Coach” or “Red”.
He led his team in scoring and was an all-conference selection each season at Murray State: what made him such a great player? I had the luxury of getting my hands on some of his old scrapbooks after he passed away. He was surrounded by 4 other good players at Murray State and they all played for Coach Carlisle Cutchen. They had a great starting 5 and only lost a handful of games during his career.
He also played for Hall of Fame coach Henry Iba as a center for Oklahoma A&M in 1944 as they made it to the NIT semifinals before a 3-PT loss to DePaul: what made Iba such a great coach? He probably took many of his coaching techniques and implemented them into his later coaching career: he really admired Coach Iba. He probably would have stayed at Alabama if his parents’ health had not taken a turn for the worse. He got to coach against Adolph Rupp and almost beat him several times.
He played AAU basketball in Oklahoma City from 1933-1940: do you think that he could have played in the NBA had it existed back then? I think that he could have. He played for the Phillips 66ers as well as for a team in Denver and was 1 of their better players.
During the summer of 1943 while he was stationed in Stillwater with the US Army Air Corps he taught future Hall of Famer Bob Kurland how to use his height around the basket: how did he like the opportunity to work with the 1st 7-footer in NCAA history? He was responsible for the physical training of the recruits, including teaching soldiers how to parachute. Coach Iba wanted my dad to personally work with Kurland because my dad was 6’6”. I heard that Kurland was not the most coordinated guy so my dad worked with him on his footwork in the post. Kurland was the 1st guy to ever dunk a basketball: when the refs saw it they called it an illegal shot because they had never seen anything like it!
He became head coach at Alabama in 1946: why did he take the job, and how did he like it? I think that he thoroughly enjoyed it. 1 of his greatest accomplishments was that most of his players graduated. He had 1 player from a poor family who had exhausted his scholarship: my dad went to great lengths to plead his case and try to get some extra funding for the kid. My dad wrote so many letters that he finally got the funding.
In 1952 he became coach at Tennessee–Martin (where he stayed for 19 years): how excited was he to return to his hometown, and how was he able to stick around for such a long period of time? I do not know if the fact that it was his hometown had anything to do with his longevity but he always packed in a good audience. He was very animated on the sideline and always wore a sport coat/tie: he would often slam the coat to the ground when he disagreed with a call. He was a good fit with the university and they respected him.
He passed away in 1995: when people look back on his career, how do you think that he should be remembered the most? He always wanted the best for his players and wanted them to succeed in life so he tried to instill some good values in them. The most well-known guy who played for him was Leonard Hamilton, who was the 1st African-American basketball player at the school. When he coached at Alabama they were invited to the NIT and were going to be paired against a team with Black players. Some of the higher-ups heard about it and decided to not let the team play, which was 1 of my dad’s greatest disappointments.