Hall of Fame coach Gene Bess, NJCAA legend, dies at 91

Gene Bess died Friday morning at his residence in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, after a 50-season run at Three Rivers College. He was 91. He retired in 2020 with a record of 1,300-416, the winningest mark in college basketball history.

Three Rivers did not even have a campus gym for practice when Bess became head coach. His first team won a region title and finished fourth nationally. Over his career, the Raiders averaged 26 wins per season, won 23 region championships, reached the NJCAA national tournament 17 times, and made four trips to the championship game. They also reached the semifinal round four more times and won national titles in 1979 and 1992.

Bess was the first college basketball coach to reach 1,000 wins and later the first to reach 1,200. He was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2023, and the NJCAA record book puts him at 17 tournament appearances, the most by any coach, along with 41 coaching victories in championship play.

More than 120 former players moved on to four-year schools after 1990, and some reached the professional ranks. Latrell Sprewell came through Three Rivers. Brian Bess played for his father, then spent 27 seasons as an assistant before taking over the program after Gene Bess retired.

Bess came to Three Rivers in 1969 as an assistant under Bob Cradic and succeeded him the next season. He earned degrees from Southeast Missouri State University, the University of Missouri and Murray State University, taught math, coached high school basketball and volleyball, and remained rooted in the Missouri bootheel. He was married to Nelda Bess for 65 years, and the couple had two children, Janell Hartmann and Brian Bess; he was preceded in death by a son, Garron Bess. He served as a deacon at First Baptist Church of Poplar Bluff.