Jackie Laird began Biloxi's up-tempo, successful basketball program
BILOXI -- As Biloxi returns to the Class 6A State Basketball Tournament quarterfinals tonight to face Starkville, the Indians will be continuing a tradition that began under coach Jackie Laird.
That is a basketball tradition of up-tempo, man-to-man basketball that has brought five state championships to the Biloxi program since 1989.
Laird came to a struggling Biloxi High basketball program in 1970 from Enterprise and changed the atmosphere. He would eventually guide Biloxi to back-to-back state championships in 1989 and 1990. John Pugh, his assistant coach, would succeed Laird and win state titles in 2001 and 2004. Then Seber Windham, who played point guard for Laird and won a state title, coached the Indians to a state title in 2009 and will lead BHS against the Yellow Jackets today.
Laird, a Bassfield native, matched wits with some of the great Coast coaches during his tenure: Bert Jenkins and Gerald Austin at Gulfport, Arthur Haynes at Moss Point, Bob Cuccaro at Long Beach, Roland Ladner at Hancock North Central, Van Chancellor and Eddie Ladner at Harrison Central, and George Rosetti at Gulfport East. Jenkins would win seven state titles before retiring.
"Bert was in a different league than all of us," Laird said. "People don't know this but when I got down here our district had 12 teams. Now they have four teams. And they took two teams to the (South State) playoffs. You always wanted to get opposite of Bert in the (district) bracket. For years, it looked like the SEC West in football."
First, though, he had to create the winning culture for a program that had not enjoyed that much success on the hardwood at that time, with the exception of winning more than 20 games in 1968 under John Vickers.
"I wanted to create strong character; we wanted to do it right that first year," Laird said. "We had players like Lee Trahan, Butch Fayard, Dale Summers, Calvin Lee. We didn't have a good record but were real competitive by the end of the year. This league was tough.
"I told the seniors that they would realize one day they started a tradition of playing hard, running the ball, pressing. It's kind of demanded of everyone (at Biloxi) since then."
Packed gym
It wasn't long before the tiny gym at the old Biloxi High on Father Ryan Avenue was packed to see players like Chris Haynes, Bobo McNair, Jesse Ratliff, James McCarty, Windham, Jereld Nunley, Garland Andrews, Eric Fortenberry, Demetrius Walker, to name a few.
"I loved all of them, even the ones that didn't get their names in the newspaper," Laird said.
Laird posted a career record of 436-273. He played basketball at Southern Miss and was named to the Southern Miss Sports Hall of Fame in 2000 and the Biloxi Sports HOF in 2014.
His experience at USM laid the groundwork for his full-court pressure defense, his fast break attack and his fast break off the made basket.
"I put it in at Enterprise my last year there," Laird said. "I remember in college when we got the ball in quick to me -- I was the point guard -- we always got a good shot because I got it down the court. We sur
prised them. So I decided I would come up with a way to run it so we would surprise them every time.
"When I got down here, we had 8 to 10 people who could play. My idea was to wear (the opposing team) out. Every second. After we score, we press. When they score, we will run it down the court."
Eventually the late Cuccaro -- who Laird describes as "one of the best friends I ever had" -- adopted the fast break attack after a made basket and brought a lot of success to Long Beach.
The first of the five state championships came in 1989 when Biloxi beat Tupelo 72-64 in the state finals. Then the Indians beat Tupelo 69-54 in the 1990 finals for the second of Biloxi's basketball championships.
Prideful Indians
It remains a source of pride to him that both Pugh and Windham continued to use his up-tempo system.
Laird still attends Biloxi games to watch Windham, his former point guard, direct the Indians.
"John Pugh was such a great addition to us," Laird said. "Seber is one of the best young coaches we have on the Coast. He's done a good job. They play man and get after it. It was good to see both of them run the same system I had. I'd hate to come to a Biloxi High game and see a 44-46 game.
"They both have done a wonderful job here."
This story was originally published March 4, 2016 at 3:41 PM with the headline "Jackie Laird began Biloxi's up-tempo, successful basketball program ."