Bobby Knight the Indiana Coach says that Abe Lemons is “ one of the five best basketball minds I have encountered during my time in coaching.” His “great wit and sense of humor “ and his entertaining style have won the hearts of many fans. Abe Lemons is an open book “honest, simple, and direct.”

Many of the fans attended the basketball just to watch Abe Lemons at work.

A New York sportswriter called Abe the “Jonathan Winters of coaching.”

Abe Lemons was always at war with the the striped shirts.

Abe Lemons hated road games because he had to play against another team and “their officials”. He said “officials have unharnessed bias and prejudices. If it came down to a close call, the official is going to go with the home team so he can move up the ladder in the conference.”

In one game Abe drew three technical fouls because as he says “ I’m having a little trouble with the guy with the whistle. I honestly believe if the sent this guy to Vietnam, he’d stop the war in two weeks – or else start another one of his own.”

1976-1982- COACH LEMONS HAD A 110-63 RECORD

Abe Lemons managed to win by balancing speed and height.

After Abe Lemons turned around the basketball teams at Oklahoma City University and Pan American Coach, Darrell Royal hired him as The 20th Head basketball Coach At Texas. His salary was $30,000 a Year.

He was honored in 1978 as National Coach Of The Year By The National Association Of Basketball Coaches (the Only Head Coach At Texas To Ever Win This Honor) ; 1978 SWC Coach of the Year; 1994 inductee into the Longhorn Hall Of Honor; 1977 President of the National Association of Basketball Coaches ;winner of two SWC Championships; and 1978 NIT champion.

His favorite type of recruit struggled as a boy to succeed. Abe says “It is hard to be a competitor when you have everything.”

THE QUOTE MAKER Abe Lemons

Coach Lemons sometimes embarrassed his players in front of their peers during practice. Once Lemons drove a player to tears by constantly corrected him during practice. As a form of comfort to the player he said “That’s okay son it’s just your day in the barrel.”

Coach Lemons Is A Great StoryTeller And Quote Maker.  

Talking about looking successful, he says, “I’ll never get off the bench until we’re ahead. But when we’re ahead. I want to make sure the fans know who’s running this team.” 

Abe is either 1/8 Choctaw or Cherokee. He is famous for saying that everyone’s “got to obey the white man’s law out here- never steal anything smaller than a state, “referring to what whites did to the American Indians. 

Finish Last In Your League And They Call You Idiot. Finish Last In Medical School And They Call You, Doctor.

Coaches Who Shoot Par In The Summer Are The Guys I Want On My Schedule In The Winter.

Doctors Bury Their Mistakes, But Mine Are Still On Scholarship.  

We Don’t Pray After A Game … That’s Too Late.  

I wish I were a football coach, so I could only lose 11 games a year. 

In his tv show, sometimes he opened with Abe lying in a coffin. He raises up, turns to the camera, and says, “We ain’t dead yet. ” 

“You scored one point more than a dead man.”

After Frank Glieber died of a massive heart attack while jogging, Abe said, “I don’t jog. If I die, I want to be sick.” 

Abe also said he wanted to be a track coach. All you had to do was tell the kids is run fast and stay to the left. This was also a dig at the AD Dodds, who was the track coach at Kansas State.

Said about his teams, “We strive for perfection like everybody else. We are more daring. I like a kid who’ll take a chance-not a gamble but a chance. He’s the type that will win for you in the long run.”

“It is more fun to shoot the ball than to play defense. And we’re going to work hardest on what’s fun.”

He questioned why any coach would only want a “Run and Shoot” offense. He said the name should be “Run and score.” 

He recruited great offensive players to win games. Abe said, “most good defensive players can’t throw the ball in the ocean.”  

A sportswriter said, what do you think you will have to overcome to win this game. Abe said the officials.

He once took his team to Madison Square Garden to play a game. The team was doing so poorly against Duke at halftime he told his players to play shirts and skins during halftime in front of the astounded fans attending the game. Shirts beat skins 12-6. 

Lemons tells the story about criticizing an official during a game, and the official said to Abe, “You’re just mad because we’re winning.”

About Kareem Abdul – Jabbar and judging talent worth recruiting, Abe says, “You can tell right off that he appears to be a talent. Anyone who has to stoop to dunk the ball has promise.”

About taking a making long shots, “It (basketball) searched out the bucket like a Nike missile.”

About great players who want to take the shot, he said, “Our biggest disappointment was Reed. He shot only nine times, and I’ve been telling him over and over to shoot at least 20 times a game. It’s hard to criticize a boy who scored 27 points, but he should have had maybe 47 points. 

Abe is adjusting to the times when he says, “I don’t mind long hair too much. I don’t mind beards, and I don’t mind miniskirts. I don’t like to see them on the same person.” 

Asked why he recruited Jack Langley, a 6’9″ high schooler who had never played organized basketball, he said, “A poodle got loose, and Langley caught him. Any 6-9 boy who can catch a French poodle in the field house is worth a scholarship.” 

Abe lemon is a quick-witted fan favorite. When asked if his first team at Texas was worthy of a top 20 ranking, he said: “you mean in the state”?  

Lemmons said about hanging out with the wrong people, “I’ve found that the bad rubs off on the good 100 times faster than the good rubs off on the bad.”

Coach Lemons is not a disciplinarian. He believes his job is to get the players to motivate themselves instead of him motivating them. . He says about curfews, “You think they can’t get into sin before 10:00 P.M.? He tells the story about one of his great players saying, “Coach, if we play well when we go to bed at 10:00 the night before a game, how about us going to bed at five some afternoon and then seein’ how we’d do?” Abe quit enforcing a curfew by reasoning that “When you have a curfew, it’s always the star that gets caught.”

Abe Lemmons talks about recruiting “strategies” that coaches used to get information about great athletes. He says “ When they get to the bottom of this Watergate thing, bet your last dollar they’ll find a football coach.”

1976 13- 13 RECORD UNDER COACH LEMONS- 

MOMENT NO. 79
Nov. 29, 1976: Texas wins an overtime classic against Oklahoma State 74-73 in Abe Lemons’ first game as Longhorn head coach. Gary Goodner led the way with 19 points, and his slam dunk with 7:37 left in the first half ended a 10-year NCAA-imposed ban on the dunk.

After a ten-year ban, the dunk is reinstated but not allowed during warm-ups. A Mississippi State player warming up before the Texas game dunks the ball and is called for a two-shot technical foul. Abe Lemons is incensed at such a ridiculous rule tells Krivac to take the technicals with his back to the basket. Krivac misses both, and Texas loses the game 91-89. 

In 1976 he had to hold the players hands on every play saying . “Please pass the ball. Please shoot. Please move to that spot.” He said in 1976 “ Heck, we’re going to have a tough game Thursday against open.” In one game he can’t get the attention of Jim Krivac so he taps a Houston player on the shoulder and says to him please tap Jim Krivac on the shoulder and tell him to run play #2. The Houston player did as instructed.

Abe Lemons hated dribbling. He said dribbling is “the scourge of basketball. In one game he said “if dribbles were a nickel apiece, we could have bought the Queen Mary.”

Abe’s first trip to Arkansas started a hate-hate relationship with Arkansas fans and the Razorback coach – Eddie Sutton. I (Billy Dale) was a team member of the Big shootout football game in Arkansas in 1969 so I understand Abe Lemons quote about Arkansas fans. He said “It’s amazing why grown people come to harass young men (at sporting events). There’s got to be a flaw in a man’s character to do that.”

Abe says about Jim Krivacs. “ If you gave him a choice of a week in Acapulco or a week of practice, he’d take practice”. “ If you live in the gym like he does, you’re going to be better”. “Lot of guys don’t realize that” . “They think they’re gonna have a vision one night and just play better”. “

Abe Lemons policy is to talk to only one team member during one minute time outs. He says “I talk to my quarterback, and he tells the other players and they take it better coming from him.” Johnny Moore was that man in 1976.

About Ovie Dotson Lemons says, “Ovie may be our most valuable player.” “His spirit, his character, is much of our driving force. If I had a son, I’d like him to be just like Ovie”. Coach Lemmons is concerned about the health of Jim Krivac and tells the press, “Krivacs looks like he just came off a death march.” After losing to Arkansas, he said: “It was like a battleship against a rowboat.”

All players have a bad day but Goodner’s game against the Aggies sets up a plethora of Lemon one-liners. Lemons says to the official scorer, “Can’t you make them (referees) quit calling fouls on the Aggies”? “We’re playing right into their hands by (us) going to the free-throw line.” “Goodner is 1 for 9 from the free-throw line. The Horns overall are 5-19.

 Gary Goodner is lost due to grades due to an incomplete in geography. The class was at 8:00 A.M. Coach said that he was important to the team. “The only player that’s improved while I’ve been here. “

He Says That 1976 Is His Toughest Year as A Coach. He says, “We’re Still Looking for Someone Who Likes to Play Defense and Has That Rare Talent of Running to The Other End and Throwing the Ball in The Basket.”

  For the first time in Gregory Gym’s history, the field house is sold-out for two consecutive basketball games. 

The Good and Bad of the Burnt Orange Club

The “Longhorn Rebounders,” a fundraising organization, is formed. The success of this organization evolves into the “Burnt Orange Club” And Eventually the Longhorn Foundation. 

With Frank Erwin’s help, Abe Lemons formed a booster club that allowed the sale of alcoholic beverages on state property in a Burnt Orange room reserved only for membership in the Burnt Orange Club. Members could eat food and drink alcohol during the game and mingle with the players after the game. The club was a revolutionary marketing concept for U.T. and a huge success, but eventually is one of the many reasons Abe Lemmons is fired.  

1977 26-5 RECORD COACH LEMONS “people thought we were a ship of fools, a McHales’s navy. But we had discipline” and won the NIT championship. 

MOMENT NO. 17
End of 1977-78 season: After guiding the Longhorns to the Postseason NIT title, Abe Lemons is named National Coach of the Year by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC). Lemons is the only coach in UT history to earn National Coach of the Year honors.

John Carsey was a walk-on who earned Coach Lemon’s respect. John says, “While we certainly had our stars, particularly the Big Three of Johnny Moore, Ron Baxter, and Jim Krivak’s, no player (even the lone walk-on) was made to feel lesser. We all appreciated that it was a total team effort to push everyone to be better, and there was no class system.

John Carsey says, “One of Coach Lemons’ motivational tools was using each practice between games as a “tryout” for the next game. Nobody’s “job” was secure. We scrimmaged with the starters from the last game, wearing white jerseys and the rest in orange. If at any time during practice, Coach felt that an orange-jersey player was more deserving at that moment of starting the next game, he would have that player switch jerseys with whichever player in a white jersey he felt was faltering. Whichever five were wearing white jerseys at the end of the last practice before the next game were the starters for that game.

Coach Lemons, a promoter, was quick to understand that the Longhorn fans “wanted more than just a game, giving them what they wanted. His T.V. show was an absolute hit with the Horn fans.   

Abe Lemmons signs Tyron Branyon who Abe says is too slow and can’t jump, but “he knows how to win.” In the Texas miracle win over Houston in 1977, Tyron hits 6 of 8 free throws and finishes the game with 16 points and ten rebounds. 

Ovie Dotson joined the Harlem Globetrotters after he graduated from Texas.  

Texas ends its first year in the Frank Erwin Center as the first SWC team to win the NIT. Brayan and Krivac scored a total of 49 points in the semi-finals of the NIT championship game. Johnny Moore, Ron Baxter, and Krivac scored 81 points in the finals against NC State. 

This year, athletic budget cutbacks occurred even though 37 million dollars were allocated to swimming, baseball, and basketball facilities. The women’s athletic department was hurt the worse.   

MOMENT NO. 26
Jan. 14, 1978: Johnny Moore records 20 points and eight assists while three other Longhorns post double-digit scoring efforts to lift Texas to a 75-69 upset over No. 3 Arkansas in the Erwin Center. This marks the highest-ranked AP opponent that the Horns have beaten at home in school history.

Longhorns reach #15 In The AP Polls. This Is The first time the Longhorns are in the top 20 Since 1949.

It is the Longhorn’s first 20-game winning season since 1963

Most points scored in Texas history (148) against Northern Montana.  

 Texas Plays Army, And Coach Lemons Say “If Anybody Could Spell His Name, The Army Guy Would Be Coach Of The Year.” Army Coach Krzyzewski is the future Head Coach for Duke. 

Texas beats Houston twice during the season but loses to them in the SWC tournament. Lemons says, “We play 16 games to see who wins it, then turn around and play a tournament to see who loses it. 

12 Games At Gregory In 1977 Net $55,000. 8 Games In The New Arena In 1977 Net $275,000.

Abe Lemmons is still the only Longhorns men’s basketball coach to win the National Coach of the Year’s honor. 

The NIT President tells Lemons that if the Longhorns beat Temple, the Horns will play their next Opponent in the Drum in Austin. Someone with lesser status with the NIT promises Nebraska that their home court would be used to beat their first Opponent. Lemons refused to flip a coin for the home court with Nebraska, and their fans were livid. One Nebraska Board of Directors member says, “his school should break athletic ties with Texas.” Abe responds, “I didn’t know we had any.”

 1978 21-8 RECORD – COACH LEMONS

MOMENT NO. 4
March 21, 1978: Texas defeats North Carolina State 101-93 to capture the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) championship at Madison Square Garden. Jim Krivacs records 33 points and nine assists, while Ron Baxter adds 26 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Horns to the title. Baxter and Krivacs share MVP honors for the tournament.

Abe trying to put his 1978 basketball schedule together after winning the NIT in 1977, says to potential opponents, “If you think we’re easy, get on our schedule. ” “Come on down and pick-up up an easy win.” “6 of the teams that agreed to play Texas in 1978 canceled their commitment after the 1977 Longhorns shocked the world. 

Jim Krivacs made 681 points in 1979. MOMENT NO. 38
Jan. 12, 1979: Jim Krivacs scores 21 points, and Johnny Moore adds 17 as the Longhorns defeated No. 10 Arkansas 66-63 in Fayetteville. The win marked the first over a Top 25 opponent on the road.

 Texas ends #3 Arkansas’ 35 game winning streak in Fayetteville.

Texas average attendance of 15,886 Is a record that has not been surpassed as of 2015. The fans love him and his coaching style.

There Is A Verbal Battle Between Coach Sutton Of Arkansas And Coach Lemons. Lemmons Tells The Media If Sutton Ever Dares Address His Players Again He Will “Liquidate His Ass.” (John Moore Is The Player.)

Abe Lemons promotes Johnny Moore for All American.  

          MOMENT NO. 29
End of 1978-79 season: Guard Jim Krivacs becomes the first and only UT player to earn Academic All-America honors. Krivacs was also awarded an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship, becoming the second player in school history to garner that accolade (Harry Larrabee in 1974).

MOMENT NO. 75
Nov. 27, 1978: Texas records a 148-71 win against Northern Montana in its home opener. The Longhorns set school team records that still stand today for points in a game, points scored in the first half (74), points scored in the second half (74) and field goals made (56). Johnny Moore also set the UT single-game mark for assists with 19 during the win, a record that still stands today (Moore later tied his own mark with 19 assists against Oklahoma State on Dec. 9, 1978).

1979  19-11 RECORD COACH LEMONS

 The team starts at 7-1; four weeks later, they are 10-7. Lemons says this year’s team is no good, and even though invited to the NIT, he was right. Horns finished 3rd in the conference.

Still, the Horns almost beat top-ranked De Paul and the Hogs and are only one game away from another 20-game win season.

Invited to the NCAA regionals, the Horns lose to OU for the second time. Abe says we did not have a big guy, which hurt our season. Lemon praises Phillip Stroud’s handling of the center position.

Abe said about basketball in the state of Texas, “You are looking at a state that keeps all of the gyms closed in the summer. When there’s no place to shoot a goal, it gives you some idea about the attitude towards basketball. If Texas ever gets interested in it, we’ll be one of the most fruitful states in the nation.”

Johnny Moore 1979 All SWC starts 113 games

Ron Baxter ends his career as SWC player of the year and as the all-time school leader in scoring and rebounding. 

John Krivac- sets the all time scoring for the Longhorns,  is CO- MVP in NIT tournament, and a academic All American

 Team was invited to the NIT and lost in the second round.  This was Coach Lemmons last trip to the NIT or NCAA.  

1980- 15-15 RECORD    COACH LEMONS

In 4 years Coach Lemons took the Longhorns to post season play 3 times.

In tournament play against Texas Tech, Coach Abe tells his players “play or leave”                                

MOMENT NO. 20
1982 NBA Draft: LaSalle Thompson is taken as the No. 5 overall pick in the 1982 NBA Draft by the Kansas City Kings. This still marks the highest UT draft choice in school history.

Starter Henry Johnson leaves for academic reasons. Darryl Bushrod, one of Abe’s players upset about playing time leaves at half time of a game.

Lemons was warned to tone down his behavior.

The U.T Athletic Council told Lemons not to do things, but he did them anyway. In two years, Lemons was told that if he did not change, he’d get fired. He was warned in writing. The Council wrote him three letters but Lemons continued to run the basketball program out of his hip pocket. Dodd was forced to fire him. Donna Lopiano agreed with the decision saying, “he was a great basketball coach but not attentive to the academic side.”

This year marks the beginning of the end for the colorful Coach.

 The two individuals who supported Abe Lemons’s coaching philosophy and protected him from the Athletic Council are no longer part of the Athletic decision-making process. Board Regent Frank Erwin passes away and Darrell Royal retires. Abe Lemons’s enemies start to tighten the noose around Lemons’ neck. Lemons immediately has some conflicts with the new A.D. Bill Ellington. A subpoena for Coach Lemons and his two assistants to discuss gambling results in a media feud between Asst.Coach Moeller and Coach Lemons.  Moeller gets fired and goes on the offensive by stating Lemons’ criticism of the players publicly and privately Is hurting recruiting. Many of the players deny Moeller’s remarks. According To Bill Little’s Book, TEXAS LONGHORNS MEN’S BASKETBALL Hoop Tales think, Coach Lemmons is Funny. One Of Lemmon’s Players (Krivacs) says he has  “people dying laughing on the sideline, ….Everybody we played against was bigger, faster, stronger, and quicker, but that’s not what winning is all about. We had a smarter coach.” Danks calls Abe a genius. “ He wasn’t the most technical coach you ever saw, but when it came to the human condition, he was an expert” “He knew how to get inside people’s heads.”  Ovie Dotson said, “Coach took the losses, and we got the wins. He treated us like men.” “Abe always believed it was a player’s game.” Wacker says Lemons is a “masterful technician who knows how to get the best out of his players.  The grand jury investigation on gambling is quickly dispelled, but the investigation still hurts Abe Lemons’s reputation.

1981 –  16-11 RECORD  COACH LEMONS

MOMENT NO. 52
1981-82: LaSalle Thompson became the first Longhorn to lead the nation in an individual category when he averaged 13.5 rebounds per game.

In 1981 news would get worse for Abe. The team craters the second half of the season, a member of the Athletic Council recommends that Abe Lemons be fired, and Deloss Dodds, the new UT Texas A.D. does it.

On Jan 26th, 1982, Wacker gets hurt against Baylor, and the team loses for the first time that season. Mike shatters his knee, and  Ken Montgomery replaces him.  Abe Lemons is not at the game. He is in Oklahoma City at the bedside of his ailing brother.

The team Starts 14-0, and for the first time in Longhorn basketball history, the AP ranks Texas at #5.   The Horns upset the Houston team of 6’ 11” Akeem Olajuwan and Clyde Drexler and followed this win by beating Arkansas before the largest crowd ever to see a basketball game in the Southwest It was the best start for a Longhorn basketball team since 1935.  But An Injury To Wacker turns the Season Into A Horror Story that finally results in first-year Athletic Director Deloss Dodds firing Abe Lemons. 

 The final straw was a sequence of events at the Arkansas game that ended in punches and Texas players involved in a fight. On March 9th, 1982, Coach Lemmons is fired by Deloss Dodds. Lemons is totally shocked. “I could not have been more shocked if you had told me I had been named governor.”

The players are stunned, and the fans are upset with the announcement. Thompson threatened to leave the program and go pro if assistant coach Barry Dowd did not get the head coaching job.  

 The UT administrators and powerful boosters felt that Abe Lemons’s demeanor did not reflect the UT basketball program’s future. Lemons’ indiscriminate offensive cutting remarks, refusal to discipline the players, lack of curfew, constant sarcasm, acid tongue, and basketball court behavior are reasons Abe Lemons is fired.

Coach Lemons did not leave quietly. He commented that he wanted a glass-bottom car so he could see Dodd’s face as he ran him over and added, “I hope they notice the mistletoe tied to my coattails as I leave town, which was a not too subtle way of saying to the UT administration they could kiss his a….    

Years later, when Texas invited Abe back to celebrate the NIT Champions, Coach Lemons Is A No Show. He says, “Just Tell Them To Put My Picture On A Poster And Parade It Around The Gym.”

Coach Lemons made some mistakes that were costly to his career. Still, no one can dispute that he turned UT basketball around and showed the Longhorn administration the formula necessary to reach the next college basketball level. A Level Missed The Previous 30 Years. Tough times for Longhorn basketball follow as the University tries to transition from “Abe” ball to a more structured basketball program that portrays the University of Texas sports programs’ proper public image.   

MOMENT NO. 93
Feb. 20, 1985: Mike Wacker connects on an eight-foot jumper in the lane with one second remaining to give the Longhorns a 53-51 win at Texas A&M.