West Texas A&M University Athletics

Growing up in Amarillo in the 1940s, Jim Reid's first attempt at playing basketball came by shooting a ball, consisting of a rock wrapped in cotton and blue jeans which his mom had sewn together, through a large can nailed to a telephone pole.
 
A member of Amarillo Palo Duro High's first graduating class, he was also a member of the school's first State Championship team, winning the 1956 Class 3A title under coach Tom Gilley.
 
He attended West Texas State on a basketball scholarship, becoming a three-year starter and earning Varsity letters in 1958, 59 and 60. Following graduation from WT, he served a stint in the United States Army, then began a 27-year career as a high school basketball coach and educator.
 
By the time he concluded his basketball coaching career in the early 1990's, he had accomplished what no other high school coach in Texas had done - winning four State Championships, including three consecutively.
 
He led Kerrville Tivy to Class 3A titles in 1969 and 1970, then after six seasons in the Rio Grande Valley, moved to Dumas, where he led the 1971 Demons to a Class 3A State Championship. Reid would later earn a Class 2A title while coaching Ingram Tom Moore High School to wrap up four state titles with three different schools.