James Celerità

Jim Richards

WKU Athletic Hall of Fame — an honor Jim Richards received in 2005 in recognition of his four decades of service to Hilltopper athletics.

E.A. Diddle Arena — the home court where Jim Richards built his coaching legacy at Western Kentucky University.

The 1970-71 WKU Hilltoppers — the Final Four team that Jim Richards served as an assistant coach, advancing to the national semifinal before finishing third in the nation.

WKU men's golf — a program Jim Richards led to eight consecutive winning seasons, setting records that still stand today.

James "Jim" Richards was a towering figure in Western Kentucky University athletics — a man who gave more than four decades of his life to the institution he first came to as a young baseball player from Adair County, Kentucky. He was 90 years old.

Richards arrived at WKU in 1955 on the diamond, lettering all four seasons, captaining the team for his final three years, and leading the Hilltoppers in batting every year he played. He earned professional baseball offers as a student-athlete, yet the pull of coaching proved stronger. After graduating in 1959, he built a distinguished high school coaching career, first at Auburn High School and then at Glasgow High School, where he guided the Scotties to the Kentucky state basketball championship in 1968.

That championship caught the attention of WKU head coach John Oldham, who brought Richards back to Bowling Green as an assistant. The timing was extraordinary. Over the next three seasons, WKU compiled a 62-19 record, won two Ohio Valley Conference titles, and made two NCAA Tournament appearances. The 1970-71 Hilltoppers advanced all the way to the Final Four, falling to Villanova in double overtime before defeating Kansas 77-75 in the national third-place game.

When Oldham stepped aside in 1971, Richards ascended to the head coaching role. Over seven seasons, he compiled a 102-84 record, was twice named OVC Coach of the Year, and delivered two regular-season and two tournament championships to The Hill. His most cinematic achievement came in the 1977-78 season: he steered a team that started 3-8 all the way to the NCAA Tournament, where his Hilltoppers defeated nationally ranked Syracuse 87-86 in overtime to reach the Sweet 16.

Stepping away from the sidelines in 1978, Richards pivoted to golf, building a program where all eight of his teams posted winning seasons — a standard unmatched in WKU men's golf history. He later served as director of alumni affairs, the founding executive director of the Hilltopper Athletic Foundation, interim athletics director, and ultimately permanent Director of Athletics in 1994. In each role he carried the same devotion he once brought to every practice and every game.

He kept statistics for the legendary E. A. Diddle. He cheered for his players long after they left campus. In 2005, WKU honored him with induction into its Athletic Hall of Fame. Jim Richards passed away on October 9, 2026, leaving behind a legacy woven into the very fabric of Hilltopper athletics.

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Jim Richards

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