Meet Tarleton women’s basketball coach Bill Brock: ‘a family guy’

BY GAVIN PATRICK/Multimedia Journalist

Editor's note: This story was originally written in April 2024 as class assignment at Tarleton. 

In his 41 years coaching, Tarleton State University head women’s basketball coach Bill Brock has been around. 

Brock first coached hoops at his high school, Durant, in Oklahoma for three years and spent the next two as an assistant at East Central University, before coaching Grayson College to 10 Conference Championships, two regional titles and two National Tournament berths. He then won three National Championships with Baylor as an assistant, highlighted by an undefeated season in 2011-2012. 

These accomplishments have made Brock one of the game’s most respected coaches. But every step he’s taken has been centered around one thing:  

Family. 

Brock may not have come to Tarleton State had there not been an outlet for him to visit his family in Waco. 

“This was almost like the perfect fit for me,” Brock said. “I have a place in Stephenville, and then I have a place also in Waco, and so I split time back-and-forth. I’m here all during practice season and games and all that, and then I go back to Waco as soon as I can. And I try not to miss when [my grandsons] play. So, it worked out good.” 

Brock, a Southeastern Oklahoma State graduate, is originally from the small town of Utica, Oklahoma. In the third grade, he moved 15 minutes east to Durant, where he forged his love for athletics. 

“Southeastern Oklahoma State University is there in Durant,” Brock said. “So, they became the small college that I cheered for. And then, I was just always an Oklahoma Sooners fan … particularly with Barry Switzer and OU football and [with] Billy Tubbs and OU men’s basketball.” 

But watching sports wasn’t enough for Brock. He wanted to play. 

Before being old enough to play organized football, he played church league basketball and summer league, little league and pony league baseball. He eventually wanted to become a coach because of the impact he could make on others. 

“I just felt like athletics had been so good to me during my playing days that I just wanted to try to coach and give some of that back to young people,” Brock said. 

A good coach never makes it about themselves, and Brock was no exception. Every stop in his coaching career had a connection. 

The only reason he accepted the job at Grayson College, he said, was because the athletic director there, Roy Jackson,was his former history teacher and financial aid director. The job also put him just 35 miles from his parents and his wife’s parents, who lived in Durant. 

The offer, however, was to coach the women’s team. Brock had only coached men to that point.  

He was apprehensive at first, but Jackson told him -- “Just try it for two years and see if you like it.” 

Well, he tried it for two and stayed for 13. 

“The reason that I did is because my two daughters were during those ages that I really did not want to move them and change schools because they were entering the junior high years,” Brock said. 

“In fact, [my wife, Janice] received her RN nursing license and schooling from Grayson College,” Brock added. “Both of my daughters actually went to school there, also. So, Grayson College has been a big part of our life.” 

Brock was happy to be coaching at a place that was near family, where he could raise his two daughters in the same area he and his wife grew up. 

But in 2000, Baylor coach Kim Mulkey came calling. 

“When she offered me the job to come down there, I was a little hesitant at first because I wasn’t sure that I wanted to leave Grayson where I was at cause I had been there so long, and I had played there,” Brock said. “But, like my family, my family convinced me and said, ‘this is what you’ve been working for, and you need to take advantage of this opportunity.’” 

So, Brock went to Waco, and his family stayed in Denison. But much like he does at Tarleton, he split time back-and-forth and made it work. 

Brock inherited a Baylor team that had finished last in the Big 12 Conference the previous year. His first year saw a 14-game swing. The team went from 7-20 to 21-9 and secured a spot in the NCAA Tournament. Four years later, in 2005, Brock won the first of his three titles, which was also the first in Baylor WBB history. 

“All of that being said, there has to be a lot of comradery, there has to be a lot of togetherness, has to be a lot of support, and we always had that on our coaching staff,” Brock said. 

Brock spent 18 seasons at Baylor, separated by a three-year stint at Texas Tech, and helped orchestrate a dynastic run. His teams won at least 20 games each year and made the NCAA Tournament all but two times, once because the tournament was cancelled in 2020. 

After Mulkey left for LSU in 2021, she again offered Brock to join her as an assistant. This time, however, it was not a good fit for his family. 

“I just couldn’t do that because every move I’ve ever done in my coaching profession has been family oriented,” Brock said. “I just could not leave my family. Because she was going home to her family. My family was in Waco.” 

Brock stayed at Baylor for one more year as an administrator. The next year, he accepted the head coaching job at McLennan Community College, just 15 minutes up the road. 

In his lone season there, he led the Highlassies to a 28-5 record and their first berth in the National Junior College Tournament since 1984. 

“I had been to the national tournament other times when I’d been at Grayson College, but that had been 21 years prior to that,” Brock said. “So, to be able to go in there and do that in that first year, that’s pretty satisfying.” 

Brock’s career now resides in Stephenville as Tarleton State’s head women’s basketball coach. This is his first time as head coach of a Division I program. 

“Just like the Baylor thing was a fit at that time for my family, this is a fit at this time for my family and the time in my career,” Brock said. “I’m thankful for the opportunity.” 

Brock still has the support of his two daughters, Danika and Whitney, who are now 48 and 41. He also has four grandsonswho are involved in athletics, and he loves driving down to Waco to see them play. 

“My oldest [daughter], she must have enjoyed the coaching profession pretty good because she is married to a coach,” Brock said. “And my youngest one has a son [who’s] been very involved in athletics throughout all of his years. He actually is a senior this year, and at this current time right now, he’s deciding where he’s gonna play college basketball.” 

But perhaps the most important influence Brock has to thank for his coaching success is his wife, Janice Wheeler. They were high school sweethearts and have been married over 40 years, a similar length as his coaching career. 

Without her support, who knows where Brock’s career would have gone. 

“Individuals who are in the coaching profession that do not have the support of their spouse, it's a demanding job within itself,” Brock said. “But it can be an extra burden if you do not have that support from your spouse. And I have always had that from her.” 

In the end, love wins. And there certainly is plenty in the Brock family.