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| Coach Bobby Collins Courtesy UMES Athletics |
"I'm blessed to be the winner of the 2015 Ben Jobe Award," Collins posted on a social media account. "This is an honor, I have to thank God, my coaching staff, my team, and the UMES family for believing and trusting in me."
Collins was already piling up the hardware, having been named the 2015 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Coach of the Year. He was also named a finalist for the Hugh Durham Award, presented annually to the top mid-major coach in the nation. Collins led UMES to the best season in 41 years, the 1973-74 season when UMES amassed 27 wins and made a second round appearance in the National Invitational Tournament (NIT). This season he guided the Hawks to an 18-15 record, third-place in the league with an 11-5 mark, up from 13th the previous season, and an appearance in the CollegeInsider.com Post Season Tournament. It was the first NCAA post-season appearance for UMES since that 73-74 campaign and the first of any kind in over 30 years.
The Hawks had more wins this season than the last three combined and posted a sold non-conference record as well with a 3-1 mark against the Atlantic-10. They were one of the top three teams in the nation in road wins.
The Jobe award was created in 2010 and is presented annually to the top minority coach in Division I basketball and voted on by a 30-person award committee consisting of five current DI head coaches, five retired head coaches, 10 athletic directors and/or conference administrators, five NBA scouts and/or administrators and five collegeinsider.com staff members. Coach Ben Jobe is the chairman of the awards committee.
Past recipients include Kevin Ollie of Connecticut in 2013, Sean Woods from Mississippi Valley State in 2012, Cuonzo Martin from Missouri State in 2011, Ed Cooley of Fairfield in 2010 and last year's winner, Willis Wilson of Texas A&M Corpus Christi.
Collins was one of 16 finalists for the 2015 award that included fellow MEAC coaches Robert Jones of Norfolk State and LeVelle Moton of North Carolina Central. Other nominees included: Tommy Amaker of Harvard, John Thompson III of Georgetown, Mike Davis of Texas Southern, Kevin Keatts of UNC Wilmington and Marvin Menzies of New Mexico State. Past winners Wilson and Cooley were also nominated.
The award is named after Coach Jobe, who spent the majority of his career coaching at historically black colleges or universities (HBCUs). He won 524 games in 31 seasons and is best known for his work at Southern University. During a ten-year stretch (1986-1995) he took the Jaguars to four NCAA Tournaments and one NIT appearance. He was 209-141 while at Southern. HE never posted a losing season while with the Jaguars. His resume includes five SIAC Championships, 11 SWAC titles and two NAIA Tournament Championships. One of his most memorable moments was a 93-78 win by Southern over Georgia Tech in the first round of the 1993 NCAA Tournament, one the most memorable upsets in tournament history.
He has also served as head coach at Alabama A&M, Alabama State, Talladega, Tuskegee and South Carolina State.
The following is provided by CollegeInsider.com:
"This is such an honor for me," said Jobe. "So many people have helped me throughout my career and they are the reason for this award. People like John McClendon, Clarence "Big House" Gaines and so many others have helped to get where I am today. I have been truly blessed. This is the biggest honor I have ever had," Jobe said at the time the award was established.
"Coach Jobe is one of the great coaches of our time," says CollegeInsider.com co-founder Joe Dwyer. "If he had coached at a high profile program he would be a household name. Today's game needs more people like Ben Jobe. He is a success as both a coach and a person. He truly is a legend in every sense of the word."
Jobe's coaching career began at Cameron High school in Nashville in 1959. His very first team won 24 games, a school record. One year later he went to West Africa to coach junior college ball. In Sierra Leone, his team posted back-to-back undefeated seasons.
He returned to the states to coach at Talladega in 1964. Throughout the 1960s and in the decades that followed, Jobe established himself as a program builder. He changed the fortunes of Alabama State and South Carolina State where he took the Bulldogs to five NAIA Tournaments in five seasons. In 1979 Jobe took over at the University of Denver. The program had suffered through 11 straight losing seasons, but under Jobe's guidance the Pioneers finished 15-12 in his first season. One year later Denver won 20 games and had its first postseason invite since 1947.
Jobe went on to the NBA's Denver Nuggets (assistant coach and director of player personnel, 1980-81); Georgia Tech University (assistant coach, 1981-82); and Alabama A&M University (head coach, 1982-86). At A&M he posted a record of 83-36 in four seasons, taking the Bulldogs to three SIAC championships and two NCAA Division II tournaments.
During the early 1970s Jobe was also a member of Frank McGuire's staff at the University of South Carolina, a staff that included Bobby Cremins and Donnie Walsh.
"It is an honor to be included in this prestigious panel to commemorate the impressive career of my friend, Ben Jobe," says Donnie Walsh, General Manager of the New York Knicks. "Ben was not only a great coach, but a wonderful mentor for generations of young athletes. I consider it a privilege to have a vote for Coach of the Year honors."
Walsh and Bobby Cremins are among the 30 members of the Ben Jobe Award selection committee, which includes Tony Bennett (Virginia), William Brown (Talladega), Tim Carter (formerly of South Carolina State), Paul Hewitt (George Mason), Arthur Hightower (San Diego Chargers), Avery Johnson (ESPN), Leon Kerry (CIAA Commissioner), Floyd Keith (Black Coaches Association), Jim Larranaga (Miami), Vann Pettaway (Alabama A&M), Tubby Smith (Texas A&M), Mike Wilson (Washington Wizards) and Steve Yoder (New York Knicks).
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