Jim Richards is the former men's basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 head coach

Head coach

A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches...

 at Western Kentucky University

Western Kentucky University

Western Kentucky University is a public university in Bowling Green, Kentucky, USA. It was formally founded by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1906, though its roots reach back a quarter-century earlier....

, coaching the team for seven seasons from 1971 to 1978. He was inducted into the Western Kentucky University Athletic Hall of Fame in 2005.

Richards was born in rural Adair County, Kentucky

Adair County, Kentucky

Adair County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of 2010, the population is 18,656. Its county seat is Columbia, Kentucky. The county is named for John Adair, then Speaker of the House in Kentucky and later Governor of Kentucky ....

, and played basketball for one year at Adair County High School. He was recruited to play baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 at Western by Coach E. A. Diddle (better known as the basketball coach). Diddle got Richards into officiating high school basketball. After graduation, Richards was hired as head basketball coach at Auburn High School. He went from there to Glasgow High

Glasgow High School (Kentucky)

Glasgow High School is a U.S. high school in the city of Glasgow, Barren County, Kentucky. It is the only public high school for the Glasgow Independent School System; however, Barren County High School, which serves the Barren County School System, also lies within the city limits, and in fact...

, where he coached the Scotties to a state championship in 1968.

Richards returned to Western as an assistant the following year, when an opening occurred on John Oldham

John Oldham

John Oldham was an early Puritan settler in Massachusetts. He was a captain, merchant, and Indian trader. His death at the hands of the Indians was one of the causes of the Pequot War of 1636-37.-Life:...

's staff after Gene Rhodes

Gene Rhodes

Eugene Stephen Rhodes is a retired American basketball player and coach.Rhodes played college basketball at Western Kentucky University...

 left to coach the Kentucky Colonels

Kentucky Colonels

The Kentucky Colonels were a member of the American Basketball Association for all of the league's nine years. The name is derived from the historic Kentucky colonels. The Colonels won the most games and had the highest winning percentage of any franchise in the league's history, but the team did...

 of the American Basketball Association

American Basketball Association

The American Basketball Association was a professional basketball league founded in 1967. The ABA ceased to exist with the ABA–NBA merger in 1976.-League history:...

. When Oldham left the sidelines to become athletic director, Richards became head coach for the 1971-1972 season.

His overall record at Western was 102-84. His Hilltopper teams won two regular season Ohio Valley Conference

Ohio Valley Conference

The Ohio Valley Conference is a college athletic conference which operates in the midwestern and southeastern United States. It participates in Division I of the NCAA; the conference's football programs compete in the Football Championship Subdivision , the lower of two levels of Division I...

 championships, plus two tournament championships. The Toppers made the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament twice, with an overall record of one win and two losses.

After stepping down as head basketball coach, Richards coached the men's golf

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

 team. One of his recruits was Kenny Perry

Kenny Perry

James Kenneth Perry is an American professional golfer who currently plays on both the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour, for which he became eligible following his 50th birthday.-Early years:...

 from nearby Franklin, Kentucky

Franklin, Kentucky

As of the census of 2000, there were 7,996 people, 3,251 households, and 2,174 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,074.7 people per square mile . There were 3,609 housing units at an average density of 485.1 per square mile...

. Perry went on to play on the PGA Tour

PGA Tour

The PGA Tour is the organizer of the main men's professional golf tours in the United States and North America...

.