November 2009 Vol. 44 (3)  |  UWF's Faculty and Staff E-Newsletter

Coach Stinnett “tickled pink” to lead the Argos
Susie Forrester, University Marketing and Communications

When Bob Stinnett played basketball for UWF back in the late 1960s, he dreamed of one day returning as the head coach of the Argos. But Stinnett wasn’t sure he would get the job when it became available this past summer.

“When you’re younger, they tell you that you don’t have enough experience, but when you’re older, they tell you that you have too much experience,” said Stinnett, 64, with a chuckle. “But I think I’m as hungry now as I’ve ever been. I love to be challenged.” 

While he’s “tickled pink” at leading the Argos as they tip off the new regular season here Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. against Columbus State, he’s emphatic about his reason for returning.

“I didn’t take the job to retire; I want to give back to the university.”

Did you always want to come back to UWF?
When I was playing, my dream was to come back to UWF and coach…I told them that while I was at LSU (Stinnett was an assistant coach at LSU 1975-78). I said my three favorite jobs would be at the University of Virgin Islands or the University of Hawaii or UWF. And they said UWF? Where’s UWF? I said it’s where I graduated from in Florida. 

What in your past experiences best prepared you to be the coach at UWF?
The whole thing. From the day I got out of UWF and took my first coaching job at Washington High School until now. It’s all prepared me for this moment. My whole life has come full circle.

What was your first thought when you heard Coach Hogan was retiring?
“I’m going to apply.” Seventeen years ago when the job came open, I applied, and thought I might get it, but I came in No. 2. Don Hogan got it and he stayed 17 years, and we became friends over the years. So when he retired, I knew I wanted to apply. 
 
You want to see more of the community at the games, correct?
I coached at Pensacola High School and at Washington High School, I owned businesses, I graduated from UWF…People know me. I will help put people in the stands so that we will become a force …I want to get the basketball team where the soccer team is and where the golf team is.

How important is it to you and the players to have people at the games?
It’s more important than you know. When you walk into an empty gym, and there’s maybe a hundred people or so and you walk into a gym at an away game …it’s like you don’t have that edge. People in the stands – that is the sixth person on your team. We need that.  

Your friends praise your style of basketball and your coaching -- what will we see from UWF this season?
It’s a style I know they like and the kids love playing. We’re an up-tempo, fast-paced team. We don’t walk the ball up the court. We don’t wait for seconds on the clock. We take the first good shot available, and we push up the floor.

What’s ahead for the team and for UWF?
I’ve told them I want to stay five years. In five years when I leave, I hope that we are competitive, that we have good student athletes, that our games have become an event and that people want to come to the basketball games.

If you had the opportunity to talk to every student, every staff member, every faculty member on campus to encourage them to attend a basketball game this season, what would you say?
I would say this is a new day for UWF. Our enrollment is up. We’ve got a new president, we’ve got a new basketball coach, a new basketball team and players and new people….We all need to get involved in the game...We need to make it something that people will look forward to.