“I knew Brad from my time at McLennan and I always knew if I had an opportunity to hire Brad I would. He is a tireless recruiter who has endless enthusiasm and a real passion for helping young people achieve their goals. He has made a tremendous impact in the development of our guards and our perimeter players in particular.”
— UALR head coach Steve Shields
Brad Autry begins his fourth year at UALR after joining the Trojan program in June 2003. Autry was the final hire of Steve Shields’ original staff and has played an integral role in the early success of the Shields era at UALR. Bringing a wealth of experience and success at a variety of levels, the former Tulsa and Baylor assistant coach brings a high energy level and tireless work ethic into his 16th year in the coaching profession.
Autry was an assistant coach at the University of Tulsa when the Golden Hurricane won the Western Athletic Conference championship in 2000 with a school-record 32 wins and a No. 9 national ranking while advancing to the NCAA Elite Eight.
His connections in college coaching circles run deep as he served on staffs that included current and former Division I head coaches Bill Self (Kansas), Billy Gillispie (Texas A&M), Norm Roberts (St. Johns) and John Phillips (Tulsa).
Before his time at Tulsa, Autry was an assistant coach for five seasons at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. While at Baylor – the alma mater of head coach Steve Shields – Autry coached 1998 NBA first-round pick and current Sacramento King Brian Skinner for four years and helped the Bears to a school-record 11 consecutive wins en route to an 11-1 non-conference record in 1996-97, a season in which the team improved to 18 wins from just nine the previous year.
Baylor’s 1996 recruiting class was ranked as high as sixth in the nation, and the 1997-98 team recorded the school’s best conference record and the highest conference finish (fifth) since Baylor joined the Big 12.
As a prep player, Autry was an Oklahoma all-state performer in football, basketball and track before continuing his playing career at Northwestern Oklahoma State University, where he graduated with his undergraduate degree in 1991.
While at NWOSU, Autry was a four-year basketball letterwinner as well as an all-conference and all-district perfomer and the Oklahoma Intercollegiate Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 1990. Autry began his collegiate coaching career as a graduate assistant at University of Central Oklahoma, where he earned his master’s degree, and was a part of a Lone Star Conference championship and the NCAA Division II national tournament in 1993.
Prior to joining Steve Shields at UALR, Autry spent two years as a high school coach in the state of Texas and was most recently the head boys basketball coach at Fossil Ridge High School, in Keller, near Fort Worth. In only one year at Fossil Ridge, Autry turned a program that had won only 10 games over the previous two season into a 14-game winner and posted the best overall and district record in the school’s seven-year basketball history. Other highlights of Autry’s professional career include:
— Winning four conference championships at three universities (Central Oklahoma, Tulsa, UALR)
— Coaching 1994-95 consensus All-American and Division II Player of the Year Alex Wright
— Coaching and recruiting 22 players who have gone on to professional basketball careers.
— Being a part of two recruiting classes rated as the best in school history at that time. (Baylor, 1996 / Tulsa 2001).
