Not many people get to call themselves a hall of famer. But come this weekend, Bill Swafford, a man who does not actively seek recognition, will be honored among the 2022 class for induction into Three Rivers College’s Athletic Hall of Fame.
Swafford has been involved with Three Rivers basketball since 1978 and he’s currently the vice president of the Raiders Booster Club.
“I started going to Raider basketball games in 1977 when they were playing at the high school,” Swafford said. “In ’78 I joined the Booster Club and since then I got to know Coach (Gene) Bess and I liked what he stood for. I noticed how kids had respect for him and what they were learning from him.”
Swafford, Missy Whitney, Christy Deken and the 1992 Raiders national championship men’s basketball team will be honored Friday night at the Hall of Fame banquet and again Saturday night when the men’s and women’s basketball teams host State Fair at the Libla Family Sports Complex.
Swafford also served on the Three Rivers College Board of Trustees for 18 years. He and wife are also local business owners as they operate Swafford’s.
“I married Carol, my wife, and she went to school at Three Rivers when the campus was downtown,” Swafford said. “Her and two other girls commuted back and forth sharing a car back then because they didn’t have a place to stay. They wouldn’t have gotten their education if it wasn’t for Three Rivers and she got a scholarship to SEMO after she graduated.
“When we got involved with the basketball program at Three Rivers, we realized that the chance that we were given is what these kids have today in order to get an education and better themselves so we like to do as much as we can for the college,” Swafford said. “I would go out recruiting on trips with assistant coaches and I got to know some of the players by visiting their homes on those trips. It gives the kids the opportunity to get an education that they probably wouldn’t be able to afford going to a four-year school.”
Through all the years helping with the Raiders basketball program, Swafford has never wanted any recognition for his contributions to Three Rivers.
“I told Bill that I can’t wait for his speech on Friday at the banquet and he said ‘I might not show up,’ he’s such a nervous wreck over it,” said Brian Bess, current Raiders men’s basketball coach and athletic director.
“Besides being one of my dad’s best friends and a friend of the program, he’s a guy that doesn’t ask anything back, he just asks ‘how can I help you?’ I want friends like that and they’re hard to come by.”
One of the ways Raiders fans and those who visit the Three Rivers campus can see how Swafford and the booster club has improved the college is the Libla Family Sports Complex, the current home of the Raiders basketball teams.
“We wouldn’t have this arena without people like Bill,” Bess said. “Every night one of the three refs would tell me how nice of a facility we have because it’s their first time here or they’re a rookie. I just get a kick out of it every time. I don’t think the locals appreciate it as they should because this is a very nice place to watch a basketball game.”
As the guy who works behind the scenes, Swafford was involved with the new building from day one.
“Gene came up to me with a drawing of the building,” Swafford recalled. “He said, ‘Do you think we can get this done?’ and I said that I knew someone who can help us. This person was JP McLane. He was also like me, he did things but didn’t want any recognition, you just did it because you wanted to help. I sat down with JP with the drawing and talked to him about it. I knew the college was asking us to raise $4.5 million out of the local area and at the time we were looking at a $10 million project. JP was on board, but he said we needed a good committee and I was on it along with Gene, Butch Anderson, Emily Parks, Chris Williams and the president Dr. Wesley Payne. We knew that if we wanted to get this done, we needed Dr. Payne on board.
“We knew that it was a lot of money to ask for going in,” Swafford said.
The group was able to get $1.5 million raised in the very beginning of the project, Swafford said.
“When we went out to talk to banks and businesses in the community, we had that to start with and they knew we were dead serious about raising money for the Libla Family Sports Complex,” he added. “Without that starting from ground zero, I don’t know if this building would ever have existed today.”
The result was well worth the investment.
“From there it was starting to snowball to get this building done,” Swafford said. “The funny part is that we ended up raising over $5.7 million. If it wasn’t for JP, it wouldn’t have gotten off the ground.”
McLane was previously inducted into the TRC Athletic Hall of Fame.
Swafford and the Booster Club is continuing to raise money for new projects. Currently, they are raising money for a statue of Gene Bess to be erected in front of the Libla Family Sports Complex.
“We’re looking to raise $80,000 for the statue of Coach Bess and we’ve already raised $50,000,” Swafford said. “We’ve already got it ordered and everything. It all comes down to talking to people and I’m not afraid to ask. I got to give a lot of credit to my wife for standing by me all these years, even when I would go on recruiting trips and be away from home for periods of time and she had to stay behind.”
Robert Augsdorfer - Daily American Republic