Rick Barnes reacts to death of Tennessee basketball great Bill Justus

The Tennessee sports community lost an icon this week when news broke that former basketball player Bill Justus had passed away, and current hoops coach Rick Barnes paid tribute to the legendary Volunteer during his time to speak at SEC Media Day.

Justus was a star player back in the late 1960s for Tennessee, where he earned two-time All-SEC honors and averaged 17 points per game over his final two seasons with the team. He also later joined on as a member of the Tennessee basketball broadcasting team, where he got to know Barnes and the the new-era version of the program a little bit better.

So, when asked about the late UT legend, Barnes regretted not speaking to him one final time before his passing, but praised the person Justus was.

“I did get the fortune to meet Bill. He loved Tennessee, he loved the Volunteers. He loved the basketball program. We all know he was a great basketball player,” shared Coach Barnes. “I got a call, a text, from Bert Bertelkamp  a couple weeks ago and Mark Griffin telling me he wasn’t doing well. I did try to reach out to him and get him, but I couldn’t. I left a message. It’s just sad because we lost a great one, a great human being, but we also lost a great Volunteer.”

Well, that about sums up Justus — a great human being and a great Volunteer.

In an article written just after Justus’ death earlier this week, Randy Smith, a friend of Justus, described him with great respect:

“I can honestly say, Bill Justus was one of the finest men I ever knew. He never knew a stranger and loved to talk about the game of basketball, and you know he was an expert on that subject.”

He was certainly a great athlete, too, that’s for sure. Even as a high schooler, Justus was nationally renown and excelled at both football and basketball, earning All-State honors in both as a junior before elevating to All-American status on the hardwood and honorable mention All-American in football as a senior.

Then, obviously, he linked up with the Tennessee basketball program and was wildly successful there. According to his own profile in the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame, he was the Volunteer hoops icon of his day:

“If you followed University of Tennessee basketball in the late sixties, you must be familiar with the awesome college hoops career of Billy Justus,” his page reads.

Surely, folks who were actually around back in Justus’ hey day remember that his claim to fame on the court was his impeccable free throw accuracy. He shot 85% from the line for his career and over 90% as a senior. Plus, in an NIT game against Ohio one year, he made 18 free throws in a row and set a school record with 22 out of 23 makes from the line in a single game. That record stood until 2019, when Grant Williams orchestrated a 23-for-23 performance at the line in an away win over Vanderbilt.

Even after his college days, Justus experienced quite a diverse pro sports career as he was drafted by three different professional leagues out of school. After graduating from Tennessee, Justus was selected by Philadelphia in the NBA Draft, by Denver in the ABA draft, and then by Dallas in the NFL draft.

Later down the line, with football and basketball in the rearview mirror and having surpassed 30 years old, Justus pivoted to become a highly-successful tennis player at the USTA level, where he won a number of events.

A heck of a man and a legendary Tennessee athlete. Rest in eternal peace, Bill Justus.