Clutch shots at Starkville sparked Justus’ UT career
Memorial ceremony for FHS grad Sept. 30
By Steve Williams
Billy Justus will long be remembered as a captain and leader in the University of Tennessee basketball program during the late 1960s, along with his free throw accuracy and fall-away jump shot, and the March 6 night in 1967 when he lifted the Vols to a Southeastern Conference championship and NCAA tournament berth in a three-overtime win over Mississippi State in Starkville.
A memorial ceremony for Justus, who died at age 76 on Oct. 17, 2023, at his home in Belle Meade in the Nashville area, will be held in the library at Fulton High School, his alma mater, Monday (Sept. 30) starting at 6:30 p.m.
Two other starters on the 1967 team – Fulton product Ron Widby and 7-footer Tom Boerwinkle – also have passed away, while point guard Bill Haun and forward Tom “Spook” Hendrix are still living, according to Bill Young, who like Justus was a sophomore that year on the Ray Mears-coached team.
“Billy and I were good friends and went all the way through high school together,” said Young, who went to South High while Justus went to Fulton. “We played everything against each other, starting off when we were in junior high.
“We actually competed against each other in Biddy League basketball when we were 11 or 12 years old.”
He also said the two tied for the high jump championship at 5 foot, 6 inches in junior high.
They competed against each other in football, basketball, baseball and track in high school.
“We played in an East versus West All-Star basketball game after our senior year and Billy was elected captain of our team,” said Young. “He was a great leader. He was personable. Everybody always liked him and he was an extremely hard worker and played really hard.
“From a personal standpoint, I hated it if he guarded me. He would just drive you nuts. He was so quick and he was at your feet all the time. When I was at South and we were going to play Fulton, I just hoped he wasn’t guarding me.”
Justus was the first Fulton basketball player to have his jersey retired. He also was a standout quarterback in football.
At UT, Justus and Young both signed football scholarships with the agreement that they could play either or both football and basketball.
“You couldn’t sign a basketball scholarship and play football,” pointed out Young.
Both played football and basketball their freshman year, then Justus decided he wanted to stick with basketball. Young stopped playing basketball and concentrated on football.
Both became captains in their No. 1 sport.
“We just went in opposite direction with it, but he (Justus) was quite an athlete for sure,” said Young, who was a standout safety at UT.
It was said that Justus had ice in his veins in that memorable game when he hit the winning free throws at Mississippi State with .07 on the clock to propel Tennessee to the 1967 SEC title.
As the second shot swished through the net, John Ward, Voice of the Vols, announced to the fans that their Vols would be bringing home some hardware from Starkville: “Wrap it up, tie it in Orange and White, and send it to Bill Justus, care of Gibbs Hall, Knoxville, Tennessee!”
Justus went on to become an All-American guard his senior year for the Vols and a two-time All-SEC first team honoree.
After college, Justus traveled extensively teaching ball-handling and shooting skills for Converse at coaches’ clinics and basketball camps throughout the United States. Later in his career, he also did color commentary for the Vol TV and Radio Networks.
In March of 2018, 51 years after Justus’ clutch free throws gave Tennessee the SEC title in 1967, he was the color analyst for another huge UT win over Mississippi State in Starkville that opened the door to a SEC title.
This reporter got the opportunity to chat with Justus on the phone after that game and enjoy 25 minutes going down Memory Lane. Billy said the return to Starkville was his first in over 30 years.
“When I used to work for Converse, part of my territory was Mississippi and I passed through Starkville many times,” he said. “It’s still pretty much a small college town.”
Justus recalled one thing about the 1967 win at Mississippi State I never knew or had long forgotten.
“Eastman Kodak in Kingsport gave UT a plane that the basketball team used to travel on,” Justus said. “It was named The General, maybe in honor of Coach Neyland, I’m not sure. Anyway, the night we won the championship the weather was so bad we couldn’t fly out of there and had to stay overnight.
“We heard they had one of the greatest celebrations ever on Cumberland Avenue after we won that night. The next day when we returned, there was a good crowd at McGhee Tyson Airport to greet us. And at the bottom of the steps coming off the plane was the UT football team with Dewey Warren, the quarterback, out in front.”
Two years after that, in 2020, this reporter heard Justus praise UT senior Jordan Bowden on the Vol Network for his play despite a road loss at Arkansas.
“I think you are one of the most productive players in Tennessee basketball history,” Justus told Bowden on the post-game show.
Coming from a former Vol great, that one sentence had to make Bowden proud.
And that was Justus; always trying to do something good for UT.
