Gene Bess Retires

(Poplar Bluff, Mo.) College basketball’s all-time winningest coach and Mineral Area College’s greatest rival has decided to call it a career. After overseeing the Three Rivers men’s basketball team for the past 50 years, Gene Bess is retiring. Bess finishes with a career record of 1,300-416, 143 more wins than the NCAA Division I leader, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski. Bess told us he always appreciated the rivalry with MAC…

In his half century guiding the Raiders in Poplar Bluff, Bess won 19 or more games in a season 43 times. His teams played for national titles four times, winning in 1979 and 1992. Brian Bess, Gene’s son and an assistant coach for the past 27 years, will take over.