Unlike many coaches, who are renowned talkers, Murry Bartow is a listener. And this season, he’s hearing a lot of cheers.
Bartow, born August 18, 1961, grew up around basketball in every aspect of his life. He attended numerous basketball camps as a child and played basketball in both high school and college. Also, he grew up around his father, Gene Bartow, coaching. Basketball took up a lot of time for Murry Bartow and the rest of the Bartow family.
Bartow’s father is a legendary coach who led two teams, Memphis State and UCLA, to the NCAA Final Four. He then started the basketball program at University of Alabama-Birmingham, where he doubled as athletic director and coach for 23 years.
Now, as ETSU’s head basketball coach, Bartow is listening to kudos – for inspiring a second trip to the NCAA tournament in two years. Bartow has a positive spirit and outgoing behavior, says ETSU Athletic Director Dave Mullins. “He is a very principled person and has high standards for himself and his players,” Mullins said.
Rather than busying himself shouting directions, Bartow spends a good deal of time listening to his players and trying to help them whenever he can. “His office is always open,” said assistant coach Will Bailey.
Bartow had plenty of inspiration himself. At a “pretty young” age Bartow said he began to follow in his father’s footsteps. He graduated from Birmingham’s W.A. Berry High School, where he was a point guard on the varsity team, earning All-Jefferson County honors and his team’s MVP award as a senior. He continued to play at the University of Alabama-Birmingham from 1980-85 and was part of four NCAA Tournament teams, three Sun Belt Conference championship teams and UAB’s 1984 Great Alaska Shootout title team.
After graduating from UAB, he attended Indiana University Graduate School and was graduate assistant to head basketball coach Bob Knight for two years, including the year Indiana won the National Championship. After leaving Indiana, he worked for two seasons as a full-time assistant and recruiting coordinator at William & Mary. He then went back to UAB as an assistant on the UAB staff for seven seasons and was promoted to head coach in 1996.
“Bartow is well-respected by the basketball community, coaches and media,” said ETSU Athletic Director Dave Mullins.
While head coach at UAB, he won 103 games and led the team to three Division I postseason tournaments before resigning in 2002.
This background may be the reason Bartow was hired by ETSU in April 2003 to replace Ed DeChellis, who coached at ETSU for seven seasons until 2003 when he took the head coaching job at Penn State. “There are several reasons ETSU hired him,” said Mullins. “He has a great background in college coaching, he has grown up around the game and he has been successful wherever he coached.”
Bartow was the “total package for ETSU,” Mullins said. “He is an outstanding person who has a good relationship with people and players.”
After having been out of coaching a year, Bartow said he was “eager to get back in.” He said he knew ETSU was where he was supposed to be and felt it was a great opportunity for him to get back into coaching.
“I’ve been very fortunate,” Bartow said. “When you’re out in college coaching, it’s not easy to get back in. If you’re lucky enough to get another job, it’s usually a difficult, rebuilding type situation.” Bartow though feels he was lucky in getting a job with a team that had already had a good foundation. “The smartest thing we’ve done as a staff is try to keep as much continuity as we could (from Ed DeChellis’ system),” Bartow said.
Meanwhile, the team had to adjust to his personality, terminology and philosophy, Bartow said. “But it was an easy transition,” he said. Because of his personality, he was an easy coach for the team to adjust to, said Mullins. “He didn’t try to change anything,” said point guard Tim Smith. “We love Coach Bartow. He likes to get it up and go.”
For the past year, Bartow has worked to have a winning team with a winning attitude, Mullins said. “Obviously, right now we are [27-5],” said assistant coach Will Bailey. “The record speaks for itself.”
In Bartow’s first year at ETSU he has accumulated a winning record, winning the Southern Conference Championship and is now headed to the NCAA tournament. “If you’re not winning, it’s not fun,” Bartow said. “We have a great staff and very good players, we’ve been very fortunate.”
Along with good players and staff, Bartow said the fans and community have helped the program in their success. “This is a great community with a lot of tradition,” Bartow said.
As a coach, he wanted to be part of this tradition, he said. In addition to winning, his job as a coach is “trying to prepare them for the rest of their lives and helping players mature into young adults,” he said.
In Bartow’s eyes, academics and the future of the players are just as important as basketball. Players should get a good education and leave ETSU with a degree, he said.
Bartow has the same qualities that he looks for in current players and recruits and also the values he teaches while coaching his players, Mullins said. “They must be a good ball player but also must be a good person,” Bartow said. “When I see players [to recruit], I look at work effort, personality and demeanor.”
Team-spirit and support are important to Bartow – not only for his players but also with his colleagues. “He believes the whole [athletic] department is stronger when working together,” Mullins said.
Basketball is not the only thing in Bartow’s life that he enjoys. He and his wife Tammy have three sons, Alec, Stephen and Connor, with whom Bartow loves to spend his spare time, including watching them play basketball and soccer. Also a member of UAB’s golf team while in college, he likes to play golf when he can find the time.
As for next year, Bartow said he is going to put high expectations on the team with regards to academics and basketball, going into the new conference.
“We will just do as well as we can do and see what happens,” he said.

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