Final season: Legendary Texas A&M Women's Basketball Coach Gary Blair to retire

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Texas A&M women's basketball head coach Gary Blair on Thursday announced the 2021-2022 campaign will be his final season.

“I always evaluate myself on: Am I giving everything I have, is my health good and am I still able to make an impact on young lives? I am fortunate that my health is still great, and I believe that I can still make an impact on our student-athletes and that I can give all my effort every single day,” Blair said.

“However, I know that it is time for this to be my final season. Although I am excited to begin a new chapter in my life, I am even more excited to compete this year. We are the defending SEC Champions and have the toughest conference schedule in the league this year. I don’t want the fans to come out to send me off. I want the 12th Man to come out and support our players and this program. They have worked extremely hard this offseason and they deserve all the love we can give them. Thank you 12th Man, I can’t wait to see you at Reed Arena this year.”

Blair is a member of seven halls of fame, including the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.

Throughout his career, he had 838 victories, the most in the 12th most in Division I history and fourth among active coaches

Since starting at Texas A&M, he led the Aggies to the 2011 NCAA Championship and won five conference titles.

Blair won a program-record 430 games and is nine wins away from becoming the winningest basketball coach in Texas A&M history behind Dr. Shelby Metcalf.

Blair has been a part of three National Championships and has made six Final Fours, eight Elite Eights, 17 Sweet Sixteens and 30 NCAA Tournaments throughout his 41-year collegiate coaching career.

Blair was an assistant coach for the Louisiana Tech women's basketball team from 1980-85.

16 Aggies that were selected in the WNBA Draft had been coached by Blair and almost 30 former players are enjoying their successful professional careers overseas.

Off the court, Blair helped raise $1.4 million as part of Coach Blair Charities.

He also helped provide extra funding for multiple charities in the Bryan-College Station area and worked closely with Special Olympics-Texas.