HEWITT, TX — On Sunday night, the 2021 Baylor Men’s Basketball Team locked in a win on Senior Night, and then celebrated winning their first Big 12 Conference Championship with a trophy ceremony.
The Bears couldn’t be more happy, but there is one person in Hewitt, Texas, who was just as excited to see Baylor bring home a conference title.
“Sic ‘Em Bears!”grinned former Baylor basketball player, Bill Fleetwood.
71 years ago, Fleetwood was a guard for the Bears when they became three-peat Southwest Conference Champions.
“I would get the ball to them, the big guys, and that’s made it good," he recalled. "We always gave thanks to God before the ball game, and then we gave thanks to God while the ball game was going on.”
Fleetwood is a Baylor Bear for life.
Even as a resident at Stoney Brook of Hewitt, Fleetwood loves watching this year’s team dominate on the court, because it reminds him of his own team.
“It would be funny because he would be going... just kinda playing for them and moving around and wanting them to move here and there and making motions," said Bill Fleetwood's daughter, Cheri Jennings. "It was obvious he was trying to play with them in his chair."
“I think it’s been a great year. To me, they play together better than most teams I have ever seen and because of it they are a great team,” said Fleetwood.
The staff and residents threw a party for Fleetwood to celebrate both the former and the current conference champions.
It's a memory he will always cherish, even after 71 years.
“He’s thrilled for them, because he knows that feeling,”said Jennings.
“He said this was so nice... this was just a wonderful way to honor. It really was. I could tell it meant a lot to him," said Melanie Crain, Executive Director of Stoney Brook.
