A&M legend Gary Blair provides an update on retired life in Aggieland

The winningest basketball coach in Texas A&M history, Gary Blair, will host the 22nd Annual Coach Blair Charities Celebrity Golf Classic, starting on Thursday. The Aggie legend joined TexAgs Live in-studio to share the latest, enjoying retirement and life after basketball.

Key notes from Gary Blair interview

• At the Golf Classic this weekend, we have a group at 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. I've got 31 teams in the morning and 21 in the afternoon. It is going to be a big day, but we also have A&M vs. LSU baseball. We've got softball playing at Tennessee. It is a great sports weekend. 
   
• I'm trying to stay in better shape because when I coached for 50 years at the facilities, and I never used them. I'd stay in my office and stress at practice. I'd watch game film. I'd recruit. You do it all and then still come to the Aggie events.
   
• Now, I get a chance to come to everything and be a fan. I try not to second-guess coaches, whether I am watching Steve Denton's tennis or Mark Weaver. I like to see it all. I love sports. It has been my life. Why retire to the couch? Get out and work. Particularly people like myself, get out and do a little bit of exercise. You don't have to get crazy and do all the barbells. Walk. Get involved and give back to the community. That will keep you younger.
   
• When we beat Texas 11 straight times, I remember that very well. That was also the end of the Jody Conradt era, and there is nothing like competing against Texas in every sport. I think people should enjoy it. It is the Red Sox and the Yankees. It's the Dodgers and the Giants. It's my Rangers and my wife's Astros. It's competition, and I love it. I think people embrace it, but there will always be ups and downs depending on teams, and now to the transfer portal and everything else going around. Embrace those games.
   
• Congress has to step in. They don't want to right now. They are trying to stay elected. It has to be done because I don't think we are getting that much help from the NCAA right now. They can't come to a conclusion, and the rules are the rules, but it needs to be fixed. It's the wild, wild west right now. I feel for the kids. I feel for the parents. I feel for the coaches. I particularly feel for the young coaches who are recruiting. The agents that are out there now it is all about money right now, and it is not good. It's professional college athletics, but I can go out and enjoy it. I'll be out at the baseball games on Saturday and Sunday. I've got an event on Friday. I cannot be there. I want to enjoy the game between the innings. I am going to enjoy every bit of it, and that is what fans should do. We've got to fix this problem.
   
• At my golf event, you can first come on Thursday night at the Expo Center. We will have up to 500 people there at the event. There are raffle tickets that are $30 that will get you Texas Roadhouse. Plenty of food, then all the drinks you want. You will have 200 items in the silent auction. We will have a dinner with Jackie Sherrill, along with R.C. Slocum and I. Another one will be the new men's basketball coach, Bucky McMillan and Joni Taylor. General Joe E. Ramirez, who retired, has his wife cook Mexican food. We’ve got fishing trips. We got everything.
   
• Come out Thursday night 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Expo Center. You can buy your tickets there, and I promise you are going to have a great time. You can see the Special Olympians dance. That is the highlight. From the Shelli Kruger Dance Studio, there will be about 15 of them out there. We will have the picture squad out there. Tape softball on Thursday, and come to my event.
   
• My last year at SFA in 1992-93, they asked us to present the medals to the Special Olympics state basketball tournament there in Nacogdoches. I could go over and put a sixth-place medal on you, and one of my kids put a first-place medal, and you couldn't tell the difference between the sixth and first place. They loved it. As soon as I got to Arkansas the next year, that was my platform. I did the tournament there for 10 years. As soon as I got here in '03, this will be our 22nd year here, so 32 years of doing it. It is our platform, and as coaches, it is our chance to give back. I have a great committee, and I have a lot of our athletes who are going to be helping. A lot of volleyball players are going to be there helping with the auction.
   
• Joni Taylor is working so hard. She is building. It does not happen overnight. It did not happen for me in my first year here. People have got to be patient. You build a team like an NFL team builds it in the NFL Draft, not like free agency. Then what you are doing here as a college coach is that you are having to deal with the portal. You are having to evaluate college players that are 20 to 22 more so than the 15, 16 and 17-year-olds that I recruited. It is changing now. You have to look at the junior colleges, Division II, and she is finding good players. The post player coming in, Fatmata Janneh, is going to be very good. I read about the low point guard coming in, Ny’Ceara Pryor, who led the nation in steals. That's what you want as a coach. Someone who can turn the ball over. Taylor is going to be fine.
   
• What a personality Bucky McMillan is. I know all the assistants because TJ Cleveland was at Arkansas, and he was playing back then. Of course, Kyle Keller was at SFA. Mitch Cole was here with Billy Kennedy, and so was Keller. Frank Haith is coming in, and that is a winner. It will be fun. Let them go to work, and that is what I did. I surrounded myself with good people, just like you do. Let them work. Let them breath,e and they are going to be good.
   
• I got my friend, who is the head coach of Texas women's basketball, Vic Schaefer. He would be here, but Sydney Carter will be there. Schaefer is out turkey hunting.