Ole Miss tennis coach Billy Chadwick will enter the MississippiSports Hall of Fame tonight during the 44th Annual InductionBanquet at the Hilton of Jackson. Chadwick is one of six members ofthe Class of 2006 to be inducted.

Chadwick is married to the former Julie Carr of Brookhaven,Miss. She is the daughter of Babe and the late Judge Carr. Theyhave two sons, William Lyon, Jr., a recent graduate of Ole Miss,and Michael Carr, a junior at the University of Georgia. Chadwickhas served as an Elder for the First Presbyterian Church inOxford.

“I was out of town recruiting last summer when I got the news,”said Chadwick. “I was overwhelmed. This is perhaps the highesthonor that one can receive in sports in Mississippi. And havinggrown up in this state, it just means that much more to me.”

Chadwick has spent over 28 years coaching in the Ole Miss tennisprograms. First he coached the women then the men. Chadwick hasover 500 wins, 402 as men’s head coach and 107 as a former LadyRebels’ head coach.

“Having built this (UM) program in the state of Mississippi isalso very important to me,” stated Chadwick. “I’m very proud thatwe’ve been able to do that here. I’m just really humbled by thehonor.”

In 2005, Chadwick’s men’s team captured its fourth SoutheasternConference overall title. The honor put Chadwick in the same clubas former baseball coach, the late Tom Swayze, and former footballcoach, the late Johnny Vaught. They are the only coaches in OleMiss history to win four or more SEC titles. Swayze won four SECtitles in 1959, 1960, 1964 and 1969. Vaughn won six conferencetitles in 1947, 1954, 1955, 1960, 1962 and 1963.

Chadwick is one of only seven active Division I men’s tenniscoaches to have led a team to the NCAA Championship Finals. He isone of only three active Division I coaches to have taken his teamto three or more NCAA Final Fours. In his tenure at Ole Miss, hehas led the Rebels to the NCAA Championships 15 times.

Chadwick began his coaching career at Ole Miss as the women’stennis coach. In 1982, he led the Lady Rebels to the SEC finals,AIAW Nationals and the program’s first top 20 national ranking. In1983, he took over the men’s program.

In 1995, Chadwick’s Rebels advanced to the finals of the NCAATeam Championships, falling to Stanford in the finals at Athens,Ga. The following two years, red-hot Ole Miss captured their firstSEC Championship the repeated as champs the following year. The1997 team was the second Rebel team to advance to the NCAA FinalFour and posted a 25-4 record which the 2005 team equaled.

1999 was a great year for Chadwick’s Rebels. They won the SECregular title, advanced to the NCAA Final Four for the third timeand finished the year ranked as the No. 3 team in the nation.

In 2002, Ole Miss captured the SEC Western Division Title andadvanced to the NCAA “Sweet Sixteen”. The Rebels repeated as SECchamps in 2003 and advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight.

The Rebels won the overall SEC Championship and won their thirdconsecutive SEC Western Division title in 2004.

In 2005, Ole Miss won the SEC overall again, the SEC West againand returned to the Final Four of the NCAA tourney for the fourthtime.

Last year, the Rebels finished second overall in the SEC, wonthe West for the fifth straight year and advanced to the NCAA SweetSixteen.

Off the field, Chadwick’s teams have ranked among the nations’selite for the past several years. Academically, the Rebels havealways been at or near the top of all UMAA teams as far asacademics and cumulative grade point average.

Ole Miss also holds a 17-win streak over rival MississippiState.

Chadwick holds a Masters in Business Administration (1981) fromthe University of Mississippi. He received his undergraduate degreein business from Belhaven College in 1974, where he was a four-yearletterman in tennis. In 2000, Chadwick was inducted into theBelhaven Hall of Fame. In 1970, he was the Mississippi High SchoolSingles Champion.

Following graduation from college, Chadwick participated inITF/ATP Satellite events in the United States, Canada andEurope.

It was by accident that he landed the coaching job back in theearly 80’s. His future wife Julie was in graduate school and hefollowed her to Oxford to get an MBA degree.

They had plans to wed and Chadwick needed to work while incollege. A meeting with athletic director Warner Alford ledChadwick to a career in coaching Rebel tennis.