Jan. 25, Ohio coach Bob Boldon achieved yet another milestone in his storied career coaching in Athens: his 200th win at the program's helm. The landmark achievement only further cemented Boldon as the program’s winningest coach of all time.
The journey to the milestone was a long time coming for Boldon, an Ohio native and former basketball player at Walsh University in Canton, Ohio, right by his hometown of Louisville, Ohio. At Walsh, Boldon was a two-time All-America selectee and the program’s leader in assists.
Despite his on-court success at Walsh, coaching wasn’t the first option for Boldon.
“My degree is in elementary education, and I wanted to be a school teacher,” Boldon said. “I wanted to coach high school basketball on the side. I have always had a passion for basketball. I've always enjoyed it, and it's always been something special to me.”
Boldon knew he wanted to be involved with the game of basketball, but didn’t realize he could make it a career until he got his first college coaching job as a graduate assistant. It was during that job he met Karl Smesko, the then-head coach for Walsh and the current head coach for the Atlanta Dream.
Both coaches jumped around, and it was at Purdue Fort Wayne where the two reconnected and where Boldon realized coaching was a legitimate career possibility.
“I went to Wilmington, Ohio, and did substitute teaching and coached on the side, and reconnected (with Smesko at Purdue Fort Wayne),” Boldon said. “That's when I realized I could just coach and not teach. I was like, ‘Well, that sounds better.’”
Now fully in the coaching world, Boldon bounced from team to team, including Division I programs Florida Gulf Coast and Akron. Although the work was fulfilling and rewarding for Boldon, the constant moving was tough for him and his family.
“It's very stressful. Yeah, it was very hard on my family,” Boldon said. “You move your family from Arkansas to Akron to Jackson, Tennessee, and then to Fort Myers, Florida, and then Ohio, all within like, six years. That's hard on a family.”
Although constantly moving around was difficult, Boldon once again had the chance to reconnect with his mentor, Smesko, as one of his assistant coaches at Florida Gulf Coast and Akron.
“You’ll meet a lot of people that will tell you things that aren’t true,” Boldon said. “(Smesko) was always very honest with me … He helped me prepare for how to move up the ladder, but also how to do your job well where you’re at.”
After his one season at Florida Gulf Coast that included a Women’s National Invitation Tournament appearance, the next rung on the coaching ladder for Boldon was his first Division I head coaching job at Youngstown State. (The program was coming off an 0-30 season the year prior.) Despite the circumstances, the opportunity was something Boldon previously hadn’t thought was a possibility.
“I never thought I would be a Division I basketball coach,” Boldon said. “It never crossed my mind until it started to become a reality.”
The reality set in quickly for Boldon, who was now captaining a ship with two players who hadn’t experienced an NCAA win. In just his fourth game, Boldon changed that, creating a moment he’ll never forget.
“The joy on the players' faces is something that I'll never, ever forget,” Boldon said. “I'll never forget our first win … for the community to be proud of kids who were the laughing stock of their league was really special to me.”
In his final season at Youngstown State, Boldon’s team went 23-10, completing its best season in over a decade with a win over Indiana State in the WNIT.
The next stop for Boldon was Ohio. Before coming to Athens, Boldon had never been at the same school for more than three seasons. Now, Boldon is coming up on the end of his 12th season with Ohio.
After his early success with Ohio which included winning the Mid-American Conference Tournament and winning MAC Coach of the Year in 2015, bigger offers were available for Boldon, but he was grounded with his family in Athens.
“(My kids) had just moved back to Ohio, and there was no job in America that was taking me away from them at that point,” Boldon said. “My resume was good enough to take the next job, but I wasn't moving … things have worked out pretty well here.”
Things have gone more than pretty well for Boldon at Ohio. He is the program’s all-time winningest coach, took the Bobcats to the NCAA tournament in 2015, and most recently won his 200th game with the team.
Despite the weight of the milestone, its impact is a bit diluted for Boldon, as it comes in the midst of Ohio’s worst season with him at the helm.
“It has been a disappointing season. It has been very difficult, and we’ve had a lot of challenges come up,” Boldon said. “The other wins came at a time when the team was playing well and there were a lot of reasons to celebrate. This doesn't feel like a time to celebrate.”
Despite the challenges of the current season, there isn’t much more for the 12th-year coach to accomplish before retirement. Boldon has spent almost all of his adult life in coaching, and the end of the road is coming sooner rather than later.
“I would like to get this program back to (its previous level of success) and then hand it off to somebody else and go into retirement,” Boldon said. “That’s what I would like to do.”
When and where the end of the road for Boldon will be is uncertain, but what is certain is he has left an everlasting mark on Ohio. Two hundred wins was just the cherry on top of a career full of stops and accomplishments.
