2025 INDUCTEE – Rod Bass
By David Elwell
The Decatur Daily
The Austin basketball great was named MVP in the 1993 state tournament that saw the Black Bears take the Class 6A state championship. Bass scored 60 points in Austin’s three state tournament victories. The first-team All-State selection helped the champion Black Bears to a 30-3 record that season with two of the losses coming in overtime. Bass went on to star at Wallace State in Hanceville, where he set a season scoring record and then at Alabama A&M, where he played on the Bulldogs’ 1996 team that advanced to the NCAA’s Division II Elite Eight tournament
The trophy cases at the Austin High gym are rarely opened.
An exception was made recently when a Black Bear all-time great stopped by to look at the state championship trophy that he helped bring back to Decatur over three decades ago.
The trophy was the Class 6A basketball state championship trophy from 1993. The Black Bear was Rod Bass, the MVP of the 1993 state tournament.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve had my hands on this thing,” Bass said. “It brings back a lot of memories.”
The trophy represents the culmination of a high school basketball career that has led to Bass being inducted into the Morgan County Sports Hall of Fame.
“Rod was one of the best all-around players I ever coached,” said hall of fame Austin coach Bob Harpe. “He could defend, he could shoot the ball and play team ball. Rod was a joy to coach.”
Bass, now 50, and his teammates traveled an amazing path led by a tenacious defense and balanced scoring to their state championship. The Black Bears (30-3) set a school record for victories after opening the season with 13 straight wins. They were 9-0 against Huntsville City teams.
Two of the three losses came in overtime, 62-58 to defending state champion Vestavia in double overtime and 93-90 to Walker in three overtimes. Austin also had two overtime victories over powerhouse programs, 75-73 over Lee and 86-83 over Parker.
The 1993 Class 6A state championship tournament was played at Auburn University. Austin eked out a two-point win in the first game vs. Central-Tuscaloosa before taking double-digit victories over McGill-Toolen and Tuscaloosa County.
The championship game was played the day after a record-breaking snowfall hit the state. The team had a snowball fight that morning before making a slow trip on some hazardous roads to the Auburn campus for the afternoon contest.
The lead to the Daily’s next day story on Austin’s 54-44 win over Tuscaloosa County said “Snow covered the roof of Eaves Memorial Coliseum on Saturday, but the Austin Black Bears’ defense blanketed the building’s playing floor.”
“It just all came together for us that season,” Bass said. “Going into the season, my goals were to win the Huntsville Times (Classic) and to win the state tournament.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t win the Huntsville Times (lost in finals to Frayser from Memphis, 74-67), but we did win state. So I guess it worked out OK.”
Bass grew up in a family that loved to compete in basketball and baseball. His uncles Kenneth Rice, Tarous Rice and Derica Rice were star athletes at Austin. Kenneth later played basketball at Alabama. Tarous and Derica starred on both the basketball court and baseball field for the Black Bears. Rod and his cousin and fellow inductee Marc Lewis played on state championship youth teams in both sports.
As a junior in 1992, Bass pitched Austin to a 3-2 playoff win over West End at Birmingham’s Rickwood Field. He gave up just one hit while striking out 17.
“Baseball was probably my best sport, but I really enjoyed playing basketball the most,” Bass said.
It was at Brookhaven Middle School where Bass first became teammates with Jody Witt. The ensuing friendship became a cornerstone to their success at Austin.
“We were like brothers. We thought alike and saw things on the court the same way,” Witt said. “I could get a rebound and give him a wink. He would go long for a pass and finish it off with a dunk.”
Before their sophomore seasons at Austin, both Bass and Witt were surprised when Harpe moved them up to the varsity.
“We were both young and skinny going up against some big physical seniors,” Witt said. “That was a big challenge, but it helped us to know what we needed to do to reach our goal when we were seniors.”
Austin posted around a .500 record in the 1991-1992 season. Expectations were high for the next season, but the team was going to be young. Bass and Witt were the only returning seniors. Another senior was Brian Kincaid, who had been a basketball manager since the days at Brookhaven.
“When Brian grew to 6-6 before that season, Coach Harpe decided he was going to play instead of being a manger,” Bass said.
The three seniors were going to need help from the underclassmen to have a big season.
“Coach Harpe had a standard and if you didn’t meet his standard, you were gone,” Bass said. “There were some guys who could have helped us that were no longer on the team. Coach told the seniors that we were going to have to depend on some sophomores.
“After what we experienced as sophomores on the varsity, we decided that we would be accepting of the sophomores. We didn’t want them to feel the way we did when we were on the varsity. Those seniors didn’t want us around.”
Besides Bass, Witt and Kincaid, the main playing rotation included junior Arthur Morris and sophomores Shae Reynolds and Quentine Pryor. It featured height with Kincaid (6-6), Bass (6-4), Witt (6-4) and Morris (6-2).
It also had balanced scoring. Heading into the state tournament, four averaged scoring in double figures with Bass (18.9) followed by Kincaid (12.1), Reynolds (10.8) and Morris (10.2). Witt averaged 9.1 points to go with 7 rebounds. Pryor averaged 7.2 points. He and Reynolds combined for 68 3-point field goals during the regular season.
After losing in the Huntsville Times Classic, Austin (13-1) went on a seven-game winning streak before falling to Vestavia in double overtime. The Black Bears won four more before closing the regular season with the three-overtime loss at Walker.
“Honestly, if we didn’t have those three losses during the season, I don’t think we win state,” Bass said. “All three losses were tough to take, but they made us a better team and that paid off at state.”
Austin’s playoff run began with close wins over Bradshaw, 60-52, and Lee, 72-66. The Black Bears traveled to Grissom to fight for one of the spots in the state tournament. Austin led by 20 points in the third quarter only to see Grissom cut the lead to two points with 14 seconds left. The Black Bears held on for a 68-63 victory.
The state tournament was an eight-team affair. That meant it took three wins to be state champions. Austin opened with a 58-56 win over Tuscaloosa-Central. It was a game that Bass will never forget.
“I got poked in the eye early in the game,” Bass said. “I tried to play through it, but everything looked fuzzy. It wasn’t until the fourth quarter that I could really see.”
The Black Bears were thankful Bass’ vision returned. He scored Austin’s last 10 points in the final 1:58 of play.
The semifinal game with McGill-Toolen started out like it was going to be a huge challenge for the Black Bears. Austin trailed 17-12 after the first quarter, but then led 31-23 at halftime and won 69-48. Bass scored 20 points and hit 10 of 14 free throws.
That setup the finals with Tuscaloosa County on a memorable Saturday afternoon. On Thursday, temperatures across the state were in the 70s. By Saturday morning every county in the state had measurable amounts of snow. Decatur had 6 to 8 inches with a high temperature of 27 degrees. There were power outages and roads closed.
“I will always remember first walking out on the floor to warmup for the game and seeing all the orange and black in the stands,” Bass said. “I really wasn’t sure if anybody was going to be there.”
It turned out that the Austin basketball snowball fight that morning may have been the most competitive competition of the day. The Black Bears used a crushing full-court press to dominate Tuscaloosa County from the start. Bass scored 11 of Austin’s first 13 points.
Midway in the third quarter, Austin led 37-14 and Tuscaloosa County had more turnovers (17) than points. The final was a deceiving 54-44.
“When you start playing high school basketball, this is what you dream about,” Bass said after the game.
Bass scored 23 points to give him 60 for the tournament and earn him the MVP trophy.
“That bunch was a unique group. They were tight and respected each other,” Harpe said. “They didn’t worry about individual honors. They just wanted to win. Everything just fell together that season.”
Bass’ basketball career would continue at Wallace-Hanceville, where he set what was then a season-scoring school record. After two years, he moved on to Alabama A&M. The Bulldogs played in the NCAA Division II Elite Eight Tournament in 1996.
Today, Bass stays close to basketball as an official in the Huntsville area.
“In some ways it seems like a long time ago since we won that championship,” Bass said. “At other times it seems like we just did it yesterday. It’s something that we will never forget.”
