When it comes to domination in the “Dog House,” aka Wilson Gymnasium, by Barton College basketball teams, one can trace the beginnings back to a 6-foot-6 swingman with a bad back.
Kendrick Cox, Barton Class of 1997, was a late bloomer on the basketball court. He didn’t start playing until middle school and only played two years of varsity basketball at North Pitt High School in Bethel, N.C. However, by the time he graced the court at Barton, Cox was a steady force on talented teams, averaging 14 points and 9.1 rebounds while shooting 55 percent from the floor for his career.
His senior season, the Bulldogs emerged a national power, going a perfect 14-0 at home while winning by an average of 17 points per game. After posting 13-14 overall and 7-11 (6th place) records in the Carolinas-Virginia Athletics Conference his junior season, Barton was a school-best 22-5 overall and won the league at 17-3. The Bulldogs were invited to their first NCAA DII Championship and lost out in the first round of the East Regional to Concord.
Cox had 16 points and 13 rebounds in his final collegiate game, stats that were indicative of his contribution on a nightly basis despite playing with two ruptured discs in his back. He was in so much pain his last two seasons that he rarely practiced with the team. He would just condition and shoot free throws.
Like many of the greats in athletics, Cox would not be denied the opportunity to make a difference. The three-time all-conference selection can now put another accolade on his resume: Barton College Athletic Hall of Famer. He will be enshrined on Friday night, Oct. 21, alongside five other inductees.
“I feel great about it,” Cox said. “It was truly unexpected, but I am definitely flattered to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. It is certainly for no work that I did on my own. I played with a lot of great players and had some great coaches along the way.”
Cox played for head coach Dave Davis his first three seasons at Barton, but, despite suiting up some talent-laden teams, the Bulldogs were just 37-38 during that time. However, the dynamics changed his senior season when Ron Lievense roamed the sidelines as a first-year head coach.
“I think we might have had too much talent those first few years,” said Cox, who was recruited by former Barton Coach Mark Faithful and began his career with Davis. “I thought Coach Davis was a great coach and we had some great players like Mandrake Lewis, D.J. Morgan, Tony Jenkins and Chris Franklin, but we just didn’t work too well together. I thought those teams were just as talented as the team we had my senior season, which makes what we did that last year even more amazing.”
Cox said Coach Lievense “just has an understanding of the game and his players, and that’s what made that senior season so special.”
Despite dominating at home and in a tough league, and posting the eighth-best NCAA DII regular-season record in the 1996-97 season, the Bulldogs only rose to No. 3 in the East Region and never gained a national ranking. They won 15 of 16 games during one stretch, including eight in a row, while Cox was averaging a double-double in points and rebounds. Their win streak was halted, 87-76, in the CVAC Championship by High Point University but the Bulldogs got one of three at-large bids to the NCAA East Regional.
Barton had no answer for a 6-foot-11 center from Concord who blocked six shots and altered many others, but Cox didn’t go down without a fight, posting a double-double in his finale. Like he had so many nights before, Cox spent timeouts lying on the sidelines trying to stretch or relax his back.
“My back was hurting me, but I didn’t want that to stop me from playing in a national game,” Cox said at the time.
“He was having muscle spasms in his back, but he still played his heart and soul out,” Lievense told the media after the game. “He wanted to give it his all, and he did. He has done that for us all year long and I think it (determination) carried over to the other guys.”
In the locker room after that regional loss, Lievense reminded his players how far they had come after going 13-14 the season before and being picked to finish fourth by the league’s coaches.
“Thanks to you seniors for the legacy you have left. Now, we want to take it to the next level.”
In the past 15 seasons under Lievense’s direction, the Bulldogs have continued their success at home, winning more than 80 percent of their games. They have also won two NCAA Regional Championships and the 2007 NCAA DII National Championship. Cox and teammates like James Lewis, Wayne Pitt and Chris Stewart take great pride in starting a winning tradition in the DII ranks.
After two good seasons at Barton, Cox pondered making the jump to Division I, but “in my heart, I wanted to stay here because I felt like I had a chance to help this team win a championship. There is no doubt that I could have played DI basketball, but some of the players in our league are as good as DI players. I may not have gotten a lot of exposure, but it was a good situation for me.”
Especially considering that Cox wasn’t heavily recruited out of high school, where he played for Greg Ashorn. At North Pitt, he was first-team all-conference his last two seasons and team MVP once.
“I had no intention of playing basketball,” said Cox, who was born Feb. 16, 1975 to Leonard and Phyllis Cox (now Phyllis Blunt), “but a friend of mine broke my collarbone playing football in the neighborhood in middle school. Coach Ashorn (who was his middle school coach as well) saw me in the hallway and asked me to play basketball. When I look back on it now, I am happy with the way it all happened. I think I had a chance to play overseas after college, but I reunited with my sweetheart and felt it was the right time to start a family.”
Cox and his wife, Antoinette Heath, have two daughters: Jewell Heath, 16; and Khamyla Cox, 5. He has worked for the Nacco Materials Handling Group, Inc., for the past 13 years and is currently a Program Manager in the Fleet Department for the company that manages forklift accounts worldwide.
As he reflects, Cox is thankful for the four years he had at Barton, where he had career-highs of 31 points and 19 rebounds.
“The whole time at Barton was a great experience for me,” he said. “I was just an average player in high school and Barton gave me an opportunity to get an education while playing basketball. I didn’t expect to be a dominating player in the league, but to my surprise, I was a four-year starter. Once I built up my confidence level, I knew I could be a force. Fortunately, with the help of Coaches Davis and Lievense, and assistants like Mark Downey and Matt Painter, and playing alongside some great players, I was able to stand out.”
Cox’s entire basketball career was chronicled by his sister, Tamika Cox, in a big scrapbook, but that history was destroyed by the floods associated with Hurricane Floyd in 1999.
Let the record show that Cox was a resilient, courageous player who ignited a winning tradition at Barton that continues today. And the proof will be on the wall, where his name will be next to all the other Hall of Famers.
