Ralph Tasker

Ralph Tasker (born Ralph Edwin Tasker July 15, 1919 in Moundsville, West Virginia, - died July 19, 1999 in Hobbs, New Mexico) was a high school boys' basketball coach. He coached for over 50 years, including 49 years at Hobbs High School in Hobbs, New Mexico. As head coach at Sulphur Springs (OH), Lovington (NM), and Hobbs, he compiled a win-loss record of 1122-291 (.794). He won twelve New Mexico Boys' State Basketball Championships: one with Lovington (1949) and eleven with Hobbs (1956, 1957, 1958, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1980, 1981, 1987, 1988). His other accomplishments include twice being named National High School Coach of the Year, induction into the National High School Sports Hall of Fame, and being chosen for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Morgan Wootten Award. The Hobbs Eagles' home gymnasium is named Ralph Tasker Arena in his honor. Known for employing a full-court press for the entire game, Tasker's teams were often high scoring, with his 1969-70 team averaging 114.6 points per game and recording 14 consecutive 100-point games, both national high school records.

After attending Alderson-Broaddus College on a basketball scholarship, Tasker became the head basketball coach at the high school in Sulphur Springs, Ohio. However, he coached there for only one season before leaving to join the military in response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps for most of the next five years, being stationed in Missouri, Texas, and Kirtland Field in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

After World War II, Tasker became the head basketball coach at Lovington High School in Lovington, New Mexico. Over three seasons in Lovington, he posted a 52-22 win-loss record, culminating in the 1949 New Mexico State Championship (all New Mexico schools competed in a single class at that time). Despite winning the state championship, Tasker was unhappy that Lovington High would not give him his own key to the gym, so he accepted an offer to become the head basketball coach in nearby Hobbs, New Mexico beginning with the 1949-50 season.

Tasker's career at Hobbs High School began slowly, with losses in his first three games and mixed results in his first six seasons overall. In the 1955-56 season, however, Tasker began instructing his players to apply full-court press defense for the entire game. At the time, most coaches only resorted to the press after their teams had fallen behind, but the well-conditioned Eagles saw positive results from the frantic, up-tempo style immediately. Led by future All-American and NBA All-Star Bill Bridges (basketball), Hobbs captured the 1956 and 1957 New Mexico State Championships. Then, despite losing all five starters to graduation, Hobbs won the title for a third consecutive season in 1958, proving that Tasker's "run and press" strategy was no fluke.

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