Pat Patterson (coach)

Patterson served for several years as Tech’s associate athletic director following his retirement in 1990. In that capacity, he oversaw the eligibility of athletes and monitored NCAA compliance. On three occasions, he was asked to step in as the university’s interim athletic director.

Mike Kane was recruited by Patterson as the assistant baseball coach: "When my folks met 'Gravy', they knew immediately they wanted me to come to Tech because they believed he would take care of me. He was like a father to me, much more like family than like a boss." Kane succeeded Patterson as head baseball coach in 1990.

As head coach, Patterson was named the District VI Coach of the Year in 1974. He led Louisiana Tech to seven National Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament appearances during his coaching tenure, the last in 1987. In 1974, Patterson led the Bulldogs to within one game from the College World Series.

Tech radio broadcaster Dave Nitz said that when he entered Tech in 1974, Patterson became the "first coach I was really involved with. He took me in and was always like a father figure to me. . . . He was Tech through and through. Nobody loved Louisiana Tech more than he did."

Services for the Pattersons were held on October 15 at the Trinity United Methodist Church in Ruston. Interment was at Pines Memorial Cemetery in Ruston. The Pattersons had a daughter, Lee Ann Teer (born ca. 1974) and her husband, Mark Anthony Teer (born ca. 1962), of Yukon, Oklahoma, a son, James A. "Tony" Patterson (born ca. 1960) and his wife Melanie Rigney Patterson of Haughton in Bossier Parish, and a grandson, Evan James Teer. Mrs. Patterson was survived by a brother, John Charles Bates of Gulfport, Mississippi, and two sisters, Peggy Joyce Tuggle of Shreveport and Cathy Jane Dick of Chandler, Texas.

Patterson would serve as both assistant football- and head baseball coach at Tech from 1968 to 1978 and as head baseball coach only until 1990. He subsequently oversaw one more football game, having served as interim coach in 1979, when the Bulldogs posted a 13-10 win over local rival Northeast Louisiana University, now known as the University of Louisiana at Monroe, in his only game as head coach.

Former ULM football coach Pat Collins of Longview, Texas, who worked with Patterson at Tech from 1967–1979, said, "I remember nothing but good times with 'Gravy'. He was such a great friend to me and to everyone and he was the most positive individual I've ever known. He could always make something good — and often something humorous — out of any tough situation. He was a wonderful man who will be missed."

Patterson was born in Delhi in Richland Parish in northeastern Louisiana. He graduated from Louisiana Tech in 1958, playing football and baseball under legendary Bulldog coaches Joe Aillet and Berry Hinton. He earned four football letters and two baseball letters and went on to earn his master’s degree from the University of Mississippi ("Ole Miss") in 1961.

He began his coaching career in 1958 at Ouachita Parish High School in Monroe and took a job at C.E. Byrd High School in Shreveport in 1963 before he joined the Louisiana Tech athletic department in 1967 as an assistant football coach.

According to police reports, Patterson was overcome with grief for his wife, the former Glenda Bates (born ca. 1936), an Alzheimer's patient at the Arbor House assisted-care facility near Ruston. He went into the building on October 11, shot Mrs. Patterson to death, and then turned the gun on himself. Lincoln Parish Sheriff Mike Stone said that no one else was attacked in the commission of the crime.

James E. "Gravy" Patterson, also known as Pat Patterson, (March 26, 1934 – October 11, 2007) was head baseball coach at Louisiana Tech University, in Ruston, from 1968 to 1990 and compiled a 741-462-2 record. Patterson produced eighteen winning seasons in twenty-three years, and his teams won forty or more games in five of those years. He was Conference Coach of the Year seven times.