Assistant coach Paul Graham was Kimball’s first Black head coach in 1975 and the first to hold the trophy after the school won its ninth state title.
Assistant coach Paul Graham was Kimball’s first Black head coach in 1975 and the first to hold the trophy after the school won its ninth state title.Kimball head coach Nicke Smith hugs former Kimball Coach Paul Graham, who lifts the championship trophy, after a victory over Fort Bend Crawford in the Class 4A Division I boys basketball state championship game in San Antonio, Friday, March 13, 2026.
When teams win a state championship, the tradition is for the district superintendent to hand the trophy to the head coach. Kimball boys basketball head coach Nicke Smith told Dallas ISD superintendent Dr. Stephanie Elizalde there’d be a change of plans afterGraham, 75 and Kimball’s first Black head basketball coach from 1975 to 1982, had joined Smith’s staff ahead of the 2025-26 season. As she handed Graham the trophy, Elizalde told him Kimball was built on his shoulders, and Smith said this win was for him. “They don’t know what it meant to me, for me to be standing here 50 to 55 years later at Kimball High School as a state champion and that I had something to do with it,” Graham toldGraham, more widely known around the Dallas area as “Judge,” due to his early reputation as a stern disciplinarian, went on to be an assistant coach at, where he served under Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Eddie Sutton on the same staff as Kansas coach Bill Self and former SMU coach Tim Jankovich. Graham was also the head coach at Washington State from 1999 to 2003.Every coach who succeeded him at Kimball — Jimmy Tubbs, Goree Johnson, Snoop Johnson and Nicke Smith — had at least one title. But the man who arguably laid the foundation hadn’t.AdvertisementGraham rattled off the names of fellow coaches during his era, local legends such as Jimmy Gales at South Oak Cliff, Samuel West at North Dallas and Ellis Davis at Roosevelt. The man who’d coached in Final Fours and against the likes of Tom Izzo and Mike Krzyzewski finally had the one crown that eluded him. “It was the best thing ever for me, for the program, and for him, because ever since the state championship he has just told me how appreciative he was to be back in here and for me to let him be a part of this,” Smith said. “I had no idea the impact it was going to have on him emotionally.” Skyline coach Paul Graham watches from the sidelines during the Thanksgiving Hoopfest high school basketball tournament at Sandra Meadows Arena on Saturday, Nov. 26, 2016, in Duncanville, Texas. , then returned to coaching as an assistant alongside former South Oak Cliff head coach James Mays. When Mays retired last season and Antoine Thompson was hired, Graham stepped away, not wanting to encroach on the new head coach’s time.That’s when former Kimball coach Goree Johnson approached Smith about helping the legend finish his career where it started. “Sometimes you can get an older guy that might come in and want to do some different things,” Smith said. “The first thing said was ‘Nicke, you guys already got the blueprint. I just want to come back to where I started.’”But in the beginning, Graham barely said a word. Smith said he thinks he went about a month’s worth of practices without speaking up. Graham was mostly observing, impressed that Kimball conducted its practices like the college programs he oversaw for 30 years.“What makes me feel good is they respect my opinion,” Graham said. “Maybe it’s because I’m 75 years old, but the players, they’ll come to me and ask, ‘Coach what you see?’ ‘Coach, what you think?’” Graham opened up more as players and coaches turned to him for guidance, including Smith, who came to see him as a father figure. “He says things that I know my dad would say, and I needed him more than he probably needed this,” Smith said. “I told the team, everybody has to have their ‘why.’ Every year, I look for something that is the reason I’m going to do this, this is what we’re doing it for. And I said I’m doing it for the Judge.”Skyline head coach Paul Graham is all smiles as he holds his team's regional championship trophy following their come from behind victory over Klein Forest in the Class 6A Region ll boys championship at Ellis Davis Field House in Dallas on March 4, 2017. Skyline finished 34-2 that season after losing in triple overtime in the Class 6A semifinals to eventual champion Cypress Falls. Skyline boys basketball coach Paul Graham, who reached a UIL and NCAA Final Four, will retire at the end of the season “I would take nothing less than perfection, because I knew what it was going to take to win this thing,” Smith said. “I told the boys, ‘I’m not going to let Coach Graham down, so you can’t either.’ “I’m a part of a legacy, and I wanted the kids to understand that they’re part of a legacy, that there’s tradition there and I wanted to bridge the gap.” Ahead of their game against Lincoln on Jan. 3, Smith further honored that legacy by inviting every living former Kimball head coach to be recognized, including Graham and the head coach before him, Pete Brown, who’s in his 80s, Smith said. Former DeSoto head coach Chris Dyer attended in honor of Jimmy Tubbs, under whom he coached and who died in 2009.On Saturday turned out well! Thank you Coach Pete Brown, Coach Paul Graham, Coach Dyer , Family of Coach Jimmy Tubbs, Coach Goree Johnson and Coach Snoop Johnson for attending! Kimball Legends 1969-2026“I wanted to show my appreciation for opening the door for guys after them and for guys like me,” Smith said. “They don’t realize the things they did in motivating me. To be able to even try and fill their shoes is hard.”As the team’s season became centered on honoring the past, Graham was at the heart of it. Kimball won every playoff game by an average of 25 points, including a 20-point win in the 4A Division I state championship. Smith saw his team take on what he set out to do. “I couldn’t be more proud of a group of young men,” he said, “for putting their egos aside to do something for somebody.”2026 Jesuit-Sheaner Relays track meet: See individual marks, team standingsIshmael Johnson is a high school sports reporter covering the D-FW area for The Dallas Morning News. He joined in December 2025 after 10 years combined previously working at Dave Campbell's Texas Football and the San Marcos Daily Record. He graduated from Texas State University and is from Manor, TX.
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