The cowboy hat became the trademark of highly successful Hudson Valley Community College women’s basketball and volleyball coach Paul Bishop, who died last Tuesday at 88 years old.
Even his wife wasn’t certain why Bishop began wearing the hat, either straw or black felt.
“That predates me,” said Kate Bishop, who was married to Paul for 35 years. “I don’t know why. I think someone gave him one and he just took to it. He was wearing the cowboy hat when I met him.”
They were introduced in 1986 at Rolls Touring Company, a Troy bar where Paul Bishop worked part-time as a bartender when he wasn’t building HVCC into basketball and volleyball powerhouses.
Bishop guided the Vikings to the 1993 NJCAA women’s basketball national championship with a roster that included All-American Christy Squires, a former Hoosic Valley star.
“We never, ever saw him without a cowboy hat on,” said Squires, who’s married with two sons with a horse farm in Stillwater. “He was from North Carolina, but I don’t know if he ever set his butt on the back of a horse.”
Bishop, born in Asheville, N.C., died in his home state surrounded by family while vacationing in North Carolina’s Outer Banks.
“We were very, very blessed to know that we were with him,” Kate Bishop said. “He was born in North Carolina and it was at the ocean and it brought us peace. He absolutely loved the ocean.”
But Bishop made his home in Troy after serving as an Army private stationed in Germany during the Korean War. He moved to New York to be near his sister, who lived in the Troy area. He worked a variety of jobs, including roofing and laying rugs, before eventually landing at HVCC and starting the women’s basketball and volleyball programs there in 1971.
“He absolutely loved the sport, loved the competition, loved to support the players,” Kate Bishop said. “It…
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