RIP Benny Dees: Took Cowboys to NIT and NCAA Tournaments in 6 Years as Coach

When in the aftermath of taking Wyoming to the NCAA tournament, Jim Brandenburg was offered only a one-year contract to return after nine seasons and 176 victories, he quickly packed his bag, and headed to San Diego State.

And the Cowboys welcomed Benny Dees, a former Cowboy athlete himself, back to Laramie to take over for Brandenburg.

That was back in 1987.

On Tuesday, Cowboy fans, and most anybody who ever crossed paths with the affable Dees, mourned his death. He had been suffering from Parkinson’s “the last couple of years,” according to his son Josh, who played at Wyoming for his dad, and followed his father into the coaching world. He is currently at assistant coach at the College of Southern Idaho.

“The fans loved him, the players loved him,” said Wyoming Athletic Director Tom Burman, a senior at Wyoming in Dees’ first year. “He always treated people with respect. He was one of those where, when you saw him, he made you feel better about everything around you. Benny will be missed.”

Dees inherited a job with high expectations, taking over for Brandenburg, who compiled a 176-97 regular-season record in nine years with the Cowboys.

They were the kind of expectations that despite taking Wyomign to the NCAA tourament in his first year, and the NIT tournament in his fourth year, he was let go after six seasons, having compiled a .575 winning percentage in Laramie.

“Most all the people remember Benny for his one liners, caring personality and infections smile,” said Burman.

But he was a victim of his own bubbling personality, said Kevin McKinney, the Cowboys Associate Athletic Director /Internal Affairs, who was working in the Wyoming Sports Information office when Dees came back to coach at his alma mater.

“He was quite a character,” said McKinney. “He was a guy who got a bad rap with the sitiuation he inherited. Everyone expected him to win every game. He was a better goach then he was given credit for.

“He was a good guy. He loved Wyoming. He was proud to be an alum.”

He felt close enough to Wyoming that even in recent years he would unexpectedly show up at the Auditorium-Arena to root for the Cowboys.

Dees actually came to Wyoming to play baseball, but wound up playing basketball, too, where he was tutored by Ev Shelton, who coached the Cowboys to a 328-201 regular season record in a 19-year tenure that started in 1939, ended in 1959 and included a break while he served in World War II.

Shelton coached the Cowboys to the NCAA title in the 1942-43 season, and then brought credibility to what at the time was considered to be No. 2 in the pecking order to the NIT when he challenged NIT champion St. John’s to an exhibition in Madison Square Garden as a fund raiser for the Red Cross, and beat St. John’s on its home court.

Dees never lost his affection for Wyoming.

After his coaching career ended, Dees bourght a 406 acre farm in Mount Vernon, Ga., where he was born, and got into the cattle business. He, however, would show up at the Auditorium-Arena to watch Wyoming play.

“It was good to see Benny comeback in recent years to the campus,” said Burman. “Benny Dees will always be a Cowboy.”