Wheelchair basketball coach Robb Taylor’s career at Auburn started with a story. A story that ended with two simple words.
While Robb Taylor and his family were at Auburn for his interview for the head coach position, they met an older couple at the Auburn Hotel. The couple shared their passion for Auburn and their desire to return and retire to the Loveliest Village on the Plains.
As Taylor and his family left for their room that night, the older couple simply left him with two lasting words, “Welcome home.”
Those two words left such an impression on Taylor that he repeats them to every recruit that comes to visit hoping that they have the same effect.
Taylor kicked off the eighth-annual Auburn Family Friday Speaker Series this past Friday with those same words.
“I try to tell this story any time I speak with anyone in the hopes that if you were that couple, I want to say thank you to you,” Taylor said. “If it weren’t for you, I don’t know if I’d be here.”
Auburn’s adapted athletics program started in 2008, and its wheelchair basketball program started in 2009 when it had enough players to form a full team. Auburn is one of the three SEC teams to have a wheelchair basketball team and is the only co-ed team.
The team is housed at Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum, where Coach Taylor encouraged the audience to attend for their next home tournament. Even though Auburn is one of the newest teams to join the division, last year they finished No. 9 in the country.
“The court that Charles Barkley dominated on, is now the court that we try to dominate on,” Taylor said.
Taylor first came to Auburn University in 2016. He came with a mission to build the program to new heights, which he believes he’s done, but he said he still has a great deal in mind for its future.
According to Taylor, Auburn has been getting some express interest from some female high school students with an interest in forming a women’s wheelchair basketball team.
There has also been talk with the United States Tennis Association about creating a wheelchair tennis team at Auburn, as well as some interest from current students about starting power soccer and adapted waterski teams.
Taylor has won two gold medals as an assistant head coach at the Paralympics, and he is hoping to get a third in Tokyo.
His first was in Beijing with the woman’s team and his second in Rio with the men’s team.
“Coaches do not receive medals at the Olympic or Paralympic games,” he said. “The golds that I’m wearing are definitely not mine. I had to give them back to the guys that won the medals, but they were kind enough to let me wear them for two minutes.”
Taylor ended his presentation urging the audience to attend their first home tournament of the season from Oct. 12-13, and of course, by saying “Welcome home.”
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