He grew up playing baseball, and as a 128-pound center fielder at Bryan Adams High School, he received all-city honors in 1963.

Following his high school graduation in 1963, he enrolled at Texas Tech University, where he failed out of architecture, and moved to California to become a restaurant manager.

He got a U.S. Army draft notice in 1969, and decided to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps, completing a two-year tour of duty.

After his tour, he lived in the Los Angeles area, running a restaurant in Costa Mesa and Culver City.

Bill to earn a bachelor's degree in health and physical education with a minor in journalism from Texas Tech.

[4] He also played a year of baseball for the Red Raiders—he was a defensive center fielder with self-described poor hitting skills.

[6] When head women's basketball coach Marsha Sharp retired from Texas Tech in 2006, Blair got calls from his friends to take over the position.

[8] After winning the first state championship, he was offered the head baseball job he had been waiting for, but he turned it down to remain coaching the women's teams.

[3] Blair's first head coaching experience at the collegiate level came at Stephen F. Austin University in Nacogdoches, Texas.

The following year his team, which consisted of 9 freshmen and sophomores, won 23 games and reached the second round of the NCAA tournament.

Blair arrived at Texas A&M in 2003,[11] taking over the Big 12 Conference's worst team, which had not had a winning season in seven years.

[14] Following their successful season, Blair was named the Women's Basketball News Service National Coach of the Year.

[3] Overall, in his first three years as the head coach of the Aggies, A&M home attendance increased 156%, with a school-record 11,088 fans watching the team play Baylor University.

[14] This marked the first time in Aggie history that the women's basketball team had earned consecutive NCAA tournament berths.

[15] On February 20, 2008, Blair posted his 500th career win as a head coach at Reed Arena against the Iowa State Cyclones.

After the season, the Texas A&M Board of Regents approved a one-year contract extension through 2012, and a $150,000 salary raise to $800,000 annually.

Two days later, the Aggies defeated Notre Dame 76–70 in the championship game to win the tournament for the first time in school history.

Joe McKeown, the head women's basketball coach at Northwestern delivered the introduction speech by videotape.

[24] His credentials include 28 years of head coaching experience at Stephen F. Austin, Arkansas and Texas A&M with a 71% lifetime winning percentage, along with the 2011 Division I National Championship.

He has also held his "Celebrity Golf Classic" to benefit Special Olympics for over 15 years; recently, the program has raised over $100,000 annually.