ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – Ouachita Baptist University will recognize former men's basketball coach and 2003 Ouachita Athletic Hall of Fame inductee Bill Vining on Saturday, Jan. 30, during the dedication of the Coach Bill Vining Legacy Wall in Sturgis Physical Education Center. The ceremony will be held during halftime of the 3 p.m. men's basketball game.
 
"We are very delighted and pleased to be able to recognize and honor Coach Bill Vining for the legacy that he has left here at Ouachita Baptist University," Ouachita athletic director David Sharp said. "His tenure as a student-athlete, basketball coach and athletic director was remarkable."
 
Vining began his legacy at Ouachita in 1947, enrolling as a freshman from Eudora, Ark. Vining played both basketball and football for the Tigers for four years, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1951. As a student, Vining was senior class president, treasurer of Sigma Alpha Sigma, captain of the basketball team and a member of Who's Who Among Students in American Colleges and Universities.
 
After serving two years in the U.S. Army, Vining, just 24 years of age, returned to Ouachita in 1954 as the men's basketball coach. He coached 34 seasons at Ouachita from 1954 to 1989, compiling a record of 555 wins and 382 losses.
 
"It seemed Coach Vining put in a new offensive play every day," said Dr. Mike Reynolds, former player and assistant coach under Vining. "At my senor exit meeting, I asked him why the new stuff just about every practice and he said, 'to show you and others that I know more about this game than you do."
 
During his 34 seasons, Ouachita won six Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference (AIC) championships and six National Association of Intercollege Athletics (NAIA) District 17 titles. The 1964-65 Tiger basketball team compiled a 27-10 season record and won the AIC championship. The team also finished third in the nation in the 1965 NAIA Tournament.
 
"First and foremost, he cared about his players," said Reynolds, who currently serves as a professor in Ouachita's Department of Kinesiology and Leisure Studies. "He definitely was not a 'players coach.' He was a very demanding and tough, yet as a player, you knew he cared about you. The expression, 'I don't care how much you know, until I know how much your care' was applicable to Coach Vining. To Coach Vining, there was more to basketball than winning."
 
Vining is a five-time NAIA District 17 Coach of the Year and three-time Area V Coach of the Year. He was inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame in 1979, the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Ouachita Baptist University Athletic Hall of Fame in 2003.
 
Along with coaching at Ouachita, Vining also spent time coaching U.S. teams in international competition in Europe, Africa, Central America and South America. During the 1977 World University Games in Bulgaria, Vining served as an assistant coach for the gold-medal Team USA. He also was head coach for Team USA in the 1978 Yuri Gagarin Cup in the Soviet Union. Among U.S. basketball stars he coached in international competition were Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Sidney Moncrief.
 
"Through real life experiences," said Reynolds, "Coach Vining taught me how to strive to be a person of integrity, to treat all individuals with dignity and respect, and to cherish family and friends."
 
Vining married the former Ann Strickland, Ouachita's 1950 Homecoming queen, and had six children, all later Ouachita graduates. Vining also has 21 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren. Bill and Ann were married for 59 years until her death in 2009. He married Carolyn Davis in 2012.
 
"From 1960-1990," Reynolds said, "if you ask a basketball fan in the state of Arkansas what one word comes to mind when you say Ouachita; the answer is Vining."
 
"I want to thank everyone who was involved," Sharp said. "The donor, the former players and all those that made this possible. His name will be remembered for many, many generations to come."