Southwest Baptist University Athletics

An outstanding scorer and team leader who was captain of the 1939 basketball team … Began a highly successful coaching career at Morrisville H.S. in 1941 … Had eight outstanding years as coach at Buffalo H.S. … Teams were in state tournament four times, winning the state championship in 1949 … High school coaching record was 225-52 … Coach “Eddie” became head coach at Southwest Missouri State in 1953 … In his first year, the Bears finished 22-7 and took third in the NAIA national tournament … 1957-58 team was NCAA Division II quarterfinalist (22-2) and ‘58-59 team was national runner-up (23-3) … In 11 years as coach of the Bears, his teams won three MIAA conference championships and had six All-Americans … Record at SMSU was 164-91 … Inducted into the SMSU Athletics Hall of Fame in 1978.