When students go to a basketball game at Ouachita most say they are going to SPEC and do not pay attention to the actual name of the arena where the games are played or the story behind it.
Bill Vining Podcast Series
[podcast]https://www.obusignal.com/podcasts/viningworldgames.mp3[/podcast]
Part 1: Coaching around the world
[podcast]https://www.obusignal.com/podcasts/viningstrategy.mp3[/podcast]
Part 2: Strategy and OBU Athletics
[podcast]https://www.obusignal.com/podcasts/annvining.mp3[/podcast]
Part 3: Ann Vining, A Coach’s Wife
The arena is Bill Vining Arena, and for those who do not know, Vining is a legend when it comes to basketball coaches.
As a head coach for Ouachita he won more than 500 games and was regarded as one of the top offensive minds in the country.
He also coached in several international competitions serving as head coach for Team USA in the 1978 Yuri Gargarin Cup and as an assistant coach for Team USA in the 1977 World University Games. Along the way he coached such basketball greats as Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Sydney Moncrief.
Coach Vining came to Ouachita in 1947 as a football and basketball player. He was one of three freshman on the football team that year and eventually earned a basketball scholarship to help pay for his $300 tuition.
He was graduated in 1951 and soon returned to Ouachita as a coach.
“I went to school here and enjoyed it very much,” Vining said.
After college he served in the military for two years and went to one year of graduate school before returning to his alma mater to coach.
“They hired me as the head coach my first year back,” Vining said.
He was 24 when he was named head basketball coach, and in addition to coaching he helped out with football.
When he came back to Ouachita that year, not much emphasis was put on basketball. This was evident in the fact that there were no scholarships and he did not find out until halfway through football season who his team would be, because all the players were busy with football.
“His [Vining’s] hobby was to go home at night and get a pencil and pad and just doodle basketball plays,” said Mike Reynolds, a former player and assistant coach for Vining. Vining would have his team go through repetition after repetition in practice to nail down the plays.
Reynolds said that Vining said he kept putting in new offenses in order to show the players he still knew more than them.
Many of the plays that were drawn up were quite complicated, but Reynolds said Vining’s philosophy was as long as the other team was more confused than the Tigers, it was OK.
Coach Vining started his career using the Auburn shuffle, a unique offensive strategy, and it all evolved from there.
“I used to keep about 20 [players] out because I knew I needed that last five to come and work with me on a new offense, and it was almost every day,” Vining said.
“He brought pattern ball to the state,” said his wife Ann Vining.
The Tigers went though so many repetitions of plays that both Vining and Reynolds remember a reunion, after Vining won his 500th game, when all his former players could still run the offenses because they were so ingrained in their heads.
The most unique part of his offense was how plays were called.
They were not called by Coach Vining on the sideline, but by the scoreboard. The players would know what play to run by looking at their score, depending on what it was they ran the play that corresponded to that number.
There were occasions when that plan hit a snag, for instance when one player looked at the home side of the scoreboard when they were visitors or when one player could not see the scoreboard.
Despite all his creative offenses, he gives credit to defense.
“I really think defense was the difference and the reason we became a consistent winner,” Vining said.
Vining said they would run a variety of defenses “just enough to keep them off balance.”
His time at Ouachita also took him overseas. Although not with the Ouachita team, but with Team USA.
Bird and Johnson are both widely regarded as two of the top 10 basketball players of all time, and they spent some of their time under Vining.
Although he did not make it a habit, he did coach some international squads.
Along the way he worked with coaching greats Dean Smith and John Thompson.
After a little while coaching Team USA overseas he decided he had enough and told Ann “if I get a chance to go anywhere else just tell me, no.”
Sure enough he was offered a chance to go to Israel with a team. Ann let him know of her orders, but luckily he had already turned it down because of a conflict.
During his time of international coaching, he won a gold medal as an assistant coach at the 1977 World University Games as the team went 8-0 and won by an average of 64.3 points per game. In a game against Cuba, the benches cleared in a brawl with the score tied at 46 and 18 minutes left in the game.
Vining said he was very happy Bird was on his side that day. They went on to win the game 94-78.
As a head coach Vining won a silver medal at the 1978 Yuri Gargarin Cup, with a record of 5-2.
Next time you enter Bill Vining Arena take note of the name above the doors or the hall of fame plaques before you walk in and remember the excellent athletic tradition of Ouachita.
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Bill ViningJR.
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