It is with great enthusiasm and excitement that Small College Basketball announces the inaugural Hall of Fame Class of inductees into the Small College Basketball Hall of Fame.

The 2016 Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will be held on Thursday, Nov. 17 at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana. Fans may purchase tickets/tables to the Hall of Fame Induction through the following link, www.HoFClassic.com, or by calling 812-421-2212.

“It is an absolute thrill to announce the inaugural class for the Small College Basketball Hall of Fame,” said Hall of Fame and SCB Founder John McCarthy.  “This class represents the best of the best in the history of small college basketball, and it is with great pleasure that we announce this class.”

A pair of University of Evansville legends are in the inaugural class as former coaching legend Arad McCutchan and player Jerry Sloan are in the inaugural class.

Sloan was a three-time United Press International Small College All-American each year from 1963-65; he was also a two-time Associated Press Little College All-American as a junior and senior.  He was a member of Evansville’s 1964 and 1965 NCAA Championship Teams and was the NCAA Championship Most Outstanding Player in both seasons.

A member of the NCAA Elite Eight 50th Anniversary Team, he holds the NCAA Championship game rebounding mark with 25.  He scored 1,320 career points, an average of 15.7 per game.  He also averaged 12.4 rebounds per contest.  Sloan went on to play for the Chicago Bulls from 1965-76 where he was a 2-time NBA All-Star.  His #4 jersey was also retired by the Bulls.  He went onto a stellar coaching career where he retired as the winningest coach in the history of the NBA with 1,221 career wins.  He is ahead of Pat Riley, George Karl and Phil Jackson.  In 2009, Sloan was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.

Another member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and joining Sloan in the inaugural SCB class is Arad McCutchan.  The legend was the first small college coach inducted into the HOF.  He led the Purple Aces to five NCAA National Championships, including a perfect 29-0 season in 1964-65.

In his 31 seasons with the Purple Aces, McCutchan won 515 games while making 15 NCAA Tournament appearances and winning 10 regional championships.  The 2-time NCAA College Division Coach of the Year coached the United States Olympic Trial teams in 1960 and 1968.  At the time of his retirement, McCutchan joined John Wooden as the only two coaches in college basketball history to win at least five NCAA Championships.

For more information about Small College Basketball, please visit the website at www.smallcollegebasketball.com.

Players

  • Dr. Dick Barnett (Tennessee A&I)
  • Bevo Francis (Rio Grande)
  • John Ebeling (Florida Southern)
  • Travis Grant (Kentucky State)
  • Bob Hopkins (Grambling)
  • Lucious Jackson (Pan American College)
  • Phil Jackson (North Dakota)
  • Earl Monroe (Winston-Salem State)
  • Willis Reed (Grambling)
  • John Rinka (Kenyon)
  • Jerry Sloan (Evansville)

Coaches

  • Clarence Gaines (Winston-Salem State)
  • Arad McCutchan (Evansville)
  • John McLendon (North Carolina College, Hampton, Tennessee A&I, Kentucky State & Cleveland State)

Contributor

  • Dr. James Naismith

The SCB Hall of Fame committee consists of: Don Landry, former head coach/AD/commissioner, Roy Pickerill, SID Kentucky Wesleyan and NCAA Elite 8 media coordinator, Pat Coleman, owner of D3hoops.com, Doug Palm, NCAA DIII historian, Rick Zvosec, former collegiate head coach, Gary Pine, Azusa Pacific AD, Steve Shepherd, AD and head basketball coach at College of the Ozarks, Gary Stewart, head coach at Stevenson University, Jerry Dunn, head coach at Tuskegee, Matt Simms, executive director of USCAA, Mike Lightfoot, head coach at Bethel (Ind.), Mike Hall, commissioner of Southern States Athletic Conference and former chair of NCAA DII national basketball committee and Bob Guptil, former SID at Great Northwest Athletic Conference.

In terms of criteria for selection into the Small College Basketball Hall of Fame, the committee used the following basic guidelines:

  • Must have played, coached or contributed at the small college level (four-year, non-NCAA Division I)
  • Focus is on accomplishments/contributions specifically at the collegiate level
  • Players must be a minimum of five years removed from their final year of their collegiate career.  Coaches must be a minimum of three years removed from their last season of their coaching career.  There is no such timetable for contributors.
  • The Inaugural Class will consist of 15 members.  Subsequent classes will consist of 8-12 members.
  • Each Class will have a minimum of one inductee from each of three categories: Player, Coach and Contributor.
  • All players, coaches and contributors that have not been inducted into the Small College Basketball Hall of Fame will continue to be eligible for annual consideration, as long as they meet the above guidelines.  There is no timetable whereby candidates rotate off/out of consideration.

Information courtesy of Bob Pristash, University of Evansville Associate Athletics Director for Media Relations

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