National, basketball: Homer Drew — a national hall entered from a Bethel first chapter

National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, 24 November 2019 · NCCAA Hall of Fame, 2003 · Bethel's own hall, 1998

The career began here: Homer Drew's head-coaching life began in Mishawaka. Bethel College hired him in 1976, and in eleven seasons he won 252 games against 110 losses — 84 more wins than the program had managed in the eighteen seasons before him — took Bethel to the first national championship game in its history (the NCCAA final of 1981) and was the NCCAA's national coach of the year in 1980. From Bethel he went one season to Indiana University South Bend and then to Valparaiso, where the fame was completed. His halls came in the order of the life: Bethel's own hall took him in 1998, while he was still coaching; the National Christian College Athletic Association's Hall of Fame took him in 2003, on the association's own record; and on 24 November 2019, at Kansas City, he was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in the class of 2019 — with Shane Battier, Calbert Cheaney, Ernie DiGregorio, Terry Dischinger, Larry Johnson and Todd Lichti among the players and Lute Olson and Rick Majerus among the coaches. One negative belongs with the entry: no induction into the NAIA's own hall of fame stands in the record reached for Drew, though the NAIA was Bethel's association — the Bethel chapter of his life is honoured by Bethel's hall, the NCCAA's and the national collegiate hall, and the list is printed complete rather than rounded up.

Sources:

1. National Association of Basketball Coaches / National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame — the Class of 2019 and the enshrinement of 24 November 2019 at Kansas City (the class as announced 2 April 2019).
2. National Christian College Athletic Association (thenccaa.org), the association's own Hall of Fame page — "Homer Drew (2003)," with the Bethel record of 252–110 from 1976.
3. Valparaiso University athletics and the Regional Radio Sports Network — the Bethel College Hall of Fame induction of 1998, the Bethel seasons and the 1981 NCCAA final.