Don Dyer’s honor stirs AIC memories
Posted on Tuesday, October 14, 2008
The basketball floor in the Duke Wells Center at Henderson State officially became Don Dyer’s court Saturday. Actually, it always was his. That’s where he created a dynasty.
This was a weekend of fascinating contrasts on the HSU campus in Arkadelphia.
The Reddies observed the rites of football season in Haygood-Carpenter Stadium against Gulf South powerhouse Valdosta State on Saturday afternoon, forcing the defending NCAA Division II champion to salvage a 27-23 victory with 20 fourth-quarter points.
Saturday morning was devoted to basketball nostalgia, specifically the Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference era that (to the intense regret of most people who remember it ) now belongs to the archives. A gathering of 200 or so in the Wells Center for the Dyer naming ceremony included at least four of his former coaching opponents — Bill Vining of Ouachita Baptist, Cliff Garrison of Hendrix, Don Nixon of Central Arkansas and Terry Garner of Lyon College.
“It’s a funny thing,” Dyer said later, reflecting on long-ago showdowns with AIC teams coached by Vining, Garrison, Nixon, Garner, Cliff Horton of UCA, Deward Dopson of Arkansas Tech, Jess Bucy of Harding, the late W. T. Watson of Southern Arkansas, the late Dick Winningham of Lyon, the late Leslie “Shorty” Beard of UA-Monticello and several others. “After we all quit coaching, we finally realized we actually liked each other.” When Dyer retired in August 1993, after 15 seasons with HSU and 14 with UCA, he had a career record of 606-277, the most men’s basketball victories ever compiled by a coach at fouryear colleges in Arkansas.
He holds the school records at Henderson State, his alma mater, (322-132 from 1963-1978 ) and at UCA (284-145, 1979-1993 ).
Dyer’s teams won or shared 12 AIC championships, which ties him for first with the late Sam Hindsman, who won one for UCA before switching to Tech and winning or sharing 11 more as the league’s dominant basketball power from 1949-1962. His Wonder Boys made nine trips to the NAIA tournament at Kansas City, Mo., twice reaching the national semifinals.
From Dyer’s first day on the job at Henderson State, he realized “good players make coaches look better,” so he became an indefatigable recruiter of almost legendary status. The telephone was his main weapon.
“I honestly believe,” one opposing coach said shortly before Dyer’s retirement, “that Don knows the names of every basketball prospect in three or four states, from junior high on up, and phones all of them every night.” At HSU, he rounded up seven NAIA All-American choices — Danny Davis, Anthony Avery, the late Enos Mitchell, Larry Bray, Lee Clay, Lou Wood, the late Larry Ducksworth — and probably seven or eight others of similar caliber. Scottie Pippen and Clifton Bush were his UCA All-Americans.
He found Ducksworth, an unknown and (except by Dyer ) unsought inside power player of enormous potential, at Norphlet in 1966. Ducksworth tied the AIC record of 56 points in his fifth or sixth game as a freshman.
Pippen, a future NBA and Olympics star, enrolled at UCA as a walk-on. Dyer took him on the recommendation of Hamburg High School Coach Donald Wayne, one of Dyer’s former HSU players.
“Coach Dyer won with all types of teams,” Wood, a Reddies point guard of the late 1960 s, said at Saturday’s ceremony. “He fitted the system to his personnel, told all the players what their roles would be and convinced them they could handle it.” In eight trips to the NAIA tournament, four each for HSU and UCA, Dyer’s teams reached the final three times, the semifinals once and the quarterfinals twice. He was the first coach to take two schools to the national final.
His 1976 HSU squad was inducted as a team Saturday into the Reddies Hall of Honor for being the first Arkansas representative to reach the NAIA title game, which it lost to Coppin State. Dyer’s 1991 and 1992 UCA teams lost in the final to Oklahoma City.
Dyer spent his career in cities with two schools. Ouachita Baptist was directly across the street at Arkadelphia, and Hendrix was across town from UCA in Conway. Dyer was most directly opposed by OBU’s Vining and Hendrix’s Garrison, 555 and 465 victories, respectively, who were operating dynasties of their own.
“It would have been nice to have had a town to myself,” Dyer said. “It sure was a tough proposition every year, playing for the championship of Arkadelphia or Conway.”
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