Inductees

You can make a case that Mark Edwards and Washington University in St. Louis took a chance on each other and it worked out beautifully.

There he was in 1981, 35 years old and already an NCAA Division I assistant coach but being asked by university officials to return home. The mission? Oh, just dust off a men’s basketball program that had been dormant for almost a decade.

“You had to make sure they wanted to do it the right way,” Edwards said.

The University funded it financially, and he funded it with wins – a ton of them, actually, at a place with zero athletic scholarships but challenging academic expectations. Which is why the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame proudly inducted Edwards with the Class of 2018.

Over 37 years, Edwards authored one of the greatest stories in basketball history, compiling a 685-293 (.700) overall record that included back-to-back NCAA Division III national championships in 2008 and 2009.

In fact, just before retiring at the end of the 2017-2018 season, Edwards ranked fifth in active wins by NCAA D-III head coaches and ninth all-time in NCAA D-III wins.  In fact, he is just one of 12 D-III coaches to win 600 or more games in a career.

Put it this way, Edwards’ first team won only three games and yet athletic director John Schael stuck with him. Beginning in Year 4, the Bears never had a losing season.

“It took us four years to get it turned around,” Edwards said. “The big thing was, No. 1, recruiting kids who were willing to buy into the vision. They had to create it. There was no legacy there.”

A Peoria, Ill., native, Edwards had played and graduated from Washington University in the 1960s, then was drafted into the Army in 1972.

Eventually, he landed an assistant coaching role at Washington State and, after a leadership change, Edwards was retained by his new boss — none other than George Raveling, a pioneer in the sport.

“He was probably one of my top mentors,” Edwards said. “Not only did he teach a lot about basketball but how to deal with people and dealing with pressure and setting goals.”

The lessons carried over to Washington University.

Edwards’ Bears won despite a brutal travel schedule in the scholarship-less University Athletic Association, home to universities in New York City, Atlanta, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, suburban Boston and Rochester, N.Y.

“Division III is a philosophy. It’s not a status,” Edwards said. “Alumni were committed to the program and experience – the experience of student-athletes. They’re not buying championships. They’re not buying players. They like the fact we weren’t compromising academics.”

Edwards’ teams won 20  more games 18 times and advanced to 21 NCAA Tournaments, plus finished first or second some 25 of 31 times in the UAA.

Twenty athletes earned 30 All-American honors under Edwards. Along the way, they helped him receive three NCAA D-III National Coach of the Year awards and 10 UAA Coach of the Year honors.

“Championship are the greatest accomplishments but, at the same time, every team had special moments,” Edwards said. “Even that first team, when we won three games, each one was special to them.”

The 2008 team won the national title by 22 points, but it took some doing getting there. The Bears had won a tournament game in two overtimes when a shot bounced on the rim and, leaving almost everyone in the gym nearly breathless, fell in.

The 2009 team advanced after the first round when an opposing player missed a breakaway layup, the ball hitting the underside of the rim.

Even better, Schael was along for the ride every season and retired in 2018 as well.

“Credit Schael,” Edwards said. “He had a lot of pressure to bring in one of the local high school coaches (in 1981). And I had never been a head coach. But they (the administration) believed in me and gave me a chance.”

Edwards also appreciates his wife of 46 years, Mary, for “being a big part of our success, too.” They are parents of Kari and Todd and four grandchildren.

He has been inducted into the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame and the Washington University Sports Hall of Fame.

“It’s been a great ride,” Edwards said. “I’m humbled by being inducted into the Hall of Fame. It’s been a wonderful to be able to coach the sport I love, and I did because so many people made it possible.”