IBCA E-Newsletter

A roundtable of former coaches is one of the items planned for the 2022 IBCA Clinic. This year’s panel is planned to feature this trio of coaches – Tom Megyesi, John Milholland and Marvin Tudor. They will offer their expertise on building programs that stand the test of time.

Here is more information about each of the panelists.

Tom Megyesi

Tom Megyesi accomplished pretty much everything a basketball coach could hope to attain during his time on the sidelines in Indiana gymnasiums.

• Indiana high school championship – check, in 1994 with the Lake Central Indians.
• Indiana All-Star players – check, check and check, with Kristina Divjak in 1995 as well as Kelly Komara and Kelly Kuhn in 1998.
• An Indiana Miss Basketball – check, with Komara in 1998.
• Indiana All-Star coach – check, in 1995.
• A second act as a college head coach – check, from 2007 through 2019 at Purdue University-Calumet (later renamed Purdue University-Northwest) in Hammond.
• Induction into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame – check, in 2015.

All together, it was an outstanding coaching career for the Michigan native who took over leadership of the Lake Central girls’ program in the fall of 1982. In 24 seasons, Megyesi led the Indians to a 370-164 record that included 11 sectional trophies, four regional titles, three semi-state crowns and the aforementioned state championship. His team also was the Class 4A state runner-up in 1998 and reached the four-team State Finals in 1995. He was voted an IBCA District 1 Coach of the Year in 1994 and 1998 while collecting numerous other coach-of-the-year accolades.

Megyesi directed Washington Township High School in Valparaiso to a 10-12 mark in 2006-07 for a final Indiana high school ledger of 380-176 mark in 25 seasons, then took over the Purdue-Calumet program in the fall of 2007.

In 12 seasons at the college level, he guided the program to a 192-168 ledger with multiple 20-win seasons and being named Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in 2014. His tenure with the Peregrines included four trips to Nationals and a 185-124 mark in 10 NAIA seasons before the renamed Purdue-Northwest Pride moved to the NCAA Division II level and the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in his final two seasons.

A 1968 graduate of Okemos High School in Michigan, Megyesi attended Michigan State University and earned his bachelor’s degree in 1974. He later earned a master’s degree from Michigan State in 1982. He was a junior high teacher for five years and a high school varsity coach for one year in Waterford, Mich., before moving to Indiana. He came to Lake Central as a teacher in 1980-81 and became the school’s varsity girls basketball coach starting in 1982-83.

Megyesi and his wife, Jan, have been married for 50 years. The couple has three adult children – Lori, Mike and Mark – and five grandchildren.

John Milholland

John Milholland was an outstanding player, an outstanding coach and an outstanding administrator, and he eagerly shares lessons he learned from throughout his playing, coaching and professional careers.

Milholland is well known in Indiana as the boys’ basketball coach at Frankfort, where he compiled a 286-133 record in 18 seasons that included eight sectional championships, two regional titles and five conference crowns. His overall coaching record is 381-214 in 26 seasons at five schools as a varsity coach. Together, his teams won nine sectionals, two regionals and seven conference championships.

A 1954 graduate of Westville High School in Illinois, where he played for legendary coach Virgil Sweet (before Sweet coached at Valparaiso), Milholland was a high school star who matriculated to Eastern Illinois University and graduated in 1958.

While at EIU, he scored a then-school-record 1,655 points that still ranks seventh on the Panthers’ all-time list. He was a three-time all-conference player in college, was chosen to the all-tournament team in the NAIA Nationals in 1957 and averaged 20.4 points for his college career – still the school’s second-best all-time average. In 2010, he was named to the EIU All-Century Team.

After college, Milholland began his coaching career in 1958-59 as an assistant coach at Chesterton. He was the Trojans’ head coach in 1959-60, then he followed as head coach at Middlebury for two seasons, Thorntown for one season and Whiteland for four seasons before taking over at Frankfort for the 1967-68 season. He guided the Hot Dogs for 18 years, becoming the school’s second-winningest coach (behind Everett Case) and having the floor in Case Arena named for him at John Milholland Court. He was an IBCA District 3 Coach of the Year in 1977 and 1985.

Milholland, who earned advanced degrees from Indiana University in 1965 and 1974, also was an assistant principal from 1973 through 1990. He then served as the Frankfort principal from 1990 through 2001 to complete a 43-year career in education (1958-2001). He also has been active with the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, serving several years on its executive committee, a two-year term as its president and currently as a director emeritus.

Milholland was inducted into EIU Athletic Hall of Fame in 1986, into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000 into the Frankfort High School Hall of Fame in 2019 and into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame as a player in 2021. He currently is employed by Joe Risse Realty.

Milholland and his wife, Connie, have been married for 62 years. They have two daughters, Lisa and Susan, and four grandsons.

Marvin Tudor

Marvin Tudor guided three Indiana high school basketball teams to 11 sectional championships and one regional crown during a 17-year varsity coaching career that spanned from 1961 to 1978. During stops at Triton Central, Plymouth and Huntington North, his teams were noted for solid defense and a well-organized offense en route to compiling a 292-108 record with 16 winning seasons.

Tudor is a 1956 graduate of Eminence High School, where he scored 1,162 points and led Morgan County in scoring as both a junior and senior with respective 22- and 23-point averages. He played his first three seasons for the Eels under coach Larry Cline. After the Eminence gym burned down in a fire in the spring of 1955, Tudor and the Eels had all practices and games at either Monrovia or Stilesville during his senior year while playing for coach Bill Fisher.

Tudor’s efforts in high school earned him a four-year tuition scholarship to Butler University, where he played four seasons for Hall of Fame coach Tony Hinkle and graduated in 1960. For the Bulldogs, Tudor was a backup player but noted that he “learned a lot from the bench and during practice.”

After college, Tudor spent one season as an assistant coach at Mooresville before beginning his varsity coaching career in the fall of 1961 at Triton Central. His first two teams worked hard, and his third and fourth group of Tigers went a combined 41-4 before falling in the sectional to No. 1-ranked Columbus in 1964 and Shelbyville in 1965. Tudor moved to Plymouth for the next two seasons, guiding the Pilgrims to a 38-10 mark and a sectional title in 1967.

He then went to Huntington North, succeeding Hall of Fame coach Bob Straight. In 11 seasons there, Tudor’s squad lost its sectional opener in 1968 but the Vikings followed with 10 sectional trophies in a row. They also won the 1969 Kokomo Regional before falling 55-52 to undefeated Marion in that year’s Fort Wayne Semi-State.

Tudor then became the Huntington North athletic director from 1978-86 and followed by serving six years as assistant principal at Riverview Middle School in Huntington. He completed his 42 years in education with a 10-year assignment as principal of Riverview Middle School, retiring in 2002.

While coaching, Tudor noted that he attended numerous clinics, especially any clinic where John Wooden was on the agenda. He also worked multiple camps, including the Indiana University camp for Bob Knight for several years.

“We ran the ‘Hinkle System,’ of course, but we also ran other plays,” Tudor said. “I wanted our teams to shoot a lot of free throws, so I stressed getting to the basket and making sure we rebounded well. We picked up ideas from other coaches whenever we could. We used some of them, and we didn’t use some of them.”

During his coaching tenure, Tudor was one of the 12 coaches who helped found the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association in 1971, serving on the IBCA Board of Directors and as the IBCA president in 1977-78. He was named IBCA District 2 Coach of the Year in 1974, and he was presented an IBCA Virgil Sweet Award in 2002.

Tudor was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000 and later became involved with the Hall of Fame’s committees. He served on its board of directors from 2003-07, as secretary from 2007-09, as executive vice president from 2009-11 and as president from 2011-13. He remains a Hall of Fame director emeritus.

Tudor and his wife, Jeanette, have been married 63 years. They have two daughters, Kathy and Cindy, as well as four grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.

IBCA CLINIC “ROUND-TABLE PANELISTS”

The IBCA added a “Coaches Round-Table” to the agenda for its annual spring clinic in 2011. Here is a list of panelists over the years.

• 2011: Jim East (Chester Center, Connesville, Lawrenceburg, Merrillville, HOF inductee 2008); George Griffith (South Bend LaSalle, Richmond, HOF inductee 1997); Jim Jones (Springs Valley, Princeton, Terre Haute North, Springs Valley, HOF inductee 2000)
• 2012: Mike Broughton (Hebron, Rushville, Castle, Jeffersonville, HOF inductee 2012); Jim Miller (Cloverdale, Penn, Kokomo Haworth, Warsaw, Huntington North, New Albany, HOF inductee 2004); Ed Siegel (Stillwell, Southwestern-Shelby, Boonville, Pike, HOF inductee 1997)
• 2013: Stan Benge (Ben Davis, IUPUI, Roncalli, Ben Davis, HOF inductee 2012); Gene Miiller (Kankakee Valley, Vincennes Lincoln, Lafayette Jeff, Washington, HOF inductee 2012); Bill Springer (Linden, Seeger, Brazil, Indianapolis Shortridge, Jennings County, Bloomington South, Southport, HOF inductee 2001)
• 2014: Sam Alford (Monroe City, South Knox, Martinsville, New Castle, Missouri State, University of Iowa, HOF inductee 2002); Jim Irwin (Bluffton, Southern Wells, Salem, Eastbrook); Donna Sullivan (Seymour, HOF inductee 2002)
• 2015: Larry Angle (Rushville, Carmel, Tipton, Greenfield-Central, Indian Creek, HOF inductee 2010); Tom May (Crown Point, HOF inductee 2009); Pat Rady (Bainbridge, Winchester, Southmont, Shelbyville, Terre Haute South, Cloverdale, HOF inductee 2002)
• 2016: Jack Colescott (Swayzee, Marion, HOF inductee 1997), Myron Dickerson (Royerton, Connersville, Muncie Northside, HOF inductee 1995); Bob Kirkhoff (Roncalli, HOF inductee 2012)
• 2017: John Heaton (Eastern Greene, Southwestern-Shelby, Silver Creek, Shelbyville, HOF inductee 2018); Wayne Kreiger (Columbia City, Fort Wayne Canterbury, South Adams, HOF inductee 2006); Don Lustutter (Indianapolis Arlington, Rushville, Lafayette Jeff, Madison)
• 2018: Steve Brett (Bloomfield, Seymour, Loogootee, Shakamak, HOF inductee 2018); Mike Griffin (Brownsburg, HOF inductee 2016); Dan Gunn (NorthWood, Harrison-West Lafayette, Penn, Marion, NorthWood, Edwardsburg (Mich.))
• 2019: Dave Clark (Switz City Central/White River Valley, Franklin); Charles Denbo (Vallonia, Brownstown Central, Crothersville, Orleans, HOF inductee 2004); Roger Schroder (Indianapolis Marshall, Indianapolis Broad Ripple, HOF inductee 2015)
• 2020: scheduled, but clinic canceled (COVID-19 pandemic): Charles Mair (North Posey, Princeton, HOF inductee 2022); Dave Nicholson (New Ross, Darlington, Benton Central, Noblesville, HOF inductee 1999); Virgil Sweet (Westville (Ill.), Valparaiso, HOF inductee 1987)
• 2021: Charles Mair (North Posey, Princeton, HOF inductee 2022); Dave Nicholson (New Ross, Darlington, Benton Central, Noblesville, HOF inductee 1999); Virgil Sweet (Westville (Ill.), Valparaiso, HOF inductee 1987)
• 2022: Tom Megyesi (Waterford Mott (Mich.), Lake Central, Washington Township, Purdue-Calumet/Purdue-Northwest, HOF inductee 2015); John Milholland (Chesterton, Middlebury, Thorntown, Whiteland, Frankfort, HOF inductee 2000); Marvin Tudor (Triton Central, Plymouth, Huntington North, HOF inductee 2000)