Homer Drew: A Life in Basketball -- Small college sent a coach on his way

Taken on a St. Louis-area playground in early spring, 1958, the black-and-white image has frozen the boy in time.

He is a few months past his 13th birthday. He wears blue jeans, rolled up at the cuffs. His button-down, striped shirt is tucked neatly into his waist. He is kempt in a way that a mother would love, his only concession to boyhood his pair of white canvas Converse All-Star basketball shoes.

Well, that and the ball, soaring a few feet above his outstretched arm. The boy is on a playground, driving to the rim on a concrete court enclosed by a chain-link fence. The shutter has suspended the basketball at a height of about eight feet for posterity, but there is little doubt what happened next.

"Master of the bank shot," reads the biography written up decades later by his future college.

"He could really use the board," said Larry Holley, Homer Drew's future college teammate. "He just had such a soft touch."

Entering his 21st year as the head basketball coach at Valparaiso University, most of Homer Drew's career milestones are behind him at this point. He coached his 1,000th game last year. He also picked up his 600th victory. The captivating Sweet 16 run by his team in the 1998 NCAA tournament is now 11 years in the rearview. He already has been succeeded by one son. That lasted a year. A second one waits in the wings.

"He was strong, he was a good defender," Holley said. "Wasn't the fastest or the quickest, but he was focused and smart. A coach on the floor."

A Jewell of a player

It all began in the town in the photo -- Webster Groves, Mo. Drew was a standout at Webster Groves High School, one of the larger schools in the St. Louis area, a few years after that afternoon. He realized that he didn't want his playing days to end there, so he began searching for a place to play in college. There were two options. One was Washington University, in St. Louis.

The other was William Jewell College, a school of about 1,600 people in Liberty, Mo., up the road a ways from Webster Groves. He chose William Jewell.

"Just to get away," Drew said.

When Drew's college coach, Jim Nelson, spoke, his players listened. So when Nelson, who also coached tennis, informed his starting basketball guard that he was one player short, what choice did Drew have?

"I had never played tennis in my life until they needed someone," Drew said. "The competitive fire kicked in that, I'm gonna do better than what I otherwise could. I'm hitting balls all over the fences and so I said, 'I'm going to at least learn how to stroke the ball.' So I spent time at it, but the love and the passion was with basketball."

It showed. Drew was a backup guard as a freshman, then moved into the starting lineup his sophomore season. He would stay there for the rest of his college years.

As a senior, Drew led William Jewell in points, rebounds and assists. A 43-point game that year against Central Methodist stood as the school record for 10 years, and he graduated as his college's fifth-leading all-time scorer.

His 1,261 points still puts him in William Jewell's all-time top 25, more than 40 years after he last hoisted a shot.

Having a hoops passion

But Homer Drew of William Jewell College was more than just a basketball player, more than just a tennis novice. He joined a fraternity. He even found time to play a little piano.

"He was pretty complete," Holley said. "He had some musical talent. He could play the piano. He could sing a little bit. He was a great example for me."

Despite all his other interests, however, Drew's real love was basketball. He was named an honorable mention NAIA All-American his last three seasons, and even earned a tryout invitation from the NBA's Baltimore Bullets. But by that time, his interest wasn't in playing the game; it was in teaching it. Drew's high school coach, Tyke Yates, and Nelson encouraged him to consider that route, and Drew and his teammate Holley, who has now been William Jewell's head coach for more than three decades, would plot their futures in the game on bus rides back from road games.

Drew's path from that bus seat to Valparaiso's Athletics-Recreation Center would begin soon after, taking him to nearly every corner of the United States map.

HOMER DREW | A LIFE IN BASKETBALL

More inside

See a timeline of Homer Drew's life, including his rise in the coaching world. PAGE B10

Read scouting reports for today's VU men's and women's preseason games. PAGE B11

Editor's note: This is the first of a four-part series on Valparaiso University men's basketball coach Homer Drew, and his lifetime of work in the game of basketball. Read how Drew began his coaching career in Monday's Times.

Homer Drew timeline

1944 Homer Drew is born in St. Louis, Mo.

1962 Graduates from Webster Groves High School near St. Louis.

1966 Graduates from William Jewell College in Liberty, Mo. Three-time NAIA honorable mention All-American. Also letters in tennis.

1966 Takes graduate assistant coaching position at Washington University in St. Louis. Begins working toward masters degree in education.

1967 Marries wife Janet.

1970 First child, Scott, is born.

1971-72 Spends season as an assistant coach at Washington State University in Pullman, Wash.

1972-76 Assistant coach at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, La.

1976 Takes first head coaching job at Bethel College in Mishawaka.

1987 Leaves Bethel after 11 seasons and 252 victories for head coaching job Indiana University-South Bend.

1988 Takes the head coaching job at Valparaiso University.

1993-94 Crusaders win 20 games for the first time under Homer Drew, and will do so in eight of the final nine years of his first stint at the school.

1995-96 Valparaiso wins the Mid-Continent Conference tournament and regular-season titles. The Crusaders advance to the NCAA tournament for the first time.

1997-98 Behind Drew's youngest son, Bryce, the Crusaders advance to the Sweet Sixteen round of the NCAA tournament. Highlight of Bryce hitting game-winning shot against Ole Miss in the first round is a frequently played highlight in March to this day.

2002 Drew retires from coaching, leaving the program to his son Scott.

2003-04 Scott leaves after one season for Baylor University. Homer Drew returns to the bench at Valparaiso, wins 18 games and leads the Crusaders to the NCAA tournament for the seventh time.

2007-08 In first year in the Horizon League, Valparaiso wins 22 games, its highest victory total since 2001-02, and finishes fourth in the conference. Crusaders invited to the postseason College Basketball Invitational tournament.

2009 Homer Drew wins his 600th game as a college head coach.