Bob Vanatta dies at 98

Coach Bob Vanatta, the architect of back-to-back NAIA national basketball championships for the Missouri State Bears in 1952 and 1953, died Saturday in Jupiter, Fla., at the age of 98.      

Vanatta’s teams captured the imagination of the entire Midwest in 1952 with an unheralded bunch of players who won the Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Association title and then overcame injuries and player defections to defeat Central Methodist College in the NAIA District 16 playoffs and take a depleted roster to the 32-team  national tournament at Kansas City’s Municipal Auditorium. In the national meet, the Bears beat Chadron (Neb.) State, Indiana State, Morningside, Texas State and Murray State in a six-night span and finished the season 27-5.

The 1953 Bears’ roster underwent a notable personnel overhaul but repeated its league title, swept Missouri Valley College for the district title, and returned to Kansas City for consecutive victories over Gonzaga, Stetson, Nebraska Wesleyan, Indiana State and Hamline for a repeat crown. The semifinal win over Indiana State included one of the most storied events in Bears’ athletics history as MSU had five players foul out of the contest in the second half and had to play the last three minutes with only four players on the floor. The famed “Fabulous Four” broke from a tie game for a six-point win over the Sycamores and reclaimed the crown the next night to finish with a 24-4 mark.

Coupled with a 22-3 record in 1950-51, Vanatta finished his three-year stint at MSU 73-12 and his .859 career winning percentage is the best of any Bears’ coach who held the post more than one season.

Vanatta went on to coach at Missouri, Memphis State, Army, Bradley and Delta State and was later commissioner of three different conferences as well as director of athletics at Oral Roberts University and Louisiana Tech University.

He was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 1989 and his two championship MSU teams were inducted in 2015. He was in the inaugural class of the Missouri State Athletics Hall of Fame in 1975 and was inducted into the Springfield Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1993.