MORRILTON — The John Widner Memorial Devil Dog Open, a three-person scramble to raise money to name the court at the new Devil Dog Arena in honor of the former Morrilton coach, raised nearly $25,000 last month.
“We wound up with 24 teams, and it turned out to be a really good time,” said John Hoyt, secretary-treasurer of the committee that is spearheading efforts to raise the $50,000 needed to officially name the court at the still-under-construction Devil Dog Arena the Coach John Widner Court.
“We always want more, but for this size community, that’s a pretty good haul for any
tournament.”
Widner, who died in 1995, was one of the winningest coaches in Arkansas basketball history. According to the group’s website, coachjohnwidnercourt.weebly.com, his overall record for 36 years was 875-197. He led the Devil Dog program for 14 seasons, taking MHS to six consecutive state championship games and winning the 1973 title to finish with a 32-3 record.
His Devil Dog record was 344-64 while taking the team to the state tournament 13 consecutive seasons.
Hoyt, who worked as a Devil Dog assistant under Widner, said that while fundraising efforts would continue — and the golf tournament will become an annual event, the John Widner Memorial — school officials had “agreed to put the name on the floor because we’re so close to our goal.”
“We will pay them back as money comes in,” he said. “We knew it was going to happen if it had to come out of our own pockets. It was considered done when we had our committee formed.”
Among those playing in the tournament was Joe Foley, the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame women’s basketball coach at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
“It was a blast,” he said. “We had a great turnout, a lot of ex-players, a lot of coaches who had worked under him. It was good to see all of them, just a great time remembering everything that happened under Coach Widner — the state tournaments, different things that happened to us. Just a lot of fun.”
Foley, who led Arkansas Tech’s Golden Suns to NAIA national championships in 1992 and ’93 and an NCAA Division II national runner-up finish in 1999, is 745-234 overall and has led the Little Rock Trojans to 20-win seasons 10 of the past 11 years, including four NCAA Tournament berths. The program was all but dead when he arrived.
But he said he owed his start — and much of his career — to Widner.
“Coach and I were some kind of kin way back,” said Foley, who, like Widner, grew up in Alpena. “He knew my folks, and that’s who everybody told me I needed to get under when I was practice-teaching at [the
University of Central Arkansas]. So I called him and went and visited, and he said, ‘We’ll take care of you,’ and he did.
“When I got there, Coach Hoyt walked in, and Coach Widner told him, ‘We’ve got a practice teacher, and I want you to take care of him.’ Coach Hoyt said, ‘We don’t need any practice teacher,’ but Coach Widner said, ‘He’s my relative; take care of him.’ I was very fortunate that my dad did know him, and fortunate that he agreed to take me. That started a whole new deal for me.”
Foley student-taught under Widner at Morrilton in 1978.
“When I walked in and they started doing all their drills, I realized I didn’t know anything about this game,” he said. “So from the second day, I carried a notebook. I figured out real quick I didn’t know how to coach.”
Foley earned his degree at UCA in 1979, but there wasn’t an opening at Morrilton under Widner, so his first job came at Oxford in Izard County.
“It was the smallest school in the state, and it came down to the middle of the summer, but I finally got a job,” Foley said. “Coach Widner helped me get it. I told him, ‘Whenever you have a job open, I want it; you call me.’ I went to Oxford and coached boys and girls, junior and senior high, for two years and had a lot of success, but then the phone rang, and Coach Widner said, ‘Joe, I’ve got a spot if you want it.’
“I resigned that day and told them I was gong to Morrilton to work under Coach Widner.”
The attraction, Foley said, was he knew he could continue to learn from his mentor.
“I didn’t care where I was; I just knew I needed to be under him,” Foley said. “That’s what set my career apart.”
Under Widner’s tutelage, Foley coached Morrilton
seventh- and eighth-graders for a year, then ninth-graders, then worked as Widner’s assistant before the older man accepted the Arkansas Tech men’s job in 1984 and took Foley with him to Russellville. After three years and an Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference championship — Tech’s first since 1962 — Widner resigned.
Foley said at that point, he was still in his 20s, so he didn’t think he was ready for the head coaching job. He hoped to stay on as an assistant, but meanwhile, the women’s job opened. With two years of coaching girls at Oxford, he got the position.
“That changed my entire career,” Foley said.
The biggest thing he learned from Widner, Foley said, didn’t concern basketball strategy.
“It wasn’t about X’s and O’s; it was about people,” he said. “Coach Widner taught me how to motivate and understand people. You win with how you get your kids to play, not with the schemes.
“The first thing I learned was to care about people. That’s where Coach was so good. His kids loved him and were always so loyal. The kids could tell he loved them. He took care of his coaches. He always taught me when hiring coaches to look for loyalty — you can teach them what they can do on the floor.
“That’s the way Coach was, the reason everybody loved him, the reason he’s getting this floor. Everybody wants to get something done for Coach.”
For more information or to contribute to the fundraising effort, visit coachjohnwidner.weebly.com, which includes contact information for the committee members.