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November 23, 2009 - General - courtesy
MacMurray College Sports Information
FORMER MACMURRAY BASKETBALL COACH &
ADMINISTRATOR INDUCTED INTO NATIONAL COLLEGIATE BASKETBALL HALL OF FAME
 JACKSONVILLE,
Ill. – On Sunday, November 22, 2009, Bill Wall, became one of eight
members of the 2009 National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame class in
a ceremony held at the College Basketball Experience (CBE) and Sprint
Center in Kansas City, Missouri. Three key figures, Larry Bird, Earvin
“Magic” Johnson and Jud Heathcote are also among the inductees.
Wall was MacMurray’s first basketball
coach and successfully led the Highlanders for eighteen basketball
seasons (1957-75). He was instrumental in providing positive guidance
and instruction during the formative years of MacMurray Athletics. In
1975, not only he was the head coach and director of athletics, he was
also the executive director of the National Association of Basketball
Coaches. Wall left both MacMurray College and the NABC to accept the
position as executive director of the Amateur Basketball Association of
the United States of America (ABAUSA), a position he held for eighteen
years.
During his tenure, Wall led a
transition allowing NBA players to be eligible for international
competition, and ABAUSA changed its name to USA Basketball. Wall’s first
USA team of NBA players was the 1992 “Dream Team” which captured the
gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. He was also responsible for
developing and administering foreign basketball team tours of the USA
and USA team tours overseas.
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