John Wilcox, a rookie defensive end for the Philadelphia Eagles during their 1960 NFL championship season, served as an assistant football coach at Whitman from 1967 through 1975. He was part of the coaching staff that guided Whitman to a share of the 1969 NWC championship.
Wilcox left the football staff a few years before Whitman discontinued its gridiron program in 1977, opting to concentrate on his role as head coach of the men's basketball team.
He coached men's basketball throughout the 1970s, and his teams averaged 14 wins a season from 1972 through 1975. His best season was 1975-76, when the Missionaries posted an 18-7 season record while missing an NWC title by just one game.
Wilcox turned his attention to the women's basketball during the 1980s, revitalizing that program before winning a conference title in 1987-88. In the eight seasons that followed, his teams advanced to post-season play five times and narrowly missed a sixth trip to the playoffs. He twice earned conference coach-of-the-year honors.
With 178 victories to his credit, Wilcox remains the all-time winningest coach in the history of Whitman women's basketball.
Marcella Weissback Rietz '95, a women’s basketball team captain, says Wilcox served as a father figure as well as a coach.
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Wilcox with basketball players Cathy Crosslin (left) and
Susan Hubbard Sakimoto. |
"He treated us like we were his daughters," she said. "He put us first and always had our best interests in mind.
"It was comforting to know that he cared for us as individuals first and players second. He was always there for us personally, academically and athletically."
Susan Hubbard Sakimoto '89Â also played basketball for Wilcox and remembers him in the same way.
"John was a great basketball coach, I learned a lot of basketball from him, and we won a conference championship while I was there," Sakimoto says. "But it was just as important to John that we succeeded as students and people as well as athletes. He was our coach for living, not just for basketball."
Wilcox, a graduate of Vale High School in eastern Oregon, played collegiate football at Boise State and the University of Oregon. As a 6-foot-5, undersized 215-pound defensive end, he was drafted by Philadelphia and played one season for the Eagles.
Rather than return to Philadelphia for a second season, Wilcox opted to launch his career as a high school teacher and coach in 1961. Salaries for pro football players in the early 1960s were miniscule compared to what players now earn.
He coached and taught at high schools in Portland and Boise for a handful of years before arriving at Whitman in 1967. He also completed his master's degree in education at Portland State University.
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Philadelphia Eagle John Wilcox |
Wilcox says he attempted to pattern his coaching style after the principles he admired in his coaches in high school and college.
"I enjoyed playing for my coaches, and they were very supportive as I went through that process of growing up," he said at the time of his retirement.
"They were not only good coaches, they were good people. I knew they cared about me not just as a football player, but as a person.
"Of course we want our teams to play up to their potential, and we certainly enjoy seeing them play well, but I also enjoyed a great deal of satisfaction when players turned it around academically, or when they developed emotionally, socially or physically.
"It was very rewarding to see players make positive changes in their lives from the time they first stepped on the courts until the time they graduated."
Wilcox says it was a privilege to be part of a Whitman athletics program that helped hundreds of students complete a well-rounded education, and pass through one final stage of development. "You think of it as that stage between being girls and women and being boys and men."
Wilcox and his wife Remy (who coached debate teams at Whitman for many years), continue to make their home in the rural Milton-Freewater area. Their two sons, Michael and Marcus (both Whitman graduates), and daughter Karen Carman live in Walla Walla.
