Wayne D. Anderson


Wayne Delbert Anderson was an American college basketball coach, the head coach for eight seasons at the University of Idaho, his alma mater. He was also the head baseball coach at Idaho for nine seasons, and the assistant athletic director for fifteen

Playing career

Born and raised in Spokane, Washington, Anderson graduated from Rogers High School in 1949, where he was a multi-sport star for the He enrolled at the University of Idaho in Moscow, south, and was a two-sport athlete for the Vandals, then a member of the Pacific Coast Conference.
Anderson was the starting quarterback and nationally ranked punter on the football team and a pitcher on the baseball team. He was a member of Delta Chi fraternity, and was elected class president as a senior.

Coaching

Following graduation in 1953, Anderson coached a year in Roseburg, Oregon, and then served two years in the He returned to the university in 1956 to run its intramural program and work on his master's degree. In the summer of 1957, Anderson was promoted to assistant coach in basketball and football, and became the head baseball coach for the 1958 season, switching positions with

Baseball

The baseball team won the inaugural Big Sky title in 1964, and again in 1966, led by starting pitchers Bill Stoneman and Frank Reberger. The 1966 team was 31–7 in the regular season and made the NCAA tournament for the first time; the Vandals eliminated Colorado State College and Air Force with three straight victories the road in Greeley, Colorado. One step from the College World Series in Omaha, the Vandals fell and to Arizona in Tucson in the District 7 finals, today's "super-regionals". Idaho finished the season at and Anderson was named Big Sky baseball coach of

Basketball

That September, Anderson was promoted to head coach in basketball, and stopped coaching baseball. While head baseball coach, he had been an assistant in basketball for eight years under the previous four head coaches. In his second season in 1968, he was named conference coach of the year. In 1971, he took on additional duties as assistant athletic director. After his eighth season as head basketball coach, Anderson resigned both positions in March 1974 and stopped coaching at age 43. He returned to the university in 1982 as the assistant athletic director, and stayed for another dozen years, retiring in December 1994.
Anderson was inducted into the Idaho Athletic Hall of Fame and the University of Idaho's Athletic Hall of Fame.

Death

After a battle with cancer, Anderson died at age 82 at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center in Lewiston in early 2013.

Head coaching record

Basketball