Indiana University of Pennsylvania Athletics

On a February night in 1965, with what was then Indiana State College hosting a team that had come to Waller Gym all the way from Iowa (Parsons College).  Mel Hankinson popped in 59 points. The total stands today as not only an IUP team record but a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference all-time high.

The night, though, was only one instance of what made the graduate of nearby Marion Center High (where he also played baseball and interscholastic chess four years) his college's leading scorer three season, its Most Outstanding Athlete in 1965, and an all-state roundball player.

It was also only a preface to more achievements than even the ever-positive Hankinson could have dreamed of when growing up in the Indiana County village of Chambersville, then working his way through college while playing for coach Herm Sledzik.

Now in his fourth year as first assistant and recruiting coordinator at West Virginia University. Hankinson has been a college roundball coach for 25 years.  21 as a head coach.  His all-time report shows 385 wins, and his teams have advanced to postseason competition 12 times.

After coaching Shannock Valley High to the WPIAL crown in 1968, he became head coach at Slippery Rock at the age of 25.  In 1973, he took the Rock to the 32-team NAIA national tournament in Kansas City, where it reached the Final Four.

From there he went to Roanoke College (1974-78), where his team was ranked as high as ninth in the nation by Associated Press and to Delta State in Mississippi (1978-84).  Ranked as high as fourth nationally by the NCAA.

After a year as first assistant to George Raveling at the University of Iowa.  Hankinson took over at Samford Universitv in Alabama for two.

Then came six seasons (1987-93) as coach and athletic director at the Master's College in California, where he averaged 20 wins per season after his first campaign and twice finished second in the nation in the National Christians College Athletic Association.

Dotting his resume, besides seven Coach of the Year honors that include: two national selections, are his writing of books and other publications considered as the authority on strategies and have been translated into seven languages.  He has given clinics and coached tournaments in all pans of the world.

Hankinson, active in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, is a widely known speaker and has worked as a technical adviser to TV series Quantum Leap. Matlock and the Wonder Years.

Married to the former Joan Cherry, who graduated from IUP in 1964, they have two sons, Chad, who is Director of Basketball Operations at the University of Houston after graduating from WVU, and Joshua a junior business administration major at WVU.