Bill Stephens, a 1963 Southwestern College graduate, former Southwestern College athletic director, and a 1996 inductee into the Southwestern College Athletic Hall of Fame, will be recognized at halftime of the Southwestern College men’s basketball game against the University of Saint Mary on Saturday, Jan. 22.  The game is slated to begin at 4 p.m.

Bill Stephens arrived at Southwestern as a freshman in 1959, returning to his alma mater a decade later as assistant basketball coach under Bob Hower. A year later Stephens was named head basketball coach, taking on the athletic director position when Hower was killed in a car accident in 1972.

As a student athlete, Stephens was a letter-winner in three sports, football, basketball, and track.  Over the years he coached basketball (11 years), tennis, football, and golf, and despite numerous conference championships (three in basketball and 14 in golf) the achievement of which he was the most proud was the graduation rate of his basketball players.

“Every basketball player I coached who finished out his eligibility here went on to graduate, one hundred percent of them," he says. "Not many programs can say that.”

Stephens and his wife, Paula, have been married for 52 years.  They have two children, Andy and Jill, and three grandchildren, Gracie, Annabeth, and Alec.