Iba, "Hank" (Henry P.)
Basketball
b. Aug. 6, 1904, Easton, MO
d. Jan. 15, 1993
Iba played basketball for two years at Westminster, MO, College, then transferred to Maryville Teachers College, now Northwest Missouri State. After graduating in 1929, he played AAU basketball with the Hillyards of St. Joseph, MO, and Sterling Milk of Oklahoma City.
He coached Classen High School in Oklahoma City to 51 victories in three seasons, then returned to Maryville as head coach. The team won its first 43 games under Iba before he suffered his first collegiate loss. He compiled a record of 101 wins and 14 losses in four seasons and his 1932 team finished second in the AAU national tournament.
Iba coached Colorado University in the 1933/34 season and then went to Oklahoma A & M (now Oklahoma State), where he spent thirty-five years. Led by 7-foot-1 Bob Kurland, the Aggies became the first school to win two consecutive NCAA tournaments, in 1945 and 1946.
Under Iba's guidance, Oklahoma State won or tied for fifteen conference championships. Iba is the only man to coach two Olympic gold medal teams, in 1964 and 1968. He also coached the 1972 team that suffered a controversial loss to the Soviet Union in the championship game.
A believer in a slow, ball-control offense, Iba taught a tenacious switching man-to-man defense. Fittingly, the Henry Iba Corinthian Award, established in 1987, is presented by the National Association of Basketball Coaches to the outstanding collegiate defensive player of the year.
His overall college coaching record was 767 wins and 338 losses. Iba's brother, Clarence, was a long-time coach at the University of Tulsa and his son, Moe, coached at Memphis State and the University of Nebraska.