WKU To Induct Three Into
Hall Of Distinguished Alumni

Bowling Green, Ky. - The coach of the 1971 NCAA Final Four team, the longtime head of English Department and the father of the school's pre-med program will be added to the Hall of Distinguished Alumni at Western Kentucky University during Homecoming week.

The three - John Oldham, Gordon Wilson and L.Y. Lancaster - will comprise the 11th class of noted alumni. They will be inducted during a formal luncheon on Friday, Oct. 25 at 11:30 a.m. at the Sloan Convention Center. For ticket information, contact the WKU Alumni Association at 1-888-WKU-ALUM.

John Oldham
John Oldham, a former professional athlete, a Hilltopper All-American, coach and athletic director, becomes a member of his seventh hall of fame with his induction into the WKU Hall of Distinguished Alumni.

He's also been inducted into the Lions Club Kentucky High School Hall of Fame (1969), Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame (1986), Ohio Valley Conference Hall of Fame (1989), Kentucky High School Hall of Fame (1990), Tennessee Tech Sports Hall of Fame (1990) and WKU Athletic Hall of Fame (1991).

Oldham, a native of Hartford, came to Western in 1942 to play basketball for Coach E.A. Diddle after earning All-State honors at Hartford High School. After his freshman season at Western, Oldham served in the U.S. Navy for three years during World War II.

He returned to Western in 1946. In 1949, Oldham received his bachelor's degree along with numerous All-American honors for his basketball play.

Oldham played two seasons for the NBA's Fort Wayne (now Detroit) Pistons before returning to Bowling Green in 1952 to begin his coaching career at College High School. In his first year, the College High team advanced to the boys' state tournament.

After four years of high school coaching, Oldham took over as head coach at Tennessee Tech. During nine years there, his teams won or tied for three Ohio Valley Conference championships.

In 1964, Oldham returned to Western as head basketball coach, replacing his mentor, E.A. Diddle. Over the next seven years, Oldham's Hilltopper teams won 78 percent of their games, won four OVC championships and played in five postseason national tournaments (four NCAA and one NIT), including a third-place NCAA finish in 1971.

Oldham, who was named OVC coach of the year four times, retired as basketball coach after the 1971 Final Four season and took over as WKU's athletic director, a position he held until 1986. During his tenure as athletic director, Western won six OVC All-Sports Championships and one Sun Belt Conference All-Sports Championship.

Since his retirement in 1986, Oldham has remained a fixture in the Western and Bowling Green community. He has served on numerous boards and committees and was a Bowling Green city commissioner for three terms.

Oldham and his wife, Bobbie, have two children (John Robert and Suzanne) and three grandchildren (Max, Demi and Devon).

Gordon Wilson
Dr. Gordon Wilson Sr., head of Western's Department of English for 32 years, was a noted teacher, linguist, folklorist, author, ornithologist, gifted public speaker and newspaper columnist.

Born Oct. 14, 1888, in Calloway County, Wilson enrolled in the new Western Kentucky State Normal School in Bowling Green in January 1908. In 1911, Wilson helped move the school's library to Western's new home on the Hill. In 1912, he joined the faculty.

With frequent leaves of absence from Western, Wilson received his bachelor's degree (1919), master's degree (1924) and doctorate (1930) from Indiana University.

In 1928, Wilson became head of the English Department, a position he held until his retirement in 1959. He once estimated that he taught 36,000 students and had graduated 1,300 English majors.

Wilson also was a noted folklorist and ornithologist. His weekly column "Tid Bits of Kentucky Folklore" appeared in about 100 state newspapers. The columns were used in two books, "Passing Institutions" (1943) and "Fidelity Folks" (1946). After retiring, Wilson continued to study folklore in the Mammoth Cave region and published numerous works including two volumes of "Folkways of the Mammoth Cave Region."

His interest in bird watching began as a youth. He was a founder of the Kentucky Ornithological Society and was a member of the Tennessee Ornithological Society, the Society of Natural History and the Kentucky Academy of Sciences. His published works on ornithology included "Birds of the Mammoth Cave National Park" and "Birds of South Central Kentucky."

In 1969, Western named the former library building Gordon Wilson Hall.

Wilson died April 12, 1970, at the age of 81. His wife, Avis Hines Wilson, died in 1983. They had two children: Winifred Wilson Hughes of Newberg, Ore., and Gordon Wilson Jr. (retired head of Western's chemistry department) of Bowling Green.

Dr. L.Y. Lancaster
Lennie Young Lancaster, the father of Western's pre-med program, was born Aug. 12, 1893, in Stewart County, Tenn., and grew up in Marshall and Calloway counties in Kentucky.

An honor graduate at all levels, he received a life certificate from Western Kentucky Normal School (1921), a bachelor's degree from University of Kentucky (1923), and master's degree (1929) and doctorate (1931) from Ohio State University.

Dr. Lancaster was a member of Sigma Xi, a national scientific honor fraternity; Pi Gamma Mu, honorary social science fraternity; and American Men of Science. He also was an honorary member of Alpha Epsilon Delta, national honor pre-med fraternity.

At Western, Dr. Lancaster organized the pre-med curriculum, directed the program's activities for about 30 years and was chairman of the Pre-Medical Advisory Committee. He also founded the Biology Club at Western and Beta Beta Beta, national honor biology fraternity.

In 1975, both the Kentucky Chapter of the American Academy of Family Physicians and the Kentucky Medical Association honored Dr. Lancaster as a special awards recipient.

The health science portion of Academic Complex was named the L.Y. Lancaster Clinic in 1969. In 1980, the L.Y. Lancaster Memorial Lectureship Society was established and has presented an annual lecture.

Dr. Lancaster also was recognized as an outstanding ornithologist and was active in the Kentucky Ornithological Society. His hobby of refinishing antique flintlock rifles established him as an authority on that subject.

Dr. Lancaster died on May 15, 1980, at Greenview Hospital. His wife, the former Pernie Pedigo, died Oct. 24, 1972.

For more information, contact the Office of Alumni Relations and Annual Giving at (270) 745-4395. More WKU news is available on the World Wide Web at www.wku.edu. If you'd like to receive WKU news via E-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.

-WKU-