1929 — 2013

SOUTHPORT — Former Lenoir-Rhyne head men’s basketball and golf coach William “Billy” Wells died Thursday at his home in Southport after a lengthy illness.

Wells, who was 83, guided the Lenoir-Rhyne men’s basketball team from 1957 to 1965 and compiled a 166-63 record and still holds the highest winning percentage (.752) in Lenoir-Rhyne men’s basketball history.

Two of his teams, in 1957 and 1958, were invited to Kansas City to play in the NAIA championship game. The 1957 trip was LRU’s first trip to Kansas City, and the following year, the Bears’ appeared again. The 1957 team finished with a record of 24-4, and the 1958 team went 24-6. Well’s 1962-63 team finished 26-5.

Wells was inducted into the Lenoir-Rhyne Sports Hall of Fame in 1981, the Catawba County Sports Hall of Fame ...