Don Odle

Don Odle. . , Don Odle was born in Indiana in 1920. He played guard for Selma High School from 1935 1938, where he was the leading scorer in Delaware County. He went on to earn his BA from Taylor University, where he also played basketball and led the Trojans in scoring during all four years of intercollegiate play., Odle began his coaching career at Taylor in 1947, and although he coached basketball, one of his goals was to bring football to Taylor. He coached the first Taylor football team in 1948, and after a winless first season, he took the team on to finish second in the Hoosier College Conference (HCC) the following year., Odle went on to help begin the Venture for Victory program, which was the first Taylor effort at athletic evangelism. In 1952, he organized a squad of Christian basketball players and took them to Taiwan in order to play basketball and minister to the spectators during half time and post-game messages. They were able to lead 7,000 Taiwanese to commit their lives to Christ and enroll in Bible correspondence courses. They received praise from Madame Chiang Kai-shek, who tapped Odle to coach the Chinese Nationalist team in the 1960 Olympics. Odle has been called the "father of overseas evangelism.", Odle also brought basketball camps to Taylor in 1957, and through the decades over 35,000 players from all over the United States have attended his camps in Upland., Odle spent 38 years as a basketball coach in Indiana, and 30 of those years as head coach of the Taylor Trojans. He also was Athletic Director and at one time he simultaneously served as AD, head of the Athletic Department, taught 15 hours, coached seven sports, and filled in part time for the Alumni Director. He was inducted into six Hall of Fame, and he authored two books. Upon his retirement from Taylor University in 1979, the school named Odle Arena after him., Odle served as President of the Upland Chamber of Commerce and he was greatly responsible for bringing the Boren family to Upland in the 1960s, whose generosity continues to help the Upland community and Taylor campus. Odle loved going to downtown Upland to spend time with and photograph folks lives, and his mission was to bridge the Upland and Taylor communities. Many remember him driving horse-drawn covered wagons in the Labor Day parade. He would also dress as Santa and drive around in old sleighs he fixed up to sing carols and pass out candy at Christmas. He had a million jokes and a very contagious laugh to go with them., Don Odle passed away in 2002 after an amazingly successful career and an incredibly generous life in Indiana.