Warren Womble

John Warren Womble, Jr. (March 15, 1920 – March 21, 2015) was the coach for the Peoria Caterpillars, a National Industrial Basketball League (NIBL) team in Peoria, Illinois.^[1]

Born in Durant, Oklahoma, Womble attended Southeastern Oklahoma State University, where he was a two-sport Savage athlete, earning letters in tennis and basketball. He was a guard on the basketball team which reached the quarterfinals of the National AAU Tournament in Denver, Colorado in 1948.

In international competition Warren Womble had an unbelievable 34-0 mark against some of the best international competition in the world.

Womble, who coached the Cats for 10 seasons (1951–60), won 296 games and lost 126 while leading his teams to the National Amateur Athletic Union Championship five times. In 1952, Womble's Cats won the Olympic Trials Tournament and he was named head coach of that outstanding United States team (a team which included seven of his Cats), a team that went on to defeat the Soviet Union, 36-25, to win the gold medal at the 1952 Olympics.

In 1954 his Peoria Caterpillars were tied with the Bartlesville Phillips 66ers for the most wins in the National Industrial Basketball League (14-10).

He then coached the 1954 United States Gold Medal winning FIBA World Championship team and the first United States team to tour the Soviet Union in 1958.

In 1960 his Cats placed second in the Olympic Trials Tournament, and Womble was named assistant coach for the U.S. team at the 1960 Rome Olympics. That team included Hall of Famers Jerry West, Oscar Robertson, Walt Bellamy, and Jerry Lucas which defeated Brazil, 90-36, for the gold medal.

Womble also served as the first director of the National Industrial Basketball League.

Warren Womble was named to the Helms Foundation Hall of Fame. He was named to the Oklahoma Athletic Hall of Fame in 1977. He was inducted into the Southeastern Athletic Hall of Fame on February 18, 1978.^[2]

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