Benedictine’s Larry Wilcox Heading into the Raven Athletic Hall of Fame

Published: October 16, 2018

Benedictine College is pleased to announce that 1972 graduate and head football coach Larry Wilcox will be inducted into the college’s Hall of Fame on October 27 during Homecoming Weekend.

Wilcox is the all-time winningest four-year collegiate football coach in the history of the state of Kansas. He has guided Benedictine football to 13 appearances in the NAIA Football Championship Series with two trips to the semifinals in 1992 and 2001. Since joining the Heart of America Athletic Conference, he has led the Ravens to seven conference Championships.

As of the Oct. 13, 2018, victory over Graceland University, Wilcox has an overall record of 283-149, with all of those games coming as the head coach at Benedictine College. He is currently second on the active and all-time NAIA wins list and one of only 15 coaches at any level of four-year collegiate football to win over 280 games.

Coach Wilcox is a two-time AFCA Region Coach of the Year and has been named the Heart Coach of the Year four times. He was an NAIA District 10 Athletic Administrator of the Year, has been a member of the AFCA for 34 years and is a former NAIA Football Coaches Association President. He was inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame in 2017. Wilcox also served 24 years as athletic director for Benedictine College as well as six seasons as head baseball coach, two as softball coach and four as golf coach. He was the first head coach of the Swedish National Football Team and took his own team on international trips on 12 different occasions.

“I am proud to join those Raven coaches that are in the Benedictine College Athletic Hall of Fame, as well as those to be inducted in the future,” Wilcox said. “I am especially proud of the many players who have graduated and become successful men today.”

Benedictine Athletic Director and defensive coordinator Charles Gartenmayer has worked with Wilcox since his first days as the head coach for the Ravens.

“I am very happy for Larry to be recognized with this prestigious honor,” Gartenmayer said. “His commitment for so many years to the development of the total student-athlete is exemplary. He has been a leader at the NAIA level, Conference level and at Benedictine. It has been an honor for me to work with him and to watch him grow as a leader and become a strong role model for so many people on our campus and within the Atchison community.”

One of the many people Wilcox has influenced as a student-athlete at Benedictine is current college president Stephen D. Minnis.

“You will find few people more deserving of Hall of Fame recognition than Larry Wilcox,” Minnis said. “His dedication to Benedictine College and to his student-athletes over the years is inspiring. I have appreciated his enormous talents as President of the College and going back over the years to my freshmen year at Benedictine when he was named the Head Football Coach. Benedictine College and his players always come first with Larry and his success is directly connected to his love for his players.”

Under Wilcox’s leadership, the Ravens have earned 71 NAIA All-America selections, 527 All-Conference selections in the Heart, 91 Daktronics-NAIA Scholar Athletes and one CoSIDA-Academic All-America selection to date.