Guy Wicks

Guy Wicks
Sport(s) Basketball
(Baseball, Football)
Biographical details
Born June 8, 1902
Eustis, Nebraska
Died January 16, 1968 (aged 65)
Atlanta, Georgia
Alma mater University of Idaho,
B.S. 1925, M.Ed. 1931
Playing career
1922–1924 Idaho (baseball) [1]
Position(s) Infielder
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1925–1927
1927–1930
1930–1931
1931–1941
1941–1942
1946–1947		 Genesee HS (ID)
Moscow HS (ID)
North Central HS (WA)
Idaho - Southern Branch
Idaho
Idaho
Administrative career (AD unless noted)
1931–1935
1935–1941		 Idaho - Southern Branch - (asst.)
Idaho - Southern Branch

Guy Plumb Wicks (June 8, 1902 – January 16, 1968) was a college basketball coach and university administrator. He also coached baseball and football.[2][3]

Born in Eustis, Nebraska, Wicks moved with his family to the Palouse region of northern Idaho. He graduated from Moscow High School and the University of Idaho, also in Moscow, where he played baseball for the Vandals. After receiving his bachelor's degree in 1925, he coached multiple sports at the high school level in nearby Genesee for two years, back at Moscow for three, and up at North Central in Spokane for one.[4]

Wicks moved to Pocatello in 1931 to become assistant athletic director[5] and head basketball coach at the University of Idaho's Southern Branch (today's Idaho State University), then a two-year school. With the departure of Felix Plastina, Wicks became its athletic director in 1935[6] and also head football coach, posting a 29-17-1 (.628) record in six seasons. After a decade, Wicks returned to Moscow in 1941 to coach basketball and baseball for the Vandals.[1][7][8] During World War II, he served as an officer in the U.S. Navy,[9] then returned to coach at Idaho.[10] Wicks later worked in the athletic department and then in university administration, as the associate dean of students.[2][11]

Following his retirement from the university in 1966,[12] he worked for the Sigma Nu fraternity.[13] While in Atlanta to visit the chapter at Emory University, he fell ill and died in early 1968 at the university hospital. Wicks had battled chronic lymphatic leukemia since 1960.[2][14]

Personal

Wicks married Lena Grace Jain (1906-1997) of Genesee in 1929. She outlived her husband by nearly three decades, and was a leading citizen in Moscow. Grace was a financial advisor in the 1950s, elected a county commissioner in the early 1960s (both very uncommon for a woman at the time),[15] and later the local chair of the Republican Party.[3] She had a long run as a newspaper columnist for the Moscow-Pullman Daily News, writing past the age of 90.[16][17]

The couple is buried together at the city cemetery in Genesee; they had two children, Grace Jain[18] and Donald, and eight grandchildren.[16]

Legacy

A year after his death, Idaho's recently relocated baseball field (46°43′54″N 117°01′10″W / 46.7316°N 117.0195°W) was named for Wicks in 1969.[19][20] In the vast open area at the northwest corner of the campus which includes multiple intramural fields, the name "Guy Wicks Field" is now primarily attached to the women's soccer field at the western edge.[21] Baseball was dropped as a varsity sport after 1980,[22][23] and women's soccer was added in the fall of 1998.

The university's "Guy and Grace Wicks Award" annually recognizes two outstanding seniors, based on academic success, campus activities, and service to the university and the community.[24]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Greene and Wicks named to vacant University of Idaho athletic jobs". Spokesman-Review. March 8, 1941. p. 11.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Guy Wicks, former Idaho coach, administrator, dies in Georgia". Lewiston Morning Tribune. January 17, 1968. p. 14.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Hadaway, Leigh A. (April 20, 1994). "Wicks, Grace - Oral History Interview, 1994". Washington State University Libraries. Retrieved November 25, 2013.
  4. ↑ "Wicks to coach North Central". Spokesman-Review. August 13, 1930. p. 15.
  5. ↑ "Wicks to leave North Central". Spokesman-Review. September 1, 1931. p. 11.
  6. ↑ "Wicks is Director in Southern Idaho". Spokane Daily Chronicle. May 23, 1935. p. 16.
  7. ↑ "Coach Guy Wicks visits his new post at Moscow". Lewiston Morning Tribune. Associated Press. April 18, 1941. p. 10.
  8. ↑ "Vandal Coaches". Gem of the Mountains, University of Idaho yearbook. 1942. p. 64.
  9. ↑ "Guy Wicks gets his Navy post". Spokesman-Review. December 11, 1942. p. 13.
  10. ↑ "Wicks returns to Idaho courts after Navy service". Spokesman-Review. photo. November 19, 1946. p. 12.
  11. ↑ "Dean title back again". Spokane Daily Chronicle. June 6, 1960. p. 3.
  12. ↑ "Student Affairs". Gem of the Mountains, University of Idaho yearbook. 1966. p. 27.
  13. ↑ "Sigma Nu". Gem of the Mountains, University of Idaho yearbook. 1925. p. 288.
  14. ↑ Wicks, Grace (August 21, 1993). "Acting presidential when there's little time left". Moscow-Pullman Daily News. p. 1C.
  15. ↑ "Mrs. Wicks files for commission". Lewiston Morning Tribune. April 19, 1962. p. 3.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 "Grace Wicks, longtime Republican activist dies at age 90". Moscow-Pullman Daily News. June 19, 1997. p. 1A.
  17. ↑ Frisch, R.C. (June 23, 1997). "Grace Wicks: above all, a woman of courage". Moscow-Pullman Daily News. p. 6A.
  18. ↑ "Grace Wicks weds Stephen Moe". Lewiston Morning Tribune. August 20, 1961. p. 3-sec 2.
  19. ↑ "Field named". Spokane Daily Chronicle. May 24, 1969. p. 11.
  20. ↑ "Idaho shades Air Force in opener". Spokesman-Review. May 25, 1969. p. 15.
  21. ↑ "Guy Wicks Field". University of Idaho Athletics. Retrieved November 25, 2013.
  22. ↑ "UI drops baseball, but booster group mounts fund drive". Lewiston Monrning Tribune. May 13, 1980. p. C1.
  23. ↑ Goodwin, Dale (May 13, 1980). "Baseball's 'out' at Idaho". Spokesman-Review. p. 19.
  24. ↑ "Guy and Grace Wicks Award". University of Idaho. Retrieved November 25, 2013.

External links