Warren Womble obi

Legendary Cats coach Warren Womble dies at the age of 95

 

He was not on the list.

When Peoria, Illinois ruled the basketball world in the 1950s, Warren Womble was king. On Sunday, the old king died.

Womble, 95, coach of the Peoria Diesels/Caterpillars and a two-time gold-medal winning coach of the U.S. Olympic team, died at an assisted living home in Springdale, Arkansas.

Frank McCabe, 87, played for Womble as a member of the Cats and the 1952 Olympic team, which defeated the Soviet Union for the title of the Helsinki Games.

“I was working in Alaska (in 1951) and will never forget when Warren called me and asked if I wanted to work at Caterpillar in Peoria,” McCabe said. “It’s where I met my wife and worked for 40 years.”

Womble coached the Cats for 10 years, posting a 296-126 record. The nucleus of the ’52 Olympic team played for the Caterpillars. The two living members of that squad — McCabe and Ron Bontemps — both live in the Peoria area.

McCabe stayed in touch with his old coach through the decades.

“Warren called me last Tuesday,” McCabe said. “He didn’t sound good.”

Womble, a native of Durant, Oklahoma, played basketball at Southeastern Oklahoma State and was a member of the team that reached the quarterfinals of the National AAU tournament in 1948.

But it was as a coach where Womble achieved his greatest fame. He went to work at Caterpillar and joined the team — then called the Diesels — as a player.

“He told me later he was hired to become the coach,” McCabe said.

Two years later, he became Marv Hamilton’s assistant coach. Then one day in practice, when Hamilton was disgusted with the team and suddenly, Womble was promoted to head coach.

“As a coach, Warren was firm, but never belligerent,” McCabe said. “He wasn’t a Bobby Knight throwing chairs. He was level-headed, just a good guy.”

In 1952, despite his coaching inexperience, Womble was named the U.S. Olympic head coach, and he brought seven members of the Cats team with him. Legendary University of Kansas coach Phog Allen, then 67, was selected as Womble’s assistant.

“That was Warren’s first full year as a head coach,” McCabe said. “He and Phog Allen would get together after every practice and game and come out of the room without a quarrel, presenting a united front. It was awesome.”

Womble went on to lead the Cats to five AAU national championships, winning the 1954 World Tournament and compiling a perfect 34-0 record against international competition. He finished his career as the assistant coach for the 1960 Olympians, who also won the gold medal behind Jerry West, Oscar Robertson and Jerry Lucas.

“When you consider the record he had with different players of different ages from different venues, he had to be one helluva uneducated psychiatrist,” McCabe said. “He did a heckuva job.”

An exhibit of the Peoria Caterpillar teams is on display at the Caterpillar Visitor’s Center on Water Street.

Born in Aylesworth, Oklahoma, Womble attended college at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, where he was a two-sport Savage Storm athlete, earning letters in tennis and basketball. He was a guard on the school's basketball team that reached the quarterfinals of the AAU National Tournament in Denver, Colorado, in 1948.

At the club level, Womble was the head coach of the Peoria Cats for 10 seasons (1951–60). With the Cats, he won 296 games and lost 126, while leading his teams to the National Amateur Athletic Union Tournament championship five times. He coached the Cats team that tied with the Bartlesville Phillips 66ers, for the most wins in the National Industrial Basketball League (14–10 overall record), in 1954. Womble would later go on to serve as the first director of the National Industrial Basketball League.

Womble also coached the USA national team that won the gold medal at the 1954 FIBA World Championship. Later, he coached the first United States team to tour the Soviet Union, in 1958. In 1960, his Cats placed second in the Olympic Trials Tournament. Womble was named as assistant coach of the U.S. team at the 1960 Rome Summer Olympics. That team included Hall of Fame members Jerry West, Oscar Robertson, Walt Bellamy, and Jerry Lucas. They defeated Brazil, by a score of 90–36, to win the gold medal.