Former Whiteford basketball coach John Rice was inducted into the Knox County, Ohio, Sports Hall of Fame on Aug. 29.
Rice, who is from Knox County, was surrounded by family and some former players during the ceremony on Aug. 29 at the Knox County Historical Museum in Mount Vernon, Ohio.
“It was a really nice event,” Rice said. “They had a lot of people there. I saw a few players that I had back when I coached in that area. Everyone had a chance to get up and talk about things they have done over the years.”
Rice was part of the sixth group of inductees, which include professional football, baseball and basketball players and managers who are from Knox County.
“It’s a nice honor,” Rice said. “They put our plaque on the wall. There were a lot of people there.”
Rice is from Bladensburg, Ohio, where he was an All-State basketball player his senior year. After starting to work in a factory he decided he wanted to become a teacher and basketball coach and went back to college.
His first high school basketball job was at Danville, Ohio. After two seasons, he was named the head coach at Mount Vernon Bible College, now known as Mount Vernon Nazarene. He moved to Michigan in 1973 after accepting the job as a physical education teacher and boys basketball coach at Whiteford.
“After I was hired, a board member told me Whiteford was a football school,” Rice said.
Rice did his best to change that course. He was the Bobcat boys basketball coach from 1973-74 through the 2002-03 season. He led Whiteford to seven district and seven Tri-County Conference championships during those 30 years. He won another league title after returning to coach the Bobcats from 2016-2018.
His best season at Whiteford was the 2002-03 team that went 23-1. The 1986 team reached the regional finals. He coached multiple All-State players, including first team selections Brad Nieman, Barry Jones, Brad Strahan, Eddie Sharpe and Anthony Miracola, and several players that played college basketball, such as Terry Futrell.
Rice was named the statewide Associated Press coach of the year in 1981-82 after leading his team from a 5-16 record in 1980-81 to 19-3 the following season.
He remains the winningest coach in school history as well as the Tri-County Conference. He is the second-winningest coach in Monroe County Region history.
At Whiteford he compiled a record of 457-266 in 33 seasons. Overall, he coached varsity boys basketball for 40 seasons, winning 509 games.
He also coached the Whiteford girls basketball varsity team for three years, winning 27 games, and was the Whiteford baseball coach from 1980-1985. He was the Whiteford JV girls basketball head coach from 1979 to 2003 and was an assistant football coach from 1975 to 1977.
He also coached at Ann Arbor Father Gabriel Richard, Toledo Bowsher, Flat Rock, Toledo Woodward, Sylvania Southview, Maumee Valley Country Day and Lake Worth Christian in Florida.
