Ben Lindsey - Men's Basketball Coach - Grand Canyon University Athletics

Ben Lindsey

Title:
Head Coach

Year	School	Record
1965-66	GCC	11-13
1966-67	GCC	14-13
1967-68	GCC	11-13
1968-69	GCC	14-11
1969-70	GCC	21-6
1970-71	GCC	10-17
1971-72	GCC	17-12
1972-73	GCC	19-10
1973-74	GCC	28-2
1974-75	GCC	30-3
1975-76	GCC	27-3
1976-77	GCC	20-9
1977-78	GCC	30-3
1978-79	GCC	24-4
1979-80	GCC	25-5
1980-81	GCC	16-13
GC career	(16 seasons)	317-137

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Ben Lindsey oversaw 16 seasons of Grand Canyon men's basketball, establishing the program as a national powerhouse at the NAIA level. Lindsey accumulated 317 victories and two NAIA National Championships. He is both the longest-tenured and winningest coach in the history of the program.

Lindsey led the school to its first two national championships in any sport. In the 1974-75 season, the Lopes went 30-3 and defeated Midwestern to win its first NAIA National Championship. Lindsey's Lopes were back at it three years later, posting an identical 30-3 record and defeating Kearney State to win the title.

Lindsey's overall career record finished at 317-137. He has 101 more victories than the nearest GCU coach (Leighton McCrary). His winning percentage of .698 ranks third in program history, but best among coaches with more than two seasons.

Despite not winning the title in 1973-74, Lindsey led Grand Canyon to a near-perfect mark. GCC won its first 24 games before losing it's next-to-last regular season game.

Grand Canyon was an NAIA member in 13 of Lindsey's 16 seasons, and the Lopes qualified for postseason play in 11 of those seasons and the national tournament in seven of those.

The Lopes posted an impressive 12-5 mark in NAIA National Tournament play under Lindsey's charge.

Arizona's news media bestowed its highest honor on Coach Lindsey by selecting him as Arizona's Coach of the Year in 1975 and again in 1978. He has also been NAIA District Coach of the Year on two different occasions and was selected as District Coach of the Year in 1975 by the National Association of Basketball Coaches.

Lindsey was also selected by the United States Olympic Committee's ABAUSA to coach the West Team in the 1978 National Sports Festival.

Lindsey is a native Arizonan, born in Glendale, and was an alumnus of Grand Canyon's Class of 1962. During his college years, "Big Ben", a sharpshooting forward, broke five school scoring records during his career.

To this day, Lindsey is still responsible for the second-highest scoring game in Lopes history when he scored 44 points on Feb. 17, 1962 against La Verne. His scoring average of 23.2 points in the 1960-61 season ranks fifth in GCU history.

He received his bachelor's degree from Grand Canyon and went on to earn a masters degree at Arizona State.

Lindsey was a 2010 inductee of GCU's Athletics Hall of Fame.