Fant's legacy lives on in 'his boys' The News-Star Tuesday, October 13, 1998

Lenny O'Neil Fant
Kilpatrick Funeral Home
Lamy Lane - Monroe, LA.

Services for Lenny O'Neil Fant, 74, of Monroe, LA will be at 4:00 P.M. Wednesday, October 14, 1998 at N.L.U. Ewing Coliseum with Rev. William Smith and Rev. Stuart Toms officiating. Burial will be in the Memorial Park Cemetery under the direction of Kilpatrick Funeral Home on Lamy Lane, Monroe.

Lenny Fant was a devoted husband, father, grandfather, and friend. He inspired all of those who knew him through his tremendous faith and character. His love for NLU, even after retirement, was never ending. He touched many lives and formed many friendships throughout his career. He will truly be missed by all who knew him and loved him.

Mr. Fant was Coach at N.L.U. for many years and a member of Lakeshore Baptist Church, N.L.U. Booster Club, N.L.U. Alumni Center, Chamber of Commerce Adopt a School Program, Bayou Desiard Optimist Club, National and Louisiana Basketball Coaches Association. He was Secretary Emeritus and member of N.L.U. Athletic Scholarship Foundation. He was a 32nd Degree Mason and member of the Barak Shrine Temple in Monroe. Mr. Fant graduated from Centenary College and received his Masters Degree from the University of Alabama. He was preceded in death by his wife Jo Fant.

Survivors are his son: Lynn Fant of Monroe; daughter: Wanda Fant Smith and husband Vance of West Monroe; grandchildren: Brandon Cruse; Janna Smith; Bo Smith; and Shawna Smith Grant all of West Monroe; brother: J. D. Fant of Memphis, TN.

Pallbearers will be Barney Tucker, John Cosse, Nickie Lester, Lanny Johnson, Mike Vining, Elee Trichell, Jack Collins, Benny Hollis, Lawson Swearingen, and James Brian.

Honorary pallbearers will be former N.L.U. Basketball Players, Coaches, Trainers, Managers, and others associated with N.L.U. basketball. Hugh Vick's Sunday School Class, N. Club and the High 12 Club Members.

Memorials may be made to the Lenny Fant Scholarship, c/o NLU Foundation, 700 University Drive, Monroe, LA 71209 or to The American Cancer Society, 411 Calypso, Monroe, LA 71201.

Visitation will be from 5 p.m. until 9 p.m. Tuesday at Kilpatrick Funeral Home on Lamy Lane, Monroe. LA.

Fant's legacy lives on in 'his boys'

The former NLU coach died Monday after a courageous struggle with cancer

By MARK S. RAINWATER - Staff Writer - News-Star October 13, 1998

Lenny Fant put Northeast Louisiana University basketball on the map.

In 1970 - at the height of Fant's 22-year tenure - the 8,000-seat Ewing Coliseum was opened as the Indians' home court.

It is only fitting, those who knew him say, that Ewing will be the place where Fant's family and friends will gather at 4 p.m. Wednesday to remember a man "who made everyone he met feel like they were his best friend."

After an 18-month battle with cancer, Fant, 74, died early Monday at Glenwood Regional Medical Center. He is survived by his son, Lynn, daughter and son-in-law Wanda and Vance Smith, and two grandchildren.

When Fant's career at what was then Northeast Louisiana State College began in 1958, Lanny Johnson from Ouachita Parish High School was among his first recruits.

Johnson, who has served as superintendent of Ouachita Parish Schools for 14 years, said he and Fant were friends from day one. It's a friendship Johnson said he has cherished ever since.

"Hardly a week went by when we didn't talk two or three times," Johnson said. "And even right up until the end, he was always thinking of others.

"At the end of a talk we had a couple of months ago, he asked me, 'Lanny, is there anything I can do for you?' I said, 'Coach, that's what I'm supposed to be asking.' But that's just the way he was. Always a gentleman, always thinking of others."

Benny Hollis was also part of Fant's first team, serving as a manager and trainer. When Fant coached his final game in 1981, Hollis was his assistant coach.

"When I first met him in 1956, I felt like I was his friend," Hollis said. "And that's the way he was. He made every one he met feel like they were his best friend."

After Hollis' stint as head coach - in 1980 and 1981 - current coach Mike Vining took over. Hollis then became athletic director from 1981 to 1993 when Fant served as an administrative assistant for several years.

Vining also played for Fant in the mid-1960s.

"We weren't just playing for pride," he said. "We were playing so Coach Fant wouldn't lose.

"He had that kind of impact on us. He was our friend and our coach. It's something that not many people in this profession can do."

It was the compassion Fant had for his players that Hollis says was one of the coach's most honorable traits.

In the mid- to late-1970s, a trio of players who had played for Vining at Bastrop High School were the nucleus of the Indians' team. Early in the season the team lost three straight games by a combined seven points.

"I was real concerned about what impact those games would have on the kids," Vining recalled. "Coach (Fant) came into the locker room before the next game, and all he said was, 'Guys, I wouldn't trade you for any bunch in the world.' They went out and played like gangbusters."

In that group was Monroe City Councilman Jamie Mayo, who said Fant's concern went beyond the basketball floor.

"He cared about us after our eligibility ended," Mayo said. "When I was first elected to the City Council, Coach Fant was one of the first people to call and congratulate me."

NLU President Lawson Swearingen also played for Fant. He said the concern Fant had "for 'his boys,' as he liked to call us, went beyond our playing days."

"He was a coach, but more important than that was his desire to see us do well after our playing days," Swearingen said. "He had a way of inspiring and motivating you to give your best."

When Fant was diagnosed with cancer early last year, he began a valiant fight against his illness. In August he took part in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life at Glenwood Medical Mall.

Sharon Davis, executive director of the Northeast Louisiana Chapter of the American Cancer Society, said Fant's courage at the event "was something I wish we could bottle and give to everyone."

"The first lap is for survivors, and while he had to use a cane and had help from a nurse, he walked that lap," she said. "The second lap, his family wanted to walk him in a chair, and he let them, up until the last part of the lap, where he got up and finished it walking."

Mayo said almost as memorable as Fant's feelings for his players and people in general was his sense of humor.

"When our old group gets together, that's definitely one of the things we talk about was his sense of humor. He had a box full of one-liners," Mayo said.

When he served in the Louisiana Legislature as a representative from Tensas Parish, Johnson said he would call Fant to get jokes he could include in his speeches.

Johnson, who was NLU's first All-American, learned first-hand about Fant's sense of humor.

"He used to tell a couple on me real regular," Johnson said. "The first one was that someone faked a pass to me and that I shot anyway. But my favorite was he told people that when I graduated, I still had four years of defensive eligibility."

The last one is a saying Vining told one of his players. It's just one way that Vining said Fant touched his life.

But it was Fant's courage in his final days that touched him most of all, Vining said.

"I heard him say a thousand times, 'You know. I think I can beat this thing and still have another four or five good years. But if I don't, I guess it's God's will.'" Vining said. "That courage is something I hope we all get from him.

"It only seems fitting that we should gather to remember Coach and say goodbye at the coliseum."

Vining's 307 wins is getting close to Fant's record as the school's winningest coach. During his 22 seasons, Fant's teams won 326 games.

"I may someday pass him in the number of games I've won, but I don't think I'll ever come close to being the man he was," Vining said.

Friends say goodbye to Fant

Coliseum funeral put coach back on court he loved

By PAUL J. LETLOW - Staff Writer - News-Star October 15, 1998

Friends and family of former Northeast Louisiana University men's basketball coach Lenny Fant gathered Wednesday afternoon to say goodbye to a local legend.

An estimated crowd of 1,500 assembled at Ewing Coliseum on the NLU campus for Fant's funeral. The winningest coach in school history was remembered as an ambassador for the university, a molder of men, a role model, a Christian gentleman, a civic leader and a family man.

"He was an extraordinary ordinary man," said the Rev. William Smith, Fant's pastor at Lakeshore Baptist Church for the past 21 years.

Fant, 74, died early Monday morning at Glenwood Regional Medical Center after an 18-month struggle with colon cancer. But even as the disease ravaged his body, Fant remained visible on the campus where he made his mark.

"He never let it get him down," Smith said.

Fittingly, the service took place in the basketball arena built during his coaching era. To the left of Fant's casket was a drawing of the coach's familiar, robust, smiling visage. To the right was a basketball from his 300th win, a 95-73 victory over Tulane in 1974.

"There are a lot of men who won 300 games," said David Pickett, one of Fant's top players from 1973-76 who traveled from Whitehouse, Texas, for the funeral. "But there's not a one who won 300 games with any more class and dignity and love of his players than Lenny Fant."

Fant established his place in NLU history during a 22-year reign as men's basketball coach. He compiled a record of 326-221 from 1958-79, all the while winning over everyone he met.

"Much has been written and said about the negative side of college sports," said Stuart Toms, who played for Fant from 1960-63 and is now a Baptist minister in Quitman. "But he epitomizes everything positive and good about college athletics."

Indeed, memories of Fant are more than X's and O's. Players who competed for him thought of him as a father. He was tough, genuine and honest.

"He was a super nice person and really, that's rarer than we'd like to think," said Larry Butler, one of Fant's boys from 1961-65. "I think the thing I always appreciated about Coach Fant was he was a super people person. When he came to recruit me in high school, we were cotton farmers in West Carroll Parish. But he was right at home on the front porch talking to Mama and Daddy.

"When he would go see people who were very successful, he was perfectly at home with them too. ... There was no put-on with him. What you saw was what you got."

The list of Fant's former players says plenty about the impact he had on the lives of young men. His rosters included NLU President Lawson Swearingen, current NLU men's head coach Mike Vining, Monroe City Councilman Jamie Mayo, former NBA star Calvin Natt, former NLU women's coach Roger Stockton, Ouachita Parish Superintendent of Schools Lanny Johnson and Glynn Saulters, Louisiana's first Olympian.

"He left a mark on you when you met him," said Jerry Walker of Minden, who played for Fant from 1975-78. "He had that way of motivating you to do things you normally wouldn't do.

"I finished high school as the No. 8 scorer all-time in Louisiana. But when I came here, he told me my role was defense. I changed and started playing defense. And from what the people said, became one of the best defensive players here."

Many of Coach Fant's boys returned to honor him at his memorial service.

"Everybody who knew Coach Fant felt the same way about him," said Natt, an all-American at NLU from 1975-79 who came in from Denver. "We loved him. I remember the first time I ever had fried green tomatoes was over at Coach Fant's house. His wife fried them up for me."

Natt, who went on to star in the NBA, said he originally intended to go to LSU. But he wanted to play for Fant.

"I remember sitting in the living room and him recruiting me to Northeast," Natt said. "I had the opportunity to go to a lot of larger schools. I was going to LSU, but the genuineness of Coach Fant made a difference. He told me I had to earn my way and he wouldn't give me any favors.

"We're going to miss him."

Pickett, a 6-foot-8 perimeter player known for his soft shooting touch, said he spread the word about Fant after he left college.

"When I graduated from Northeast, I was drafted by the Lakers and I spent a little time in the Los Angeles camp and the Spurs camp and played a little over in Europe," Pickett said. "Anytime I talked to any other players, whether they were from Indiana, UCLA or Michigan, when I'd relate to them the kind of man I got to play for at Northeast Louisiana University and the kind of program we had. ... regardless of where they played, their comments were 'I wish I could have played for a man like that.' "

Fant was born in Hamilton, Ala., on Oct. 25, 1923, and graduated from Lee High School in Columbus, Miss.

He graduated from Centenary College in 1950 after starting on the basketball team four years. In 1996, he was also inducted into the Centenary College Hall of Fame.

Fant began his coaching career at Delhi High School, where he stayed from 1950-53. He was named athletic director and head coach at Louisiana College in 1953. After one year, he went to East Texas Baptist for three years before coming to Northeast in 1957.

Fant's teams at Northeast won seven conference and/or district championships. He had losing records in his first four seasons, but then produced 18 consecutive winning seasons before retiring in 1979 following his greatest season.

"He took boys like myself and boys like many of you, who frankly, nobody else wanted," Toms told the assembly. "And he made winners out of us."

Fant's 326 wins are the most in school history. He took NLU from the NAIA level to NCAA Division I-A status. He had three 20-win seasons, including his last two years.

Fant's final team in 1978-79 went 23-6 and earned NLU's first postseason national tournament appearance. NLU lost 79-78 to Virginia in the first round of the National Invitational Tournament.

Fant was well-decorated for his accomplishments. He is a member of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, the Louisiana Basketball Hall of Fame and the NLU Hall of Fame.

But those honors are only a portion of his legacy.

"As long as the influence of Lenny Fant lives on in the life of others," Smith said, "the record is not closed."