Biography:

The winningest coach in DePauw men’s basketball history, Bill Fenlon begins his 17th season as the Tigers’ head coach and 24th on the collegiate level. He is also a part-time assistant professor of kinesiology.
    Fenlon’s DePauw teams have posted a 269-148 record for a .645 winning percentage. Only Elmer McCall has a longer tenure and coached in more DePauw games. In 23 previous seasons as a collegiate head coach, Fenlon’s teams have posted a 376-217 record for a .634 winning percentage.
    Last year he directed the Tigers to a 19-7 finish and the program’s 23rd winning season in the last 26 years. He led the 2006-07 Tigers to their second consecutive trip to the NCAA Division III postseason as DePauw earned an at-large bid to the tournament. The Tigers dropped a 62-59 first-round overtime decision to Whitworth on a buzzer-beating three-pointer.
    The 22-6 Tigers posted the fifth-highest single-season win total in school history and earned the top seed in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament after sharing the league’s best record during the regular season.
    In 2005-06, he directed DePauw to its first SCAC tournament championship and 13th trip to NCAA postseason play. The Tigers dropped a 76-68 decision to host Wisconsin-Whitewater in the opening-round game.
    The 2002-03 Tigers finished atop the SCAC regular season standings and advanced to the semifinals of the conference’s first postseason tournament. DePauw finished the season ranked sixth in Division III rebound margin.
    In 2002 he led DePauw to its first SCAC championship and a bid into the NCAA Championship.  The 24-4 Tigers defeated Wittenberg in the second round and knocked off top-ranked Washington (Mo.) in the round of 16 before falling to eventual national champion Otterbein in the quarterfinals. Fenlon earned SCAC Coach of the Year honors and the Tigers were ranked fourth in the final D3hoops.com poll.
    The 2000-01 Tigers finished with a 19-6 record and a third-place showing in the SCAC. The team ranked eighth in Division III rebound margin, ninth in scoring defense, 20th in scoring margin and 28th in three-point percentage.
    Fenlon led a team of primarily freshmen and sophomores to a second-place SCAC finish in 1999-2000 as well as a top-25 national ranking during DePauw’s second season of SCAC competition.
    In his first season with the Tigers in 1992-93, Fenlon led the Old Gold to an Indiana Collegiate Athletic Conference championship and a fourth straight appearance in the NCAA Division III tournament despite being picked to finish third in the ICAC in a preseason poll of coaches. The Tigers ranked first in the nation in three-point percentage (45.6) and 11th in scoring defense (61.3) that season.
    In 1994 the Tigers ranked ninth in Division III in scoring defense (62.9) and posted the best field goal percentage defense in DePauw history at 41.5 percent. The 1996 team ranked 12th in scoring defense (62.0), while the 1997 squad was 15th (60.9). In 1997-98 the Tigers ranked 20th in free throw percentage at 73.6 percent. The 1998-99 team was sixth in free throw percentage (76.3 percent) and 35th in three-point percentage (38.8 percent), while the 1999-2000 squad was third in three-point percentage (41.3).
    His first coaching job was as head coach of the Tampa Preparatory School where his team set the school record for victories in a season during the 1981-82 campaign. Fenlon also coached at the Berkeley Preparatory School in Tampa and was an assistant for Team Florida, a 19 & under AAU team, that captured the AAU national championship.  That team also had six future NBA draft picks on its roster.
    Fenlon’s collegiate head coaching career began at the University of the South in 1985 where he directed the program for three years and led the Tigers to a first-ever national ranking (20th) in 1988. He was an assistant coach there from 1983-85.
    He then took over at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in 1988 and immediately led the Engineers to a 19-7 record for the most wins in seven years. His three-year stint included an NCAA Division III tournament appearance and a first-round victory in 1989.  He posted a 53-26 career record at Rose-Hulman and the Engineers ranked among the top 15 in Division III in scoring defense each year.
    A head coach during the 1991-92 season at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Fenlon improved Southwestern from an 8-19 record in 1991 to 19-10.  The team ranked in the top ten, nationally, in scoring defense.
    A 1979 graduate of Northwestern University, Fenlon earned a bachelor of science degree in communications with a minor in English.  He also earned three letters as a member of the Wildcats basketball team. Fenlon was an all-state high school player at Marist High School in Atlanta and was inducted into its athletic hall of fame in 2006.
    Fenlon’s wife, Gigi, is the coordinator of arts publicity and marketing at DePauw and a part-time assistant professor of communication and theatre. The Fenlons are the parents of Hannah who attends Kenyon and Quinn who is a student at Brown.