Columbus native Rusty Loyd, right, celebrates a Rose-Hulman victory.
Submitted photo
When Rusty Loyd took over as Rose-Hulman men’s basketball coach in 2014, he was replacing a legend who had been there for 20 years.
Now, the Columbus native is replacing another coaching legend as he takes over the DePauw program.
After replacing Jim Shaw at Rose-Hulman and spending eight years there, Loyd is taking over for Bill Fenlon, who has been the DePauw coach for the past 30 years.
“This isn’t unfamiliar for me,” Loyd said. “I stepped into a great situation at Rose. DePauw is a great program, and coach Fenlon did a great job for 30 years. I’m excited to step into that program and take on the challenge again.”
A 1994 Columbus North graduate, Loyd is believed to be the only Bull Dog to play on four sectional championship boys basketball teams. He went on to play at University of Chicago, leading the school to a pair of Division III Sweet Sixteen appearances, and was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 2010.
After college, Loyd spent two years as an assistant at Earlham, two years as a graduate assistant at Lewis and four years as an assistant at Chicago. He became the head coach at Illinois Institute of Technology for three years until the school dropped its basketball program.
Loyd then spent five years as an assistant under Shaw at Rose-Hulman before taking over when Shaw retired. Loyd posted a 120-78 record in his eight seasons.
Although they are in different conferences, Rose-Hulman play DePauw and Wabash each year.
“I think everybody in Division III basketball looks at DePauw as one of those upper-echelon top-tier job, not that Rose-Hulman isn’t,” Loyd said. “There’s a reason coach Fenlon was there (at DePauw) for 30 years.”
Fenlon, ironically, also coached at Rose-Hulman before going to DePauw. Fenlon, however, spent one year at Southwestern (Texas) inbetween those coaching stints.
Rose-Hulman is plays in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference. DePauw is in the North Coast Athletic Conference, along with Wabash and mostly Ohio schools.
“The North Coast really is looked at as one of the best leagues in Division III,” Loyd said. “The opportunity to move over to the NCAC was a great opportunity for me and my family. One of the big draws was recruiting a different kind of student-athlete. At Rose-Hulman, it’s all engineering and STEM kids. At DePauw, we’ll have the opportunity to look at more kids, and that’s something I’m excited about.”
Stevie Baker-Watson, DePauw Associate Vice President for Student Wellness and Theodore Katula Director of Athletics and Recreational Sports, welcomed Loyd to DePauw.
“Our search process yielded a tremendous number of qualified individuals, and Rusty distinguished himself with his passion for the game of basketball, and his desire for the student-athletes to have a ‘DePauw experience’ that emphasizes academics and athletics,” Baker-Watson said. “Throughout the interview process, Rusty was clear that returning to the NCAA tournament is one of his short term goals for the program.”
Loyd, who led Rose-Hulman to a 15-10 season this winter, met with those returning players on Thursday morning. He officially starts at DePauw on May 9, but practice doesn’t start until Oct. 15.
“When the basketball season ends, the guys are on their own to lift and get better until Oct. 15,” Loyd said. “There’s legislation to try to get that changed, but those are the current rules, so those are the rules we go by.”
DePauw went 11-14 last season. The Tigers open the 2022-23 season against Benedictine on Nov. 5.
DePauw then will host Rose-Hulman on Nov. 8 in what will be the Engineers’ season opener.
“Like DePauw, the year before, at Rose-Hulman, they were really loaded, and that was the COVID year,” Loyd said. “We were both really good the COVID year, and both of us lost a lot coming out of that COVID year, and none of those guys decided to return, so both teams were a little bit down last year. We’re going to try to turn that around and have a really good season this year.”
