VIRGIL SWEET AWARD
Virgil Sweet
High School: Covington 1945
College: EASTERN ILLINOIS 1950
Inducted Hall of Fame 1987
Coached H.S. teams to 342 victories in 25-yr career…20 of those were spent at Valparaiso where his sectional tourney record was 48-6…twice coached Vikings to final 8…noted for fielding fundamentally sound teams, especially in free-throw shooting…his 1963-64 team shot .792 for season, a national high school team record…member of that team, Mike Copper, set an individual record for high school players by hitting 409 consecutive free throws without leaving the line…coached 2 H.S. All-Americans and 54 players who went on to college ball…16 became coaches.
Each year the IBCA Board of Directors selects individuals from each of the three districts to receive the Virgil Sweet Distinguished Service Award. The award, named in honor of longtime Executive Director of the IBCA, are given to individuals who have provided meritorious service promoting basketball in the state of Indiana. Awards are presented to these individuals at the Annual IBCA Spring Clinic.
1982 to the Present
| Year | District 1 | District 2 | District 3 | District 4 | District 5 |
| 1982 | Terry Lee | Jack Yaggy | Otis Bowen | Bob Barnet | Joe Edwards |
| 1983 | Pinky Newell | Herb Swartz | Don Jellison | Morrie Mannies | Whitey Jones |
| 1984 | Virgil Sweet | Joe Smekins | Charlie Moss | Sam Roberts | Bob Hammel |
| 1985 | Bob King | Forest Miller | Dave Pert | Herbie Houk | Dick Langford |
| 1986 | Dave Krider | Earl Mishler | Pat Roy | Sam Simmermaker | Norman Hall |
| 1987 | Harry Bradway | Hillard Gates | Jimmy Angelopolous | Don McBride | John Potts |
| 1988 | Bill Overholser | Bill Fowler | Howard Catt | Orvis Burdsall | Barney Scott |
| 1989 | Paul Rommel | Gene Conard | Jerry Baker | Eric Wohlford | Bob Simmers |
| 1990 | Doug Adams | Bob Straight | Don Bates | Phil Stigelman | Guy Glover |
| 1991 | Skip Collins | Bud Gallmeier | Betty Sizelove | Gus Moorehead | Bob Lochmuller |
| 1992 | Joe Heath | Kem Klimek | Garry Donna | Phil Buck | Bud Ritter |
| 1993 | John Mutka | Leroy Lambright | Ray Craft | Ron Lemaster | CharlieJenkins |
| 1994 | Mildred Ball | Bob Primmer | Tom Carnegie | Ted Server | George Marshall |
| 1995 | Earl Mishler | By Hay | Kurt Freudenthal | Harold Schutz | Temme Patterson |
| 1996 | Paul Condry | Greg Johans | Wayne Fuson | Jan Clark | Mike Blake |
| 1997 | Paul Jankowski | David Fulkerson | Gene Conard | John Robbins | Dan Korba |
| 1998 | W.McCormack | Dick Simpson | Bill Pfister | Ron Raver | Mike Barrett |
| 1999 | Forrest Rhode | Dennis Craft | Jim Rosenstihl | Phil Snodgress | Robert Shippe |
| 2000 | Jeff Washburn | Rita Simpson | Howard Sharpe | Ayler Davidson | Larry Schwetzer |
| 2001 | Curt Casbon | Fred Inniger | Gene Cato | Bob Lovell | Brian Bohne |
| 2002 | Marvin Tudor | Jack Woodruff | Jim Russell | John Hodge | Tom Collins |
| 2003 | Paul Curtis | Dean Pantazi | Vince Welch | George Griffith | Jack Butcher |
Re- Alignment to 3 Districts (Previously Five)
| YEAR | District 1 | District 2 | District 3 |
| 2004 | Ron Heflin | Pat Aikman | Graham Taylor |
| Dan Swift | Pat McKee | Richard Lankford | |
| Donna Sullivan | |||
| 2005 | Elmer Strautman | Bill Benner | Walt Ferber |
| Keith Neust | Gene Keady | ||
| 2006 | Homer Drew | Gene Milner | Dan Egierski |
| Mike Hey | Herb Schwomeyer | Orlando “Gunner” Wyman | |
| 2007 | Tom Rehm | Judi Warren | Cliff Guilliams |
| Anthony Anderson | Dave Calabro | Kurt Gutgsell | |
| Dan Willett | |||
| 2008 | Fred Mitchell | Roger Dickinson | Jason Recker |
| Chip Jones | Bob Kirkhoff | Chris James | |
| 2009 | Bob Adams | Leigh Evans | Bob Boyles |
| Greg Bell | John Harrell | ||
| Jeff Sagarin | |||
| 2010 | Stu Swartz | Larry Barrett | Hugh Schaefer |
| Jackie & Cory Webster | Ed Siegel | ||
| 2011 | Mark Smith | Mike Beas | Charles Denbo |
| 2012 | Al Hamnik | Dr. John McCarroll | Curt Cavin |
| Greg Jones | Robin Miller | Arv Koontz | |
| Dick Rea | Pete Swanson | ||
| 2013 | Joe Arredondo | Rich Nye | John Heaton |
| Wayne Svetanoff | Keith Doades | ||
| 2014 | Chuck Freeby | Danny Danielson | Andy Graham |
| Steve Hanlon | Charlie Hughes | Johnny McCrory | |
| Bob Nagle | |||
| 2015 | Tommy Schoegler | Mark Morrow | Boyce Kendrick |
| Bob Stambazze | Kyle Neddenriep | ||
| 2016 | John Dillman | Dan Repass | Kevin Smith |
| Jerry Hoover | Bill Uhrig | ||
| 2017 | Phil Gardner | John Grimes | Bob Bridge |
| Mike Lightfoot | Paul Patterson | ||
| 2018 | Wayne Kreiger | Terry Downham | Walt Raines |
| 2019 | |||