Vadakin reflects on 40 years as bowling head coach

Gordon+Vadakin%2C+head+coach+of+the+Wichita+State+bowling+team%2C+announced+his+retirement+on+Tuesday.+This+will+be+the+first+time+since+1978+that+the+team+will+have+a+new+head+coach.

Selena Favela

Gordon Vadakin, head coach of the Wichita State bowling team, announced his retirement on Tuesday. This will be the first time since 1978 that the team will have a new head coach.

Gordon Vadakin has been the head coach of the bowling team for 40 years, but he’s been a part of the team for even longer.

Vadakin bowled at Wichita State from 1971 to 1975. After his four years of eligibility were up, he immediately became a part of the coaching staff. 

Vadakin said one of the turning points of his career came in 1996 when the university decided to make the bowling head and assistant coaching positions full-time.

“In a rare move, the university went from two positions to four positions,” Vadakin said. “From that point forward, we’ve been lucky enough to do this full time not have to split our attention to the business and the sport side.”

Vadakin has coached WSU to 18 of their 20 national championship titles. The first WSU bowling title was in 1975 when the women’s team won the intercollegiate team championship.

“We were fortunate enough to win our first title in 1975 in Dayton, Ohio when the women’s team won the intercollegiate team championship,” Vadakin said. “My wife was on that team oddly enough.”

Vadakin married his wife in 1979.

Bowling success aside, Vadakin said one of the highlights of his career is the academic success of his athletes. Last fall, the bowling team produced 18 Academic All-Americans with 3.5 or higher cumulative GPAs.

“We’re very proud of the fact we had 18 Academic All-Americans. That to me is big-time winning,” Vadakin said. “If we can get excellent academics here and have that happen before going out on the lanes that’s way more meaningful.”

Aside from coaching at Wichita State, Vadakin was a member of the Team USA coaching staff from 1990 to 1993 and 2000 to 2009. As a bowler, he was a two-time member of team USA.

Vadakin was one of only 14 coaches in the world to be United States Bowling Congress (USBC) gold-level certified.

“[The gold level of certification] is very experienced-based stuff,” Vadakin said. “Lord knows I’ve been around awhile.”

Vadakin said one of the changes he has seen in his time at Wichita State is the new importance of implementing a philosophy for the team. All team members are expected to uphold the things in their philosophy statement. 

“When you’re around a long time you start creating things like philosophies. I’m happy to say we’ve been around long enough to have a mission, vision, and values, philosophy statements, and goals,” Vadakin said. “Those didn’t seem so important back in the day as they are now, but they really guide us big time.”

After four decades at the university, Vadakin said he still feels how special the bowling program at Wichita State is. 

“We feel like we have something special here,” Vadakin said. “We’ve had it for quite awhile.”