Lynn W. St. John

A strong advocate of amateur basketball, Lynn St. John lobbied for formal national and international basketball rules for nearly three decades. A formidable administrator and a “master of diplomacy,” St. John served on the NCAA Basketball Rules Committee from 1912 to 1937, serving with James Naismith and for the last 18 years as chairman. He served as a member of the 1936 Olympic Basketball Committee, and played an active role during the inaugural Olympic competition. The basketball arena at Ohio State University, where St. John coached from 1912 to 1919 and later served as director of athletics from 1915 to 1947, is named in his honor. The time St. John spent at Ohio State coincided with the rise of the Buckeyes to national prominence in several sports. He was a great ambassador for the university where he played football and was known to those around him simply as “Saint.”