WVU Sports Hall of Fame

Inducted: 2016

Written by Bryan Messerly

Don Vincent was a three-year guard for the men’s basketball team, helping lead the Mountaineers to three Southern Conference championships and three NCAA Tournament appearances from 1956-58.

A native of Shinnston, West Virginia, Vincent played in 86 career games, starting 68 of them. He finished his career with 777 career points (6.5 as a sophomore, 8.3 as a junior and 12.8 as a senior), 374 rebounds and 137 assists.

Vincent helped lead his teams to records of 21-9, 25-5 and 26-2 during his career. The Mountaineers won three Southern Conference regular season and tournament championships during his career. Vincent was a co-captain of the 1958 team that finished the season ranked No. 1 in the country.

In his final season, Vincent broke his leg against Richmond in the Southern Conference Tournament semifinals and was not able to play for the remainder of the season. WVU entered the 1958 NCAA Tournament as the top seed and was upset in the first round by Manhattan at Madison Square Garden.

In his senior year, Vincent was the second-leading scorer behind Jerry West. He had 20 games in double figures, including 14 points in a win against No. 5 Kentucky and 15 points in a victory over No. 1 North Carolina in back-to-back nights in the Kentucky Invitational Tournament.

Vincent posted a career-high 22 points against Davidson on March 7, 1957 and grabbed a career-best 10 rebounds against Washington & Lee on March 9, 1957. He was named to the All-Southern Conference Second Team in 1958 and to the All-Southern Conference Tournament Team in 1958.

A member of the 1956-65 WVU All-Time Team, he graduated in 1958 with a bachelor’s degree in education, Vincent and his wife, Jean, have a son, Brett, who played basketball at WVU in 1988, and a daughter, Jane Linn.