LOGANSPORT – Visitation is Thursday evening with a Friday afternoon funeral service in the old Logansport High School gymnasium for Northwestern State basketball great Bernard Waggoner, a distinguished teacher, coach and administrator in the DeSoto Parish school system.
 
Visitation is 5-8 p.m. Thursday in the old gym, which is the temporary home of the First Baptist Church of Logansport. A 2 p.m. funeral Friday at the church will be followed by burial in the O.E. Price Cemetary in Logansport.
 
The 1982 NSU Graduate N Club Hall of Fame member, a 1949 NBA Draft pick, is survived by his wife of 60 years, Nell Lenoir Waggoner; along with their son Wayne, also a Demon basketball star and now a resident of Colleyville, Texas;  two daughters, Theresa Champagne of Bossier City and Brenda Lupo of Shreveport; and “Coach” Waggoner's sister, Avis Barrett of Monroe.
 
Waggoner, 85, passed away Tuesday. He was a four-year all-conference selection who played from 1944-49, and a standout on the winningest team under legendary coach H. Lee Prather, the 1948-49 Demons who posted a 23-6 record and reached the national NAIA Tournament semifinals. That 23-6 record stood as the best of the 20th century for Northwestern and has only been exceeded by the 26-8 mark of the 2006 NSU team that beat Iowa in the NCAA Tournament.
 
A math and science teacher, assistant football coach and head basketball coach at Logansport High, Waggoner was the 1961 state Class B Coach of the Year during his 16-year tenure as basketball coach as he posted a 416-192 (.684) record with three state semifinal appearances and eight district championships. He became the school's principal and later served as supervisor for DeSoto Parish schools, and as a teacher and coach in the neighboring Joaquin (Texas) Independent School District.
 
As a freshman for Northwestern, Waggoner led the team in scoring and was a second team All-Gulf States Conference selection. Waggoner was named to the all-conference first-team in each of the following three years. He was second on the team in scoring as a sophomore and junior and led the Demons as a senior while he was second in the league in scoring. Waggoner was drafted by the Baltimore Bullets in 1949.
 
His son, Wayne, was a two-year standout for the Demons (1980-82) who was selected in the fourth-round of the 1982 NBA Draft by the Dallas Mavericks.