Coach Jim Burson '63 ended his 38-year tenure as head coach of the Muskingum men's basketball program as the all-time winningest coach with 542 career wins, which ranked second all-time in the Ohio Athletic Conference and 19th all-time in NCAA Division III history.
Burson, a member of the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame, was a 2007 inductee into the Muskingum Athletic Hall of Fame and an inaugural inductee into the Marysville High School Hall of Fame. He was named the Ohio Athletic Conference Coach of the Year five times at the helm of the Fighting Muskies (1973, 1977, 1988, 1990, 2000). During that time, Burson's teams won three OAC regular-season titles (1973, 1974, 1976), three OAC Tournament championships (1977, 1988 and 1990), and advanced to the NCAA tournament five times (1977, 1981, 1983, 1988, 1990).
Burson, who graduated from Muskingum in 1963, played football (quarterback), basketball (guard) and baseball (shortstop) as a Muskie; he was the last three-sport athlete to letter in those respective sports. He returned to his alma mater as an assistant coach in 1964 and was elevated to head coach in 1967. Off the basketball court, Burson received both his master's degree and his doctorate from The Ohio State University.
During his tenure at Muskingum, Burson was featured in the Sports Illustrated February 17, 2003 issue in an article titled "It All Starts Here," which was about Pete Carril's Princeton Offense and how it was suddenly the height of hoop fashion. In the article, Coach Burson is credited with breaking down the complicated Princeton Offense and spreading his knowledge of it as the "disseminator" to coaches across the country. Burson was also a coach at the Olympic Sports Festival in Los Angeles in 1988, and he was involved in the selection process for the 1984 Olympic team that won the gold medal in Los Angeles.
Burson is a past president of the National Association of Basketball Coaches and has served on its Board of Directors since 1995. He is the author of The Golden Whistle, Going Beyond: The Journey to Coaching Success and The Daily Nugget: Motivations for Basketball Coaches and Everyone Who Loves the Game. He is also the founder of Solutions-Based Basketball.
