| Title: | Head Basketball Coach |
Known as the coach that led the Pirate basketball team to the first of their three national championships, Bob Sneller was a driving force in the tradition of winning at Independence Community College.
Sneller spent eight seasons as the head coach at ICC, leading the squad to an overall mark of 156-61 from 1956-64. During that span, the Pirates won four Jayhawk Conference titles in 1959, 1960, 1961 and 1963. He led the team to an eighth-place finish at nationals in 1959 and its first national championship in 1963.
After leaving Independence, Sneller spent 25 years (1964-89) in various roles at Crowder College in Neosho, Mo., including coach of basketball, tennis and women's softball, as well as athletic director and teacher of English and Speech. In 15 years as basketball coach, he directed Crowder to a 311-155 overall record. In 2006, the gymnasium at Crowder was officially named “Bob Sneller Gymnasium”.
In 23 years of coaching, he finished with a career mark of 467-216. He was named to the NJCAA Basketball Hall of Fame and is also part of the Athletic Hall of Fame at both Cowley College and Southwestern College.