WBU Athletics Hall of Honor member, legendary coach Janice Beach Hardwick dies

Former Wayland Baptist Flying Queen all-American and WBU Athletics Hall of Honor member Janice Beach Hardwick died Saturday, Sept. 23, 2017.
 
Funeral services will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 27 at First Baptist Church in Altus, Okla.
 
Beach arrived at Wayland in 1970 as the all-time leading scoring in Oklahoma girls' basketball history with an average of 44 points a game. She played basketball at Wayland from 1970-74, helping the Flying Queens to two AAU championships and four NWIT championships while earning all-American honors three times. She scored 1,255 points, which at the time put her in the top 10 scorers all-time. Today, she ranks 21^st.
 
Beach, who was known for her scrappy play and "demoralizing defense," represented the United States at the 1971 Pan American Games in Colombia and at the 1973 World University Games in Moscow, winning silver both times.
 
Beach went on to coach basketball for 43 years, beginning in Petersburg before she returned to Oklahoma. She coached for 28 years at Navajo High School in Altus, leading her teams to 25 district championships and seven state tournaments. She earned multiple coaching honors, including being selected to coach the Oklahoma High School Coaches Association all-state game.
 
She later coached at Western Oklahoma State College where she guided her teams to four playoff appearances in five years. At the time of her death she was the assistant girls' basketball coach at Altus High School.
 
She was inducted into the Wayland Baptist Athletics Hall of Honor in 2003, the Jackson County Sports Hall of Fame, and the Oklahoma High School Girls Basketball Association Hall of Fame. She was named to the Oklahoma All-Century Team and last season received the Charles Heatly Award.
 
To read the full obituary and sign the guestbook, click here. For a news report, click here.

In lieu of flowers the family request donations to the Western Oklahoma State College Foundation for the Coach Janice Beach Hardwick Memorial Scholarship, 2801 N. Main, Altus, OK 73521.